Quit Smoking Pro

Quit Smoking Tips – Don't Start or 'Never Take Another Puff' if You Did

2009-10-13T04:12:00.001-07:00

The best one – Do not Start. If you did, … there is still a chance that you will not die from it. Do you want and have some knowledge how to quit? If the answer is negative don’t even try to quit smoking, it won’t have any effect. Dealing with a true nicotine addiction as though it were some nasty little habit is a way to relapse.

Even if you have attempted to quit smoking a few times in the past with no luck, do not lose hope. It only means you just haven’t found the specific method that will work for you. Below are unique tips to quit smoking. Try them and there is a very good chance that at least one of them will help you to quit.

Remember that there is no such thing as quitting smoking forever. Every ex-smoker is able to celebrate freedom from the addiction like one month free from addiction or one year milestone, but you can't celebrate "quitting smoking forever", so it's good idea to rejoice for every smoke free day.

Understand that you need motivation to stop smoking. And there are tons of reasons for quitting smoking that you can use for this motivation. In reality, all you need to quit smoking for good is to retrain your mind and body so that you no longer need cigarettes and actually feel better without them. Previous to quitting smoking process start be sure that you do want to quit and be as prepared as you can.

Nicotine addiction is one of the most strong, recurrent and steady interaction you've likely ever known. It has infected almost every aspect of your life and thinking. Be always ready to feel a normal sense of emotional loss when quitting that step by step transfer you through offensive stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and complacency. This emotional ride is common and an essential part of recovery from addiction.

Remember that there are only two reasons to take a puff once you quitted smoking. First one - you make a decision that you are going back to smoking until smoking kills you, or the second - you choose to get pleasure from withdrawal symptoms and you would like to make it last forever. As long as none of these alternatives fit your dreams solution is as simple as ... just one decree guarantees success ... Never Take Another Puff!

Nicotine is Responsible for the Loss of Muscle Mass

2009-08-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

Smokers have one more bad piece of news. Smoking not only leads to cardiovascular disease and cancer, but also to excessive loss of muscle mass with age. This loss of muscle and, consequently, strength, leads to a more rapid decrease in physical activity and ability to self-sufficiency. 16 people over 60 were involved in the study held at the University of Nottingham. Patients were grouped into the same group on the living conditions and habits; they all took the same amount of alcohol and approximately the same lifestyle.

Half of the group was represented by smokers, who smoked at least 20 years up to pack of cigarettes a day and half by non-smoking patients. To assess the intensity of metabolism in the muscle tissue they give to all of them an injection of intravenous drug containing labeled amino acids, which is embedded in the structure of the synthesized protein. Samples of muscle tissue were taken before and after infusion. The rate of protein synthesis in muscle was proportional to the total mass of muscles.

During the study, it was found that protein synthesis in smokers' muscles was significantly slower than in the muscles of non-smokers. In addition, the concentration of substances, which are slowed the growth of muscle mass themselves was higher in the muscle of smokers. According to the organizers of the study, the negative impact of smoking on the lungs fairly well studied, but new findings show more and more risks for people who cannot get rid of nicotine addiction.

Smoking Dangers

2009-07-06T01:26:00.001-07:00

Tobacco became popular since American continent discovery, none thought about smoking dangers at that time. Smoking got a wide spread occurrence, only at the end of 19th century when the automated cigarette-making machinery in the American South was invented. It made possible mass cigarettes production, because of cutting down their prices. Cigarettes became elegant and fashionable among society as well men and women. Soon, an American scientist Isaac Adler suggested that smoking might cause lung cancer.

Smoking dangers known to everybody today, though all this information doesn’t stop anyone. Smoke, or more properly, partially burnt organic agents contained in smoke are carcinogenic. This is the weightiest argument of smoking dangers: carcinogenic cause cancer. The damage of time-consuming smoking is in destroying lungs and can take up to twenty years before its physical consequence in terms of lung cancer. Smoking promotes the risk of developing heart disease. Also smoking is main reason of the diseases of the heart-vascular system, particular myocardial infarction (heart attack), cardiovascular disease.

Smoking causes diseases of the respiratory apparatus such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer and cancers of the larynx and tongue. Smoking increases blood cholesterol levels. The ratio of high-density lipoprotein declines and all in the same breath low-density lipoprotein tends to be higher in smokers compared to non-smokers. Smoking also raises the levels of fibrinogen and increases platelet production, that is rather dangerous, because causes the blood viscous.

