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End The Smoking Habit.
I never thought I would be able to end my smoking habit. It seemed like I was continually waiting until the strain in my life was at a minimum to begin to quit and of course that just never happened.I used my addiction to smoking as stress 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 when I saw a weight gain of more than nine pound I was once again smoking.
So, I was convinced I was going to have to find a behavior to oust my smoking or other means of dealing with anxiety. 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 typical morning meal of a cigarette and coffee. After eating instead of a smoking I took a little walk or exercised or read the newspaper. In the car I listened to books on tape or music that took my mind off usual times in the car when I would smoke.
It was not an easy thing but I started doing other activities and habits for times when I would usually smoke and I started using smoking control. When I decided that I had to stop the smoking habit I started with a list of pros and cons for my decision to smoke or to quit. In other words what I was getting out of smoking and then the cons to keeping with my smoking habit. Needless to say the pros far outweighed the cons. The monetary and health cost of a smoking habit makes the decision to persist one you can not really condone in any sense except for the fact that as a smoker this is a habit that you relish.
After I made my checklist I hung this list up on my bathroom mirror and also on my mud room door. I wanted everyday to see my driving force for changing my behavior this helped some since quitting smoking is a choice one has to make daily day by day. When you refrain from smoking you have to assume some times when you may fail 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 bought a pack of cigarettes or smoked only one I bummed from a buddy I allowed myself forgiveness for not being perfect and started right back up.
Each time 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 usually wouldn't do for myself. Maybe by a splurge on shopping or a cinema I wanted to see a nice dinner a Starbucks coffee just something I enjoyed to remind myself that smoking wasn't the only fun thing for me. I can not say I still don't think about having a smoke from time to time and certainly always will yet I also remind myself that what you save is money your health and generally just feeling better. Your clothes don't smell like smoke your hair doesn't smell of smoke you can taste the food you eat. You can also put the money you would have used for buying smokes into a saving account and watch it add up.
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