Developing Your Stop Smoking Plans

You are out to make a complete change in your life so you decide to pursue quitting smoking.  While the option has crossed your mind before, you now have a sudden desire to actually quit, and to do it for good.  You no longer want to be trapped to the cigarettes that have held you hostage for so long.  This means it is time to start looking towards developing a sure fire plan that will allow you to quit successfully and for good.  You no longer want to consider the option that you will fail; you have decided to go full steam ahead and now is the time for action.

You are going to need to do several things, and that includes picking an actual quit date.  Here is the catch though; this date does need to come.  People every year decide that as a New Year’s resolution, they are going to aim to quit smoking, but January 1^st comes and goes and they are still smoking.  Rather than finding yourself in this position pick a day to quit and stick with it.  On that day, all of your cigarettes need to be gone, and you need to be prepared mentally to kick the smoking habit for good.

You should also look into setting up a rewards program for yourself; use the money that you are saving by not buying cigarettes to fund it if necessary.  A year of smoking can easily cost more than $1,800 so you have a generous budget to work with if you are working towards permanent results.  Just be sure to look for things that you really want to help encourage you.  If you merely rely on the financial rewards, or just the physical and health rewards you are much more likely to fail, combine several types of rewards to keep yourself really motivated.

As you are working to quit smoking you need to increase the amount of exercise that you are doing, you should also start to watch how you are eating.  Many smokers find that as they quit smoking, they start gaining weight.  This can often be a huge shock, but if you are exercising and eating right, you can minimize the weight gain to ensure that you are instead focusing on quitting smoking, rather than splitting your time between trying to quit smoking and trying to lose weight.  Be prepared to pack on a small amount of weight but these small changes will ensure that you are not gaining large amounts.

A final consideration that you should take into account is your overall health.  If you are in poor physical condition, you should discuss your plan to quit smoking with your doctor.  While a doctor is not going to discourage your from quitting, they may have some helpful advice and information that is specific to your health situation.  This can also be great because your doctor will be able to monitor your health to ensure that you can make the most impact in the quickest amount of time. 

Simply trying to struggle to quit smoking on your own is not necessary.  Using the advice from your doctor, as well as working with a well developed plan you will find that it is not as hard as you ever imagined.  You are certainly in for a long and difficult road, but you will be able to find success at one end of the road, which will leave you in better health, and also help you to take pride in yourself for your accomplishment.

                                                                                                            - Mohammed Zahran -