On the top of all that smoking dangers is the fact that nicotine is a strong remedy as a psychoactive chemical. When tobacco is smoked, most of the nicotine is paralyzed; in such a manner, the mild somatic dependency originates and develops to strong unswerving psychological dependency. There is also a presence of harmine, which seems to play an important role in nicotine addiction because of its ability to facilitate dopamine release in the reward center in response to nicotine booster.

Believe expert opinion, overall, nicotine is more addictive than cannabis, caffeine, ethanol, cocaine, and heroin because it causes both somatic and psychological dependence. At the same time, nicotine does not have so strong withdrawal effects as ethanol, cocaine and heroin; nicotine has less somatic dependence symptoms than these substances. Recent studies have linked smoking to anxiety disorders group, by reference of the correlation (and possibly mechanism), nicotine dependence may be related to the group of anxiety disorders, and not limited to just depression and apprehension.

Commonly Known Facts about Smoking

2009-06-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

It is well known that smoking is a health hazard. Smokers know common facts about smoking but it does not bring them stop. Let’s systemize the knowledge about smoking. Smoking can cause: stained teeth, fingers, and hair; emphysema; high blood pressure; heart disease; insomnia; arthritis; nervousness; wrinkles and senilism; decreased sexual activity; mental depression; tobacco angina, pneumonia, asthma, lung cancer; arteriosclerosis; cancer of the lip, tongue, pharynx, larynx, and bladder.

Have you already known all these facts about smoking? Have you ever thought you wouldn’t choose any one disease, but run chances to get some of them, even most of them? To be able to afford yourself to treat these facts with indignity you should know the score.

The most troubling fact about smoking is that nicotine effects human nervous system. This affection begins with somatic and psychological dependence symptoms and ends with the nerve-muscle junctions disorders. The nerve-muscle junctions’ disorders usually cause tremors and shaking.
Nicotine causes narrowing and constriction of the arteries - one of the reasons for the heart failure and heart disease. Nicotine may cause excitement, anxiety, depression, morbid fears and aggravates nervous breakdowns, because of its ability to stimulate. Nicotine makes the blood more viscous and decreases the available oxygen. It also has an adverse effect on the breathing, sweating, intestinal, and heart actions of our vegetative nervous system.

It is also well known that if the mother smokes during pregnancy, the baby’s pulse is one third faster than a non-smoker mother’s baby is, and there can be heart trouble symptoms in the baby after birth. Premature birth is very often related to the mother’s smoking. There is also a confirmed relationship between parents’ smoking and children's respiratory disease.

Some more facts about smoking…Do you know a smoker needs much more food and sleep because of the fact that nicotine makes his body work harder and less efficiently? The facts about smoking are that the smoker’s heart beats faster; his organism needs more fuel and energy, because it is permanently affected by the toxic agent. So, this is the explanation why smokers have less trouble keeping their weight down. By the way, the other disadvantage about the smoking is that foods taste much better to non-smokers.

Your Best Quit Smoking Way

2009-06-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

The main constituent part of quitting smoking process is your desire and a picture of your future non-smoking life imprinted on your mind.

You've probably heard about people who stopped smoking immediately and at once. As usual, such a person makes a decision and says "stop" to himself and that is all, he will never smoke again. That's the way the ball bounces, but you should know, some smokers give up little by little, sometimes flying off the handle, or have relapses, and it is also natural. Be patient; compliment yourself all the time, and do not stop your quitting smoking process.

There is some quit smoking advice – quitting smoking tips to help you:

- Learn what triggers your craving for a cigarette, such as stress, the end of a meal, arrival at work, entering a bar… Avoid these triggers or if that is not possible, plan alternative ways to deal with cravings.

- The thing that helps a lot for many people is drinking lots of really ice-cold water (fill your cup to the top with ice - to be really cold). If you don’t like or can’t use cold water, use warm. Water is one of the best tools for beating cravings to smoke. It also helps not to flesh out.

- Do some deep breathing each day for five minutes. Breathe in through your nose very slowly, hold the breath for a few seconds, and breathe out very slowly through your mouth. It is possible to do your breathing with your eyes closed also.

- Eat, chew or suck: green apple/caramel lollipops help to distract because it took so long to eat the whole thing. Chewing gum will pass off the idea to light up "just one".

