Ten Lifestyle and Cosmetic Benefits to Quitting Smoking
January 28th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
If you’re a smoker, quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health. The health benefits to quitting are well documented. As soon as you quit smoking your body will begin to repair itself. Your blood pressure will decrease, your body’s temperature will increase, the carbon monoxide in your blood will begin drop, you’ll experience a better lung capacity, your sense of smell and taste will improve, and your chance of a heart attack will decrease significantly. These are just some of the health benefits that your body experiences immediately after you quit smoking. What are some of the lifestyle and cosmetic benefits to quitting smoking? Here are ten benefits that will make you want to kick the smoking habit for food.
1) More money in your wallet. With the prices of cigarettes at their highest, and taxes going up all the time, you’ll definitely feel the effect of quitting in your wallet. Think of all the things you’ll be able to purchase with the money you currently spend on cigarettes. Sit down and do the math. How much do you spend on cigarettes each week? How much for a year? Make a list of all the things you could afford to do or buy if you quit smoking now.
2) More energy. Smoking drains a lot of your body’s reserves. Quitting means your body will receive more of the oxygen that nicotine and smoke used to steal away. You’ll feel more energized and less sluggish once you quit. You will feel stronger, and not have to worry about the damage you are doing to your body by smoking. You will be able to work out like you couldn’t before. You can climb a set of stairs again without puffing!
3) Your complexion will improve. Smoking wreaks havoc on your skin, causing signs of premature aging and an all around bad texture. Quitting will help your skin’s elasticity and texture improve significantly. No more yellow skin or wrinkles around your mouth!
4) Your house, car, and clothes will smell good again. Many lifelong smokers olfactory sense is suppressed by cigarettes, so they cannot smell just how bad cigarette smoke really smells. Cigarette smoke clings to fabrics, causing an unpleasant odor. When you quit smoking, you no longer have to worry about the smell of your personal items or environment.
5) Cigarette stains on your teeth will begin to fade. Cigarettes are notorious for yellowing teeth. Once you quit, the stains will begin to fade.
6) Your sense of smell and taste will improve. Cigarette’s suppress your sense of smell and taste. When you quit smoking, food begins to taste better. You will be able to smell the roses again!
7) No more anxiety or guilt. With so many warnings directed at smokers, it’s very easy to develop a sense of anxiety and guilt over being a smoker. When you quit smoking, you no longer have to feel anxious about the damage you are doing to your body. And you no longer feel the guilt for exposing family or friends to second-hand smoke.
8) You don’t have to worry about going to non-smoking venues anymore. With so many anti-smoking measures enacted in cities across the country, it can be easy to feel unwelcome at many restaurants, clubs, and other non-smoking venues. When you quit smoking, you can go anywhere and do anything without having to worry about ducking out to smoke.
9) Your diet will probably improve. One major lifestyle benefit of quitting smoking is that it will probably improve your diet. Most smokers use cigarettes as a substitute for food at one time or another. When you quit smoking, you will no longer wreak havoc on your body by smoking in place of a well-balanced meal. And you will be able to taste your food better than before!
10) Quitting will give you a sense of pride unrivalled by almost anything else you will do for your health. Quitting smoking is like running a marathon successfully. You can take pride that you accomplished perhaps one of the most difficult things you will ever do in you life. You will feel like a champ, and this sense of strength and pride will probably affect all other aspects of your life.For more information on quiting smoking have a look at the quit-smoking-expert
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How to Quit Smoking for Yourself
January 2nd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Thousands of people are addicted to smoking, and, every day, thousands of people fight the battle of breaking this addiction. But, how can someone go about successfully quitting smoking? There are many reasons to quit, but the most important reason is for your self.
Quitting for Others
Many people trying to quit smoking are doing so in order to make others happy. They try to quit so their spouse will quit nagging. They try to stop because their job frowns upon smoking. They try to put out the cigarette because society has made smoking unacceptable. They try to quit because their kids look at them with big, puppy dog eyes and plead with them to stop. While it is great to have family and friends around you who care and who want to see you stay around awhile longer than you will if you continue smoking, the only reason that will truly motivate you is if you quit for yourself.
Sure, pleasing those around you may get you to start on the road toward recovery from nicotine addiction. You might tell yourself, Im doing it for my kids. I dont want them to see me go through cancer. Or, you might think, If I quit smoking, my spouse might finally just leave me alone about it. While these thoughts may get you initially motivated to quit smoking, they wont help you sustain a cigarette free life. In fact, quitting for others might just help you make excuses to start back up again. For example, you might quit for your spouse, and then when you have a disagreement about something, you might say, Ill show him (or her). Next thing you know, youre lighting up. You may not think you would do that, but we do strange things when were upset even destroy our own bodies.
Why You Should Quit for Yourself
There are plenty of reasons you should quit for yourself. A couple of them even do tie into quitting for others, but with a slightly different slant. For example, you might quit because of your kids, but not for them. By this I mean that you might want to quit so you can enjoy spending more years with them, rather than because you dont want to see them get hurt by your early death. This may sound selfish, but you have to think about yourself when you are trying to quit. You have to convince yourself there are many reasons to quit that will benefit you personally.
