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Smoking Cessation

Volume 1, Issue 4

"To Your Health" 101

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Today’s issue of To Your Health 101 contains:

1. Editorial: Smoking...one of the most destructive, VOLUNTARY things you can do to your health!

2. Featured Article: #1  “6 “Simple” Tips to help you stop smoking forever!

3. Featured Article: #2  My story...How I quit smoking forever!

4. Guest Author article: Quit Smoking: Why People Do Bad Things (Even When They Know They Shouldn't)
   By Jill Binder

5. Resources & Links:  Information and motivation at the click of your mouse.

6. Recommended Reading: 

Brought to you by:

Jim Newell – Editor

1. Editorial: Smoking...one of the most destructive, VOLUNTARY things you can do to your health! By Jim Newell

Notice that the title of this article says that smoking is voluntary, if you are a smoker and have tried any number of times to quit, you probably think that smoking is anything but voluntary. But let's admit to the truth, you do choose each and every time you light up, you could just as well choose not to.

I have a good friend who is and has been a heavy smoker for the 20 years I have known him. About 10 years ago he had  a heart attack at age 45, which resulted in a quadruple bypass. When I visited my friend at the hospital, he was scared half to death, he said that his doctors told him he would need to make some lifestyle changes, one of which was to quit smoking. He swore that he was at that point, done with tobacco forever...well that lasted 2 weeks, he had made a choice. This is a guy who was and still is in fairly good physical condition, his job is physically demanding, he is active in some sports, not overweight. So his major risk factor is most likely smoking, and he has chosen to still smoke. He is about 5 years younger than me and , sadly I fully expect that I will attend his funeral. So you see it really is a choice, not always a wise one, but still a choice,

Well let's get real...I know, I was a heavy smoker for over 25 years before I convinced myself that I had a choice. Quitting by whatever method you choose is not a walk in the park! That's what this newsletter and in fact what this entire site is all about, helping you with tips, motivation and resources to overcome your health challenges.

Because they are all equally as damaging to your health and the health of those around us we should include all of the methods that we abuse our health with tobacco in this article. We will deal with each of them one at a time.

• Smokeless tobacco - snuff, dip, chew, etc.

  • Using smokeless tobacco causes bad breath, stains and wears down your teeth, can cause painful mouth sores, can raise your blood pressure and your cholesterol. Over time you will be at higher risk for heart attack and cancer.

• Pipe smoking

  • Pipe smoking increases the risk of periodontal disease (loss of gum tissue, bone loss, and loss of teeth), mouth and lip  sores and lesions, several oral cancers, heart attack and vascular disorders.

• Cigarette smoking

  • Cigarette smoking causes 87% of lung cancer deaths, raises the risk of heart disease, contributes to high blood pressure, and vascular disease, and increases those risks for other people by exposing them to second hand smoke.

• Cigar smoking

  • Many ex cigarette smokers are cigar smokers and try to convince themselves that this is a safe way to smoke, because they don't inhale. In fact almost all cigar smokers who were cigarette smokers do inhale. Cigar smokers who never were cigarette smokers tend not to inhale. Cigar smoking whether you inhale or not is still as damaging to your heath as any other form of tobacco use, there may be somewhat less risk of lung cancer, however there is no decreased risk of many other types of cancer, if you inhale a few other cancer types are added to the list.

We are exposed to a great numbers of advertising messages each day that try to glamorize tobacco use. To balance the message read the 1964 Surgeon General Report on smoking this was the first real indication to the public that there were dire risks associated with tobacco use. At the time this report was published about 70% of the U.S. adult population were smokers, smoking was depicted in movies and on television, in ads, on billboards, and glamorized in any way possible.

What changes have we seen?

• There are fewer movies and television shows that promote smoking as blatantly as before.

• There are fewer ads that promote smoking.

• There are health warnings on cigarette packs, smokeless tobacco containers, pipe tobacco containers, however not on cigars.

• The places that you can smoke are far fewer. most workplaces, many bars and restaurants, theatres, airplanes, buses.

Are these and many other changes and restrictions working?

• About 23% of the US adult population now smokes, this is down from about 70% in 1965.

However there is still much that needs to be done, many high school and college students still smoke and many are starting everyday, with the information that is available today it simply amazes me that these otherwise intelligent persons are still smoking.

To Your Health

Jim Newell - Editor

Back to Table of Contents

2. Featured Article: # 1 “6 Simple” Tips to help you stop smoking forever! By Jim Newell

Dear Friend,

As promised, today's article covers 6 SIMPLE tips to help you quit smoking...forever!

Tip 1) Tell all of your family, friends, other smokers you know that you are quitting.

This puts pressure on you to be successful, most will be pulling for you to succeed, some of the smokers will try to sabotage your effort. You will need to tell those people that you are doing this for your health and the health of those around you, and that you need their support.