- Enjoy going and working out all the stress from the day. It takes the edge off stress and the fresh air reminds you about how good it is, to breathe deeply without smoke.

- Ask your family and friends to support you in your quit smoking attempt. Let them know that you will probably be irritable and even irrational with the help of nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

- Talk with your physician about quitting. Support and help from a doctor is a proven way to improve your chances to quit smoking for good.

- Be positive. Some ex-smokers say that sleep and rest helped them most. Give yourself a promise to be nice. Remember, you can react all problems and troubles with a better choice than smoking.

- Believe in yourself. Think about some of the most complex things you have done in your life and understand that you have aspiration and willpower to quit smoking!

Cope With Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms and Quit For Good!

2009-06-21T03:33:00.000-07:00

Are you giving up smoking and going through tough times of nicotine withdrawal right know? Bear and forbear all things must pass. You will keep head above water, without fail, you are already doing it. Right now you are looking for a way to improve the situation of nicotine withdrawal, so you are already the champion!

Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal can vary from some physical to psychological discomfort or include them both. If you are just going to stop smoking, put up to what to expect when you quit smoking. Forewarned is forearmed, you won’t make a fuss about your feelings because they are natural and you will know it. So what a giving up smoker feels:

8 of 10 people say that the first week without cigarettes is so bad that they think about "just have one more" very often. It is natural for nicotine withdrawal. You need something to help the cravings and nicotine withdrawal symptoms. It is not simple task, even if your mind is over matter. You may feel so angry and negative, you’ll think you are out for the count. It is natural and up-n-coming. Hold the fort! Start thinking of how gross and unhealthy is smoking. You are a reasonable being, to give up smoking, it is on your behalf and you are able to do it! You get the point, it really helps a lot. Some people say they started reading these messages from others and post a bit or a lot in some quit smokers forums. It brings relief. Just know better days are coming.

Some days later you’ll probably breathe easily, but may become so apathetic about everything. You may feel you can't be happy about anything it seems, and appreciate exhausted. Remind yourself: early cessation is uncomfortable, but it does not last forever! Get extra rest, eat well, drink enough of water and support yourself with the persuasion that you’ll renew your spirit each and every day right now. Seek advice of experienced person. Turn to your support group. You'll feel better soon as you don't smoke.

Everyone that quit smoking has found one way or several ways to keep themselves from smoking. That is a fact, there is no person who couldn’t do it when he wanted. Hold the fort! Do you know psychotherapeutics say "there is no "I can’t", but "I don’t want". Savvy? You can’t come in nowhere, if you are jonesing for stop smoking. You may be already start noticing the stinking smell of the cigarettes. Do you? Do you want to smell again?

Be bigger than that, you won't ever go back to smoking and this disgusting smell. You’ll get better very soon, you’ll stick out. You feel better right now! Do you?

Don't Lose any Time Thinking about Quitting Smoking

2009-06-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

What if any smoker decides to quit smoking and tries to father particular scheme to make it happen? Maybe it sounds good enough, but there is no point in going there. There are only two important things that are vital for success.

1. Smoker should know that smoking is addiction and that he is addicted. 2. Smoker should have every intention to quit smoking for good. These two points are good enough as basis for successful quitting smoking attempt.

There are thousands of smokers that are not able to quit smoking even having both above named points in their pocket. They always think about quitting smoking. They learned a lot about nicotine addiction. They are trying to create their own, specific way for freedom from the addiction. They are loosing their time with these vain attempts and make their nicotine addiction even stronger.

It is possible to get a new angle on quitting smoking issue - try to understand that in some way thinking about smoking is equivalent to thinking about quitting smoking. When smoker is thinking about quitting smoking, it is same old song by his nicotine addiction that force smoker to believe that his addiction is a center of universe.

There are tons of quitting smoking tips and practical methods to weaken withdrawal symptoms. It is very helpful for those smokers, who are trying to quit smoking first time taking this seriously. Those ones with some quitting smoking experience are able to predict what they are going to feel, but they also can find something useful from these advices.

Anyway, there is no one reason for any smoker to keep this deadly smoking routine thinking about quitting smoking. Smoker never get something positive from smoking - it is just feeding of nicotine addiction - so it is very simple choice - you are thinking about quitting smoking and stay addicted or you are really going to quit and think about positive changes in your life, your health and making all this possible without any quitting smoking reflections.

