My Personal Plan to Stop Smoking

In order to successfully give up smoking, there has to be a desire to quit. Even though there had been a social push for all smokers to quit, I was enjoying the seven minutes of inhaling and expelling the smoke from a cigarette after a meal or when taking a break. I had been doing this for over thirty years.

I had tapered down on how many cigarettes I was smoking each day. I was down to ten. My husband had already quit because of high blood pressure. I decided to limit my smoking to the patio and, when the weather was nasty, the upstairs bathroom. Even with the reduction of cigarettes per day, I was beginning to feel that all my time was being spent at the picnic table outside or sitting in a lawn chair I had in the bathroom upstairs. I had tried to quit several times before but wasn't able to do without them for more that 5 days.

The cost of cigarettes was getting expensive -- $43.98 a carton. This is was what gave me the strong incentive to devise a plan that would work for me to quit smoking. I knew that I had to get away from the smell of cigarettes, the situations that provoked my desire to smoke, and, of course, the cigarettes themselves.

I called my brother who lived several states away from me, told him about my intentions, and asked if I could visit for two weeks. This would get me away for the provoking situations, the smoky smell, and give me moral support (my brother also use to smoke many years ago). His home was smoke-free and none of his close friends smoked.

Before I left for my brother's, I prepared the house for my return. I stopped smoking inside all together and aired out the house. I mopped the vinyl floors, vacuumed all carpet areas and rugs using Carpet Fresh, dusted all wood surfaces using Pledge, and wiped down all other surfaces using Glass Plus. I washed all the clothes -- the ones that were in the drawers and the closet as well as the ones that were dirty. I instructed my husband to throw away all of my cigarettes as soon as I left.

When my brother picked me up at the airport, he handed me five packs of sugar-free wintergreen lifesavers. He told me that for the next two weeks, I would be in charge of his daughter, Dani (short for Danielle), who was three years old at the time. This strategy worked well for me except for the time in the afternoon when Dani was taking her nap. I thought of it as my "test time". The first couple of days during my test time were difficult but by the end of the first week, I was handling it fairly well. I used the lifesavers for after meals, when I'd first get up in the morning, and right before I'd go to bed at night to just have something in my mouth. When the two weeks were up, I felt confident that I could go home and continue to be smoke-free.

Once I did get home, I decided not to go into public places where smoking was allowed until I was absolutely sure that I wouldn't give into temptation. I ended up waiting a year. My husband and I decided to go out for dinner. I chose the place which was a bar and grill type establishment. When we first walked in, I could smell the cigarette smoke. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't seem to effect me. I can say with confidence that I am smoke-free. I do still use the lifesavers, but not as often as I use to.

If you want to stop smoking but are finding it incredibly difficult, you might want to think about doing what I did.