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| Home > Health Tips > Adults |
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Tips On…Smoking Cessation
Getting Ready to Quit
- Many former smokers make several attempts to quit before they are successful, just keep trying
- Set a quit date when you will stop smoking
- Do not buy cigarettes beyond your quit date
- Tell your family and friends you plan to quit and ask for encouragement
- Notice when you smoke
- Determine what makes you want to smoke (for example, with morning coffee or after a meal)
- Change your smoking routines
- Smoke with your other hand
- Do not do anything else when you are smoking
- Smoke only in certain places, like outdoors
- When you want a cigarette, wait one minute
- Try to think of something to do instead of smoking (chew gum, drink a glass of water, eat carrot sticks, apple slices, sugar-free candy or mints)
- Buy one pack of cigarettes at a time
- Switch to a brand of cigarettes that you do not like
- Pay attention to smoking-related health symptoms you have developed
- Keep your hands busy.
On Your Quit Date
- Change your morning routine
- Stay busy
- Sit in a different place at the kitchen table
- Get rid of all your cigarettes (wet them down so you cannot retrieve them from the garbage)
- Put away your ashtrays
- When you get the urge to smoke, do something else instead
- Carry other things to put in your mouth (gum, hard candy, or a toothpick)
- At the end of the day, reward yourself for not smoking with a movie or a meal.
Staying Quit
- The irritability and short temper will pass
- Exercise (walk, swim, bicycle)
- When tense, breathe deeply
- Think about ways to solve the problem (realize smoking will not make it better)
- Eat regular meals; feeling hungry is sometimes mistaken for desire to smoke
- Start a money jar with money you save by not smoking
- Let others know you quit; most will support you
- If you slip and smoke, do not be discouraged; many former smokers tried to stop several times before success. Quit again.
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