Effects of Smoking

2009-06-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

If you took 1,000 young adult smokers, one will be murdered, six will die on the roads, but 500 will die from tobacco. / Richard Peto /

Maybe you want to switch to a healthier lifestyle and quit smoking permanently? If yes, maybe you've heard that popular tip on stopping smoking:

Educate Yourself About the Ill Effects of Smoking - One of the first things that might motivate you to quit smoking is educating yourself about the adverse effects of smoking. Read books about ill effects of smoking, surf the Internet to find out more, and even watch videos and documentaries, which educate you about the ill effects of smoking. Once you start getting to know how perilous smoking can be, watching photographs or videos of the people adversely affected due to smoking can help you quit smoking. Educate yourself thoroughly about what smoking can do to your body, and think whether you want to cause such permanent damage to your own body.

In reality there are tons of people without one lung or without one leg still smoking and enjoing it. It is true – make a web search and you will find proof. Medical issues is very weak motivation for smokers to fight with addiction. It is impossible to learn more about lung cancer and quit smoking with the help of this knowledge. The only one reaction every smoker experience while trying to keep thinking about possible health problems from smoking is desire to light up another cigarette that will help (as every smoker believe) to reduce stress. In the same time the only one thing that could help smoker to quit smoking for good is understanding that smoking can only stir up stress and problems and never solve any problem at all.

FreshStart Review

2009-05-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

FreshStart is a three-part combination therapy consisting of online instructions, audio file and breathing exercises. The FreshStart quit smoking method was designed by Matt Godson - clinical hypnotherapist accredited by the American Board of Hypnotherapy. Matt states that his hypnotherapeutic method will literally change your mind and your attitude to smoking, and, finally make you a non-smoker.

Matt says that true hypnosis is a state of absolute relaxation where your mind is open to positive suggestions. FreshStart method is a process and if you are really want to quit smoking FreshStart process will work for you. The FreshStart quit smoking technique has 94% success rate and success rate is so high because it changes your mental attitude toward smoking.

The FreshStart quit smoking method is totally safe online product with immediate access to all information available, so you do not need to see a doctor, buy drugs or nicotine replacement products, or wait for a book or DVD to come in the mail. Main part of Fresh Start is a one-hour audio intended to aid you quit smoking in a single hypnosis session. Also, it is important to perform simple breathing exercise for the next three days, to help out with any cravings.

If you are ready to put your nicotine addition behind you, then Matt Godson's FreshStart Quit Smoking Method may be miraculous aid that will help you to quit. The cost of the method is only $49, which is very reasonable comparing to many other products. If you have already realized that the quitting smoking benefits are available to you today and if you are really want to quit smoking easily, without any cravings, the Fresh Start quit smoking method is highly recommended! Check out FreshStart website right now to get this highly effective quit smoking product.

Keep Trying

2009-05-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Apart from the addiction of the body on chemical substances, a smoking addiction is often related to everyday lifestyle events, which can include thinking deeply, eating, drinking tea, coffee or alcohol, or general socializing. Accordingly, smokers may miss the act of smoking mostly at these times, and this may increase the difficulty inherent in a quitting smoking attempt. Because of a lower dopamine response from nicotine receptors in the brain, a degree of depression may develop, while the smoker feels less able to complete the day-to-day tasks formerly associated with smoking.

A small number of smokers are successful with their very first quit smoking attempt. Many smokers find it difficult to quit, even in the face of serious smoking-related disease in themselves or close relatives or friends. A firm resolution to fight with addiction is vital. The typical attempt of a smoker that finally succeeds is the seventh to fifteenth try. Each attempt is a learning experience that moves them that much closer to their goal of final freedom from smoking addiction.

Smoking cessation is clearly associated with better mental health and spending less of one's life with diseases of old age. Quitting smoking will almost always lead to a longer and healthier life. The studies showed that those who stopped smoking before they reached thirty years of age lived almost as long as those who never smoked. Quitting smoking in middle age can add up to ten years of healthy life and stopping even over fifty can still add years of healthy life.

Quit Smoking Cold Turkey Easy Tips

2009-04-20T03:34:00.001-07:00

This is the most popular quit smoking method and most every long-term ex-smokers quit smoking cold turkey. It can be very difficult to quit smoking cold turkey, but it does not cost a thing and here are some things you can do to make the cold turkey method easier on yourself.