Of course, there is the obvious health benefits involved with quitting. If you quit, you put years back onto your life. This is because you have now effectively reduced your chances of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, throat cancer, lung cancer, and emphysema. You have also lessened your likelihood of having a heart attack and of developing gum disease and ulcers, just to name a few.
If you arent feeling too concerned about the inside of your body, consider the outside. Smoking makes your finger and teeth yellow, not to mention the bad smell. Of course, you probably dont realize just how bad it smells because your sense of taste and smell has both been dulled by smoking! Fortunately, quitting will help bring back these small joys of life.
In addition, smoking makes your skin wrinkle faster, particularly on your face. Not only that, the notion that smoking makes a person look cool has been gone for a long time. In fact, the majority of people are less attracted to people who smoke than the other way around.
Of course, there are also the financial rewards of quitting smoking. Most smokers will save literally thousands of dollars every year by simply quitting smoking. Just imagine all of the things you can do for you if you quit. Perhaps you have seen some new outfits or shoes you would like to buy at the end of a year of successfully not smoking. Maybe you can purchase a new entertainment center, or buy that new transmission for your project car. Perhaps you can take that vacation you have always wanted to take. If you managed to win the battle against this addiction, go ahead and spoil yourself you deserve it! Consider it a celebration of saving your own life.For more information on quiting smoking have a look at the quit-smoking-expert
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When at First You Don’t Succeed� Quit Smoking Again
December 12th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
So you’ve decided to quit smokingagain. As Mark Twain famously said, “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it hundreds of times.” As Twain’s quote illustrates, people have been trying to quit smoking for decades, even before the terrifying health reports that started being widely broadcast in the 1960s. If you’ve quit smoking so many times that you’ve lost count, take heart. Thousands, if not millions, of smokers are in the same position. Now more than ever before, smokers are armed with an arsenal of quit smoking aids, good advice, and support than ever before. Forget your past failures and resist the urge to get frustrated. Take this bit of friendly advice and go ahead and do it: quit smoking again!
Here are eight tips to get you going on your quest for better health and a smoke-free future.
1) Remember that failure to quit right away is perfectly normal. It is rare to find someone who was able to quit cold turkey one time, and never light u again. In fact, it usually takes people at least two or three attempts (and in several cases, many times more) before they are able to successfully quit smoking.
2) If you are a ’serial quitter,’ you come to the battle better prepared than before. One of the greatest advantages to quitting smoking a second (or third, or fourth) time is that you have a better idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are. You are better prepared to quit if you learn to identify what kind of triggers impel you to reach for your cigarettes. Do you tend to light up at parties? Do you smoke when you’re hungry? When youre sad? Bored? Stressed out? Figure out what your triggers are, and then strategize how you can avoid the feelings that make you want to smoke.
3) Prepare for your quitting date as if it were a major event (which it is!). Choose a “quit date”the first day in which you will begin your life as a non-smoker. Place a calendar in a prominent location and mark the date. Prepare your home, office, car, and other areas of your environment for the big date. Clear these areas of smoking paraphernalia, or anything that may remind you of smoking.
4) Set up your own personal support network. Call friends and family to tell them that you are quitting. As friends or family members who smoke to please refrain from smoking around you. Write down the number to your local smoking cessation hotline and have it handy. When the cravings start to hit, reach out to members of your support network for help.
5) Consciously strive to change your behaviors. A popular and successful technique used to quit smoking is to change your daily habits and behaviors. Change your everyday routine. For instance, if you’re accustomed having dinner at 6:00 pm each day, try to eat at 5:30 pm instead. If you watch TV every night for two hours, skip one of your shows and go for a walk instead. Whether you realize it or not, youre smoking breaks are probably spaced throughout your day at regular intervals. Changing your everyday routine can help you ease into a life without your regularly scheduled smoking breaks.
6) Reward yourself with a special treat each day. Congratulate yourself for each day you go without smoking. That is quite an achievement! Many people reward themselves with food. While this is OK, it should be done sparingly to avoid gaining weight. If you want to avoid overspending, think of easy things you can do at home. For example, you can treat yourself with permission to take a long, relaxing bubble bath, or by watching one of your favorite movies.
7) Take it easy for the first two weeks. The first two weeks after your quit date will probably be the hardest. Your body is experiencing withdrawal from the nicotine, and you are likely to feel both sluggish and jittery. Give yourself permission to take it easy. Remind yourself that quitting smoking is a major lifestyle change. Take lots of naps, stay hydrated by drinking enough water each day, opt for raw foods, and try to steer clear from situations where you’ll be exposed to other smokers.
8) Be prepared for a relapse. Avoid all-or-nothing thinking. Remind yourself that if you succumb to your cravings, you can always start again tomorrow. Of course, this is no excuse to light up, but you should strive to stay relaxed yet focused on your goal.For more information on quiting smoking have a look at the quit-smoking-expert
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