Hello Ladies!

I'm about to reach the two year mark since I quit smoking and since I'm sure many of you are working on those New Year's Resolutions I decided to post a little guide about how I quit smoking. Smoking was my vice, but I'm sure this guide can be handy for many other bad habits as well, soda and junk food come to mind. I'm calling them "steps" but they are sort of meant to be done all simultaneously.

Step 1 - Start right now

Like, at this very second. You don't need to ween yourself off, you don't need need a ritualistic "last one", and you don't need to wait till Monday or whatever other time marker you've arbitrarily decided on to buy yourself more time. I don't care if you just bought a pack, crush it and throw it away. Anything less is an excuse.

Step 2 - Remember why you are doing it

I actually wrote it down on a piece of paper and kept it where I usually kept my pack of cigarettes which was very helpful. I found RPW just before I started trying to quit, so my reason was to "Increase my SMV/be more attractive", which was a pretty vein reason to want to quit considering all of the health problems. But you know what? I'm pretty vein, I can admit that, and I can use it to my advantage. When selecting your reason, make sure its something that gets a gut reaction out of you, not just generalizations and platitudes. We know if you were really worried about the health issues and wanting to live longer, you wouldn't have started in the first place.

Step 3 - Think in smaller time frames

Thinking about never ever having a cigarette again is daunting, and frankly made me crave a cigarette. But every time I had a craving, I would try to see if I could wait an hour before I indulged (or till the end of the episode, or class or whatever unit of time). Of course most of the time I wouldn't remember in an hour. And next time the craving hit, I'd see if I can put it off for another hour.

But what do you do if you are still craving after an hour? Go ahead, buy a new pack of cigarettes. You did promise yourself after all. And after the second puff when you start feeling guilty, refer back to step 1.

Step 4 - Avoid Trigger

Hanging out with other smokers as first was a major trigger. Every time they would go out for a cigarette, I would want to go with them, not just to smoke, but to partake in the smoking culture (if your not a smoker you might not understand, but its like being part of a very tight but welcoming community. Anyway, slowly but surely these people fell away from my life (more by accident than by my own will), but I can pretty safely say that not spending time with smokers helped me succeed.

Walking was another huge one for me. In fact, I would measure distances by how many cigarettes I could smoke between two destinations. Of course you can't avoid walking so...

Step 5 - Find a Substitute

I tried e-cigarettes and found them deeply unsatisfying whilst doing absolutely nothing to stop my addiction. For me they didn't work as a substitute. Some people will recommend gum, or other candies. I found dum dums really helpful here, they only took slightly longer to eat than a cigarette was to smoke (about the same time as an American Spirit) and took care of that whole hand to mouth movement I was so used to.

It took me a few tries before I finally quit, but from the time I started quitting, till I had my last cigarette was just about 4 months. So good luck to all those trying to kick their nasty habits!