- Pick a long enough period of time when your life is going to be less stressful. Summer break, the holidays, a vacation are all possibilities. You most likely smoke more when you are stressed, so eliminating the stress is a good place to start.

- Keep a lot of your favorite non-alcoholic drinks on hand. Drinking will keep you hydrated and give you something to do with your mouth instead of puffing on a cigarette; also, it will help your body flush the toxins out of your system faster.

- Avoid situations that frustrate you - you are not going to sustain a stress well. Also, avoid any place where people will be smoking.

- When a craving hits, try closing your eyes and counting to ten while taking some deep breaths. If that doesn't work, take a walk to get yourself away from temptation.

- While quitting try to avoid alcohol and caffeine as much as possible because these stimulants disrupt sleep and prevent you body from effective relaxation.

- During quitting smoking process, it is normal for your mind to forget many of the reasons that motivated you to quit smoking. Write your list of your personal quit smoking reasons and carry it with you.

- Make sure your friends and relatives are aware of your quit smoking challenge so that they can support you.

- Remember, that there is no such thing as just one puff. You are just one puff away from failure. Never Take Another Puff!

If you wish to beat smoking for good, make sure that you are changing your mindset while you are at smoking. You have to fall out of love with smoking, you have to know why nicotine addiction is bad for you, why you do not need it, and you have to know why it is not a part of you. You need to answer all these questions to quit smoking for good before you setup your quit day.

Quit Smoking - Why Hypnotherapy Is So Successful?

2009-03-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

What if your attitude to quitting smoking is absolutely false? What if, after just one session of hypnotherapy you find it extremely simple to turn into and stay a happy, joyful nonsmoker for life? The reason why hypnotherapy is so successful is because both our thinking about smoking and our habitual smoking behaviours exist in your unconscious mind.

Smokers buy into years of conditioning telling them that smoking made them feel somehow better, more positive and calmer. And as a result of lighting up those first few cigarettes, smokers permanently establish these tremendously obstructive thinking directly into their unconscious, beliefs that also incorporated the idea that quitting smoking was going to be very hard.

At the same time, smokers make a conscious choice to choose those supposed benefits of feeling better, more comfortable and secure, over the original physical effects of inhaling the poisonous smoke. So as time goes on and those scratchy physical reactions start to fall down, as a result of their recently created nicotine addiction, they started to misunderstand the relief of feeding that addiction with feelings of relaxation and self-assurance.

After smoking thousands of cigarettes, smokers have strengthen those useless values about smoking and how difficult it is to stop it and, they have also trained their unconscious minds to incorrectly connect the process of lighting and smoking a cigarette with feeling positive, self-assured and comfortable.

Hypnotherapy let us change our unconscious mind of a smoker to disdain those false beliefs about smoking and hardness of quitting smoking, and to change those lifeless benefits to something more satisfying and exciting!

Useless Standard Approach to Quit Smoking Problem

2009-03-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Below is text compiled from standard quit smoking pieces of writing. It is look well, please, take a look and decide for yourself is it worth your attention?

"The brain of an addicted smoker treats nicotine as if it is crucial for survival. Most smokers try to quit smoking without help and support, which resulting in a low success rate. Smoking stimulates the mind and body, and the concentrated dose of nicotine provoke instant flood of dopamine that wash pleasure centers. Inhaling smoke is the quickest, most efficient way to get nicotine to the brain.

Smoking triggers the reward systems in the brain that drive you to seek food, water and sex, brain feels that this has to do with survival. Nicotine is not equally addictive for everyone, but most people who get hooked sooner or later will smoke all day, every day. Nicotine by itself does not cause cancer, heart disease or other major health problems associated with smoking; other chemicals in tobacco smoke are to blame. However, even with the most successful quit smoking and nicotine replacement drugs, only about 30 percent of quit smoking attempts last more than half a year. Compared with quitting smoking cold turkey method, however, that is a huge progress. Less than 10 percents of smokers who trying to quit smoking cold turkey manages to go six months without a cigarette. Most do not make it past a week.

When longtime smokers finally do quit smoking, they soon understand that not smoking does not really make them nonsmokers. Former smokers have to experience again that it is possible to get pleasure from life without cigarettes, although the cravings may never stop completely."

It seems that everything above is somewhat true, but must be served up with different dressing. First, it definitely possible to quit smoking even without help, support and quit smoking or nicotine replacement drugs. There is sufficient quantity of people, who did this. Second, you don't need to crave for cigarettes all your ex-smoker's life, it's nonsense. Third, and most important is that you must shift your brain and set your mind free from depressing smoking routine before you are going to quit smoking. There is no reason smoker need a cigarette, to say the least of it. Every smoker, who is going to respond to quit smoking challenge, should know that there are no excuses for keeping this evil-smelling practice in life, while it is achievable to turn into someone, who is free from nicotine addiction and happy and lucky without cigarettes.

"Quiting Smoking" Misspellings

2009-02-21T04:51:00.000-08:00

Trying to get new ideas for new Quit Smoking Pro post writings, while browsing through AdWords Keyword Tool, it was founded that more than 6 thousand searches with keyword "quiting smoking" were performed on Google in January, 2009. The right variant of this keyword "quitting smoking" got more than 74,000 searches.

Also, inside this niche keywords there are thousands of searches with misspellings and mistakes in keywords like – "stopsmoking", "quitsmoking", and "quite smoking". There are surprising, but somewhat popular keywords like – "stop smoke", "quit cigarette", and "cigarettes quit".

Inside this keyword list there are reasons for quitting smoking, the keywords like – "quit smoking cough", "effects of smoking", "smoking diseases", and keyword "benefits of smoking" as acquittal of smoking. Also there are some plug-and-play methods to quit smoking like – "quit smoking cold turkey", "hypnosis to quit smoking", "quit smoking laser therapy", and there are thousand of people looking for "easy way to quit smoking". In addition, there are some quit smoking products related keywords like – "Nicocure", "Zyban quit smoking", "nicotine gum", and "nicotine patch".

It seems that it is possible to write an article using this list of keywords only. So, "why you should quit smoking" and "what to expect when you quit smoking"? Is it true that every ex-smoker is going to experience "quit smoking withdrawal symptoms" and there is no "easy way to quit smoking"? "How to quit smoking without gaining weight"? What are "quitting smoking symptoms" and are there any "side effects of quitting smoking"? What are "health benefits of quitting smoking"?

If you are smoker and are going to set your mind free from this deadly addiction, you should know answers to these questions and even more information about nicotine addiction to successfully quit smoking for good. Educate yourself, understand how you can beat your depraved smoking routine and give yourself more chances to happy, smoke-free life.

Simple Quit Smoking Plan

2009-01-18T06:13:00.000-08:00

Nicotine is an incredibly addictive drug and the cravings and withdrawal symptoms can overpower even the strongest will. It takes practice and time to quit smoking, but with plenty of preparation, support of friends, and family it can be done, and the benefits of quitting smoking are worth the effort.

There are many ways to quit smoking, such as the 'cold turkey' method; some people find that gradually decreasing the number of cigarettes they smoke each day is an effective way to quit. Each person is unique, and different strategies work better for different people.

Making a plan and sticking to it is the main part of any successful effort. Choose a day in advance and designate it as your day to quit smoking. Once you have chosen your quit day, let your friends, family and coworkers know and ask for their support and understanding. Nicotine withdrawal can cause feelings of stress and anxiety, and having a support network around you can help in the difficult days ahead.

Learning relaxation techniques can be helpful. Try using controlled deep breaths to calm your nerves. Reward yourself in some way when you make it through tough days with maybe your favorite dish or buy something nice with some of the money you've saved by not purchasing cigarettes.

You may quit smoking successfully for weeks or even longer and then suddenly have a craving that's so strong you feel like you have to give in. Or maybe you accidentally find yourself in one of your trigger situations and give in to temptation. If you relapsed, it does not mean you've failed, it just means you are human. Here are some ways to get back on track.

Think about your slip as one mistake. Take notice of when and why it happened and move on. Keep in mind that one cigarette didn't make you a smoker to start with, so smoking one cigarette or even few cigarettes after you've quit doesn't make you a smoker again, so you don't need to get back to your old smoking regime. Remind yourself why you've quit and how well you've done - or have someone in your support group, family, or friends do this for you.

Caffeine is Addictive Just Like Nicotine

2009-01-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

Should you kick the caffeine habit? Myriad of people cannot live without their daily cup of coffee, and that can be a problem. Caffeine is their favourite legal drug. Maybe you have to cut it out for health reasons. Maybe you just want to cut back because the time and expense involved in securing your daily fix has become too much.

Researchers are beginning to assemble a body of knowledge on kicking the caffeine habit. Caffeine is where tobacco was 20 years ago; it used to be that doctors told smokers, 'Just quit.' Now there's a growing appreciation that it takes a little more than 'just do it' to quit smoking. Here is the understanding that caffeine is addiction, too.

About 68 percent of Americans said they were hooked on coffee. Not everybody agrees that caffeine is addictive in the same way as nicotine, for example, but it is clear that cutting out caffeine can produce withdrawal symptoms. If you have tried to quit caffeine, and failed, you are not alone. Having worked with caffeine addicts, researchers are able to offer some advice for getting the caffeine monkey off your back.

- Keep a diary. Track how much caffeine you ingest every day for one or two weeks to determine your baseline intake. Do not overlook tea, sodas, chocolate and medications that contain caffeine. Products made with guarana, mate or kola nut also likely contain caffeine.

- Decide how much you want to cut. You will want to cut out caffeine entirely if you have a health issue that's clearly exacerbated by caffeine, like stomach problems, fibrocystic breast disease, some heart problems or irritable bladder. Pregnant women should avoid caffeine, too. However, if you are not in those categories, you may choose just to cut back enough to reduce your dependence so that you can function without your requisite cup of coffee. In that case, try reducing your intake level to under 100 milligrams per day.

- Count milligrams, not cups. Caffeine content varies widely. A typical 6-ounce cup of coffee contains 75 to 100 milligrams of caffeine, but a big 16-ounce cup of Starbucks' drip may contain as much as 400 milligrams. Remember to take into account serving sizes and the number of servings.

- Avoid going cold turkey. Cutting out caffeine suddenly can be very unpleasant, and you might relapse if it is too painful. The best thing you can do is not to stop abruptly. Cutting back gradually seems to stave off the symptoms associated with caffeine withdrawal, and that should increase your chances of success. Cut your caffeine intake by about 10-25 percent off your baseline every few days. If you start to experience withdrawal symptoms, taper even more gradually.

- Start by cutting out the last cup of coffee or can of cola you drink during the day. Caffeine takes up to six hours to get out of your system, and it can affect your sleep. If you take enough caffeine, it can interfere with "slow-wave" sleep, the phase of sleep that is most restorative. Even if you go to sleep after ingesting caffeine, the quality of sleep may not be as good, so, if you cut the day's last cup of coffee first, you will probably sleep better and feel less fatigued and presumably more able to stick with your program.

- Use behavior modification. The same techniques that help with quitting smoking or cutting calories can help in cutting caffeine – such as identifying barriers to change; enlisting social support in the form of a caffeine-cutting buddy or an encouraging friend; or rewarding yourself for achieving success milestones.

- Take it easy. Caffeine addicts should quit or cut back to start during a time when they are not under a lot of stress. The withdrawal process is not painless, but it is temporary. Individuals metabolize caffeine differently, so your tolerance of caffeine and your reaction to caffeine withdrawal could vary widely. It can even change as you age. So, listen to your body and tailor your quitting caffeine program accordingly.

Quit Smoking Phenomenon

2009-01-11T02:43:00.000-08:00

'Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery,
but today is a gift.
That is why it is called the present.'

It seems that for author of Quit Smoking Pro Blog quit smoking phenomenon is still interesting theme to think and write about. But it appears that it is hard to find something new or interesting about this thing. Everything is quite clear, but nicotine cessation still isn't easy process for millions of smokers. The main problem in quitting smoking process is love. Maybe it is hard to accept fully, but most smokers like their lives and what they do every day including smoking. Smokers think that smoking is a part of their lives. They think that smoking helps them to get over the difficulties of everyday life. It is true and falsehood in the same time.

When you addicted, the every dose of substance, you are addicted to, frees you from your addiction for a short space of time. Also every puff makes you more addicted to cigarettes than you were before. Smoking is just one among other problems present-day people have, and it is somewhat tangled with different problems including stresses, socializing, etc… Maybe quit smoking was New Year resolution for many smokers during this New Year's eve. But many of those smokers had relapsed already. And only some of them are successful.

Well-known fact is that it is hard to change life for the better. So smokers, who want to quit smoking, need not just to overcome addiction, but to have the guts to catch up their non-smoking lives with all problems and concerns every life consists with. That's why all ex-smokers should leave smoking and thoughts about smoking way behind and think about present moment. Really today is the best time to do something we will be happy to remember.

