Quitting Smoking: One Week Until Quit Day

Quitting smoking is very difficult, even for the casual smoker. One important step in quitting smoking is to pick a quit day. I have chosen Friday as my quit day. Hopefully my week of quitting smoking can help you to quit smoking too! The most vital thing to successfully quitting smoking is to actually WANT to quit!

Monday: Today I stayed busy to limit the number of cigarettes I had. I also set aside a number I felt I could stick with. I managed to smoke only five cigarettes today! I'm feeling confident that by Friday I will be able to stop smoking altogether!

Tuesday: I had a little more trouble today, but still managed to keep it close to five cigarettes all day. I had to get up early in the morning to take my brother somewhere, and immediately had a cigarette. Since I always have to have one first thing, that is my goal for tomorrow; to wait until I've been awake for at least an hour to have a smoke. I'm also going to make sure I'm drinking a lot more water. I've heard that helps flush the nicotine out of your system.

Wednesday: By 2:30 pm, I had smoked less than one cigarette. I only took a few drags at a time, and really fought my urges. In fact, rather than smoke, I sat down to write! Distraction helps prolong breaks between cigarettes. By the end of the day, I had smoked less than two whole cigarettes! I think I can do it! For the later part of the day, I put myself in a position where I would not have an opportunity to smoke. For me, this meant visiting family. I consider it a respect thing to not smoke around my family!

Thursday: I'm finding that things are starting to taste different, including cigarettes. They just don't taste as good to me. While I still think about having a cigarette often, the urges don't have as much power over me as they used to.

Friday: Today is my quit day! I've spent all week working up to not smoking today. I made it through the day; regardless of arguments at home, and working a split shift. I know I may slip up sometimes. I will always be addicted, but I can fight that addiction.

To sum up, the tricks I used to quit smoking were:

1) Drink lots of water.

2) When you want to smoke, distract yourself by doing something else!

3) Wean yourself off of the nicotine by smoking less. Quitting smoking cold turkey is the hardest way to quit. Smoke less of each cigarette, and increase the time between cigarettes.

4) Put yourself in places where you can't smoke. Avoid situations where you will be tempted to smoke a cigarette.

5) Don't try to quit if you really don't want to quit. You will fail. You have to want to quit to fight the addiction.