Tip 2) Print the following statement, paste it to a business card and carry it in your purse wallet, or best in the shirt pocket where you used to carry your cigarettes.

"Whenever you have the urge to have a smoke, wait 5 minutes,

the urge will pass whether you have light up or not"

Each time you feel the urge, take the card out and read it.

Tip 3) Make a list of all of the benefits you will realize as a non smoker.

Post this list where you will see it every day, such as the bathroom mirror, your refrigerator door, the dashboard in your car, etc. Read the items you wrote down, try to internalize this information.

Tip 4) Add up the money you were spending on smoking.

With cigarettes costing anywhere from $3.00 a pack and way up, if you smoke a pack a day you are spending $1092.00 a year this is a very significant amount. Think of what you will use that money for, it is really like getting a pay raise.

Tip 5) Wash or have cleaned all of the clothes you wore when you were a smoker. Clean your car inside and out, and place an air freshener inside.

In about 48 hours after you quit smoking your senses of smell and taste will begin to improve. Eventually when you stand next to a smoker, their clothes, hair etc. will smell like a ashtray. Even sitting in a smokers car can nauseate a non smoker.

Tip 6) Think of yourself as a non smoker.

This is a little psychological, motivational all in one, if you begin to think of what the positive end result will be, it is easier to visualize attaining that result.

To Your Health,

-Jim Newell
Editor, "To Your Health 101"

Back to Table of Contents

3. Featured Article # 2:  My story...How I quit smoking forever! By Jim Newell

As I write this article on January 21st 2005, I'm celebrating 19 years completely smoke free. I smoked my last cigarette at 7:30 am on January 21st 1986 after a 25 year addiction of 2-3 packs a day.

I, like most ex-smokers, had tried to quit many times, some were successful for short periods of time, 2-3 days, some for up to 6 months. But I always went back. So how did I finally make it? What made the difference this time?

Let's start with some of the reasons I and many other smokers did not succeed in quitting so many times.

• It's really not that bad for me.
• I enjoy smoking.
• It doesn't hurt anyone else.
• Smoking relaxes me, and relieves stress.
• I'm way too busy to concentrate on quitting.

And the reality is:

• Smoking is quite possibly one of the most health destroying habits a person can choose to engage in.
• Second hand smoke is almost as bad as actually smoking for people living in the same environment as a smoker.
• Have you ever seen a relaxed smoker, check when they only have one cigarette left.

My final journey to quitting began with a new year resolution to improve my overall health. I had read that if I quit the damage that smoking had done to my heart would actually reverse itself in a few years. The damage to my lungs however was probably permanent. Because I had as a child had rheumatic fever, I had always been concerned about my heart health.

I joined a stop smoking program through the hospital where my wife worked, this program cost $300.00 to join, and was a smoking aversion therapy type program. In this kind of program they have you do things like smoke an entire pack of cigarettes during class (3 hours), save all of your cigarette butts for an entire week in a glass jar, and other things along those lines. The theory is that doing these things will eventually disgust you so much that it is easier to convince yourself to quit.

I however took a different view, the first meeting was on the day that I had thrown my cigarettes away. I told the instructor that I would not do the aversion lessons, but would still participate in the other parts of the class. She did not agree with my decision but did agree to my plan.

I had to call on my personal discipline to make this work, what I learned is what I already instinctively knew, that the human mind when made up to do anything, will accomplish that goal.

I did learn some things in the class that helped me.

• I carried a card in my wallet for many years that said "When you crave a smoke, wait 5 minutes, and the craving will go away" in the first few months I looked at that card many times, and waited the 5 minutes, and guess what, it works.
• I learned that taking a number of deep breaths, was far more effective as a stress reliever than smoking ever was.
• I was amazed how often I still automatically reached for my shirt pocket (where I used to keep my cigarettes) when around other people who still smoked.
• My job as a traveling sales rep. requires many hours of driving, I needed to find something to replace smoking, I tried sun flower seeds, I tried Tic Tacs, and still have to have them in the car when I drive, however I have not so much as held a cigarette in my hand since the day I decided to take control of smoking.

There many programs, and aids to help you stop smoking today. This is what finally worked for me. I never tried the patch, nicotine gum, or some of the others aids, so I can not attest to their effectiveness, however if they help one person quit, they are worth every penny spent. If you think you will need help, this site covers it all QuitSmoking.com.

When you do finally quit, these are some of the things you will discover:

• You really do have a sense of smell, it has just been hidden.
• You will eventually be able to immediately smell the smoke on a person who smokes, or the stall smoke in a building where smoking is allowed.
• Your teeth will turn whiter, the nicotine stains on your fingers will go away.
• You will eventually be able to take a deep breath, without coughing.
• You will sleep better, I used to have to get up 1-2 times a night to smoke.
• You might gain weight, it won't be a lot, and you can control it with diet and exercise.
• The cravings will eventually disappear completely, however don't give in to the temptation for even 1 cigarette, if you do, you will start again.

One myth, I would like to mention.

• Smoking cigars is okay, because I don't inhale them. When I smoked I would occasionally smoke a cigar, I inhaled them then, I would inhale them now.

To Your Health,

-Jim Newell
Editor, "To Your Health 101"

Back to Table of Contents

Article by guest author: Quit Smoking: Why People Do Bad Things (Even When They Know They Shouldn't)By Jill Binder

Do you do Bad Things? Even though you know you shouldn't?

It's not your fault. It really isn't. You know you should stop doing it, but no matter how much you know that, and how much you try, you just can't stop!

Everyone knows how to lose weight. Don't eat fattening foods. Exercise. Everyone knows how to give up smoking. Don't light the cigarette. Yet having this knowledge just isn't enough. Sometimes even having the desire isn't enough! Time and again I hear about people who get really close to quitting smoking. They can get all the way down to one or two cigarettes a day, but just can't give up those last two. Many even make it all the way down to zero, but the cravings, oh the cravings! They are wretched, those cravings. Most will go back to smoking within the first few days. They can cut away most of the "stuff" that keeps them glued to the cigarettes, even not be addicted to nicotine anymore(!), but there is just something deep in their core that magnetically pulls them back in, like two lovers who know they are bad for each other but just can't help themselves.

What is this thing? What is at this core?

Let me take a step back for a moment. How many adults do you know who are happy? I mean really, truly happy? Think that question is foolishness? Let me ask you this. How many people do you know who love their work? I'm talkin' jump out of bed in the morning, can't wait to start. Sadly, the percentage is very small. Why is this?

We live in an interesting quick-fix culture. People don't really have to deal with their issues. We've got:

* television

* movies

* shopping

* toys

* and hitting the gym

to distract us and make us feel better. Even more than that, many people's issues are quite buried. Think of dreams that were squashed when we were young. "An artist? You could never make a living at that! You should be a doctor!" People often forget what their dreams once were.

As a result, I see an awful lot of unhappy, unfulfilled people walking around. They don't know what is bothering them, they just have that gnawing feeling that there must be more. Advertisers pray on this, selling us more and more bottles and gizmos to give us that ever elusive Happiness.

True inner needs? People either:

* think they're impossible to fulfill

* are too scared and resigned to fulfill them

* or are so disassociated from those needs that they don't even know what they would be even if they had to guess!

All those "bad" things -- smoking, overeating, gambling, alcohol, the list goes on and on -- are easy ways to fill the void. Smokers will be able to relate to this one -- if you've just had a fight with your family, what do you do? You go for a smoke. Smoking makes it feel like the problem goes away. (I call this the "smokescreen." Har har!)

I'll let you in on a little secret--the real reason it's so hard to quit is not the nicotine. It's this void-filling. When you quit smoking (or any bad habit), you're suddenly faced with real life. All those stresses and needs that you've been avoiding? There they are, pulling at your coat tails, yelling, "Pay attention to me! Pay attention to me!" If you got in touch with your real inner needs and took baby steps to start fulfilling them, you would actually have little desire for cigarettes. It's true! I see it happen time and again in my Stop Smoking Coaching practice.

How do you do that, you ask? Here are some baby steps that you can start trying out now:

* Next time, instead of taking that quick fix--stop.

* Have a little quiet time and listen to what your insides have been trying to tell you.

* Try journaling -- don't edit your thoughts, just write.

* Some people find meditation and yoga to be great accesses.

* Try deep breathing.

* Go for a quiet, leisurely walk by yourself.

* Personally, I find it easiest to just start noticing where in life I seem to be avoiding things the most, or if I want something more immediate and active, doing a mindmap (a word drawing) to figure out what I'm really thinking.

For each person, the key to figuring out your needs is different. Play around with it, don't give up! You'll be glad you did!

Jill Binder is The Stop Smoking Coach with a 90 day program to show people the 8 steps to quitting smoking forever, with a 100% success rate. She is the author of "What's Your Smoking Type?" and has appeared on "Daytime" (TV), "Radioactive Women" (Radio), "Good Times" (magazine), and "Metro Toronto Today" (newspaper).

You can sign up for her newsletter, "YourTurn - Turn Your Weaknesses Into Your Perfect Life" at http://www.StopSmokingCoach.ca

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Resources

Smoking use and quitting help:

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DISCLAIMER:  Note that the contents here are not presented from a medical practitioner, and that any and all health care planning should be made under the guidance of your own medical and health practitioners. The content within only presents an overview based upon research for educational purposes and does not replace medical advice from a practicing physician. Further, the information in this newsletter is provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind either express or implied Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall the seller/distributor of this information be liable for any special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the information presented here. Thank You

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