Secondhand Smoke is a Firsthand Problem for Children

2009-01-10T00:40:00.000-08:00

Step outside your home and car to smoke!

Many children require care for various health issues related to the smoking of a parent or family member. Children are especially open to health risks from exposure to secondhand smoke; the effects include asthma, bronchitis, allergies, pneumonia and painful ear infections. By consistently stepping outside your home and car to smoke, you will improve your children's health by reducing their exposure to your tobacco smoke.

It has been shown that smokers, who know that secondhand smoke is dangerous and take action to protect children from it make better progress toward quitting when they are ready to do so. If you are ready to quit smoking for good now, consider these tips to help you make this quit attempt last a lifetime.

Think about why quitting smoking is important to you. Is it to improve your health, save the $1,500 it costs to buy a pack-a-day, or is it because you want to set a good example for your kids and not expose them to secondhand smoke? Whatever your reasons, make a list of them to keep you motivated.

Ask for support from your family, friends and co-workers. Make sure that you are not alone in your trip to smoking-free life.

Prepare. Throw away all your tobacco products and related materials, including cigarette packs or chew cans, lighters, ashtrays and others that remind you of using tobacco. Create a plan to keep yourself busy during times you typically use tobacco.

Don't give up! If you experience a relapse, do not get down on yourself. Take the opportunity to learn from the experience as a way to help you achieve success.

Brad Pitt: 'Kids Helped me Stop Smoking'

2009-01-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

Brad Pitt has thanked his kids for helping him achieve a long overdue New Year's resolution to stop smoking.

The movie hunk has been nicotine free for months and he credits his growing family for helping him ditch his bad habit.

He says, "I quit smoking. That (kids) was the only thing that got me to quit. That was it. Done."

Here’s more actors and actresses that reportedly used to smoke, but no longer smoke.

- Charlize Theron
- Sharon Stone
- Julia Roberts
- Matt Damon
- Drew Barrymore

Do you want to quit smoking or just be free from smoking?

2008-11-28T05:09:00.000-08:00

Maybe you've heard that the process to quit smoking all begins with the desire that you actually want to quit. However, this is simply not true. The truth is that smoker do not want to do something like pass through "quit smoking process", he want to get freedom from doing something useless, pointless and harmful.

That's it – smoker understands that he or she does not need cigarettes any more. It is the most important step to success. If you think that smoking is someway relaxes you, or helps you to concentrate you should learn more about nicotine addiction and understand that you nobody else than nicotine addict, who lie to himself that he needs another dose.

When smoker clearly see that the life is happier and free without smoking, it is very easy to read some information about smoking cessation process and how to deal with withdrawal symptoms. Anyway, every former smoker is happier after even three days without cigarettes. Moreover, some ex-smokers don't even think about cigarettes after two weeks after their last cigarette.

All these people are free. They don't need to spend their money for poisonous product. They don't need to to fool away their time for pointless stealing. They don't need to think about cartons, packs, lighters, ashtrays, odors and all other things smoker forced to think about everyday. Get your freedom, it's free :) – set up your quit day, ask your friends and relatives to support you and get more happier and successful life.

More Reasons to Quit Smoking

2008-10-06T10:00:00.001-07:00

Smoking is one of the leading cause of heart attacks among people in their thirties and forties, but, unfortunately, most people still need an alarming health report and quit smoking only on prescription. What's worse, when it comes to persuading smokers to quit smoking, health arguments don’t always work.

The majority of smokers want to quit and have tried to quit smoking in the past 12 months, but only around 1% of smokers who try to quit on their own successfully do so. That is because the relapse rate among them is very high. After trying to quit smoking two to three times, they become frustrated and start smoking even more. However, if given psychological counseling, the quit rate improves to 11%.

Anyway, smoker should be motivated enough to quit smoking, or, if we try to think positively, smoker need grave reasons not to smoke during hard smoking cessation period, when nicotine addiction in collaboration with smoker's mind are going to find tons of reasons to smoke "just one". Below are just some reasons to quit smoking:

- You will be able to enjoy flowers, food, fresh air, taste of food, etc. far better

- You will be less wrinkly. After 10 years, smoking can speed up your skin's aging process by narrowing your skin's blood vessels and damaging the tissues that give the skin its strength and elasticity.

- Quitting smoking will improve the color of your teeth and fingers... otherwise, yