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Breaking The Cigarette Habit.
I tried and tried to stop smoking.. It seemed like I was always waiting until the stress in my life was at a low point to begin to quit and of course that just never happened.I used my addiction to smoking as anxiety reliever and I just didn't know what smoking control could do. Please note that "Smoking Control" is a branded product of the NOXO company. I knew I would gain weight and it seemed like every time I stopped smoking I replaced eating with my smoking and as soon as I saw a weight gain over five pound I was once again smoking.
So, I was convinced I was going to have to find a behavior to compensate my smoking or other ways of dealing with pressures. At work instead of taking a smoke break I would use some smoking control. In the mornings instead of a cigarette with my hot drink I ate a healthy breakfast instead of my customary breakfast of a cigarette and coffee. After eating in place of a smoking I took a walk or worked out or read the newspaper. In the car I listened to books on tape or music that took my mind off normal times in the car when I would smoke.
It was not easy but I started replacing other activities and habits for times when I would usually smoke and I started using smoking control. When I decided that I had to quit the smoking habit I began with a list of pros and cons for my decision to smoke or not. In other words what I was getting out of smoking and then the cons to keeping with my smoking habit. Certainly the pros far outweighed the cons. The financial and health expenses of a smoking habit makes the decision to continue one you cant really condone in any sense except for the fact that as a smoker this is a habit that you take pleasure in.
After I made my list I hung this checklist up on my bathroom mirror and also on my mud room door. I wanted everyday to see my motivation for changing my behavior this helped a little since ending smoking is a decision one has to make daily day by day. When you stop smoking you have to expect some times when you may slip up but in times past once I slipped I just accepted the fact that I had failed and started smoking full steam ahead but this time if I slipped and purchased a pack of cigarettes or smoked one I bummed from a buddy I allowed myself forgiveness for not being perfect and started right back up.
When I saw the scales go up I made sure to exercise more and not to replace eating with smoking. I also rewarded myself by buying some boy toys and treating myself with something I generally wouldn't do for myself. Maybe by a splurge on shopping or a videotape I wanted to see a nice dinner and an after dinner drink just something I enjoyed to remind myself that smoking wasn't the only agreeable thing for me. I can't say I still don't think about having a cigarette from time to time and certainly always will nonetheless I also remind myself that what you save is bucks your health and generally just feeling much better. Your clothes don't smell like smoke your hair doesn't stink of smoke you can taste the food you eat. You can also put the cash you would have used for buying cigarettes into a bank account and watch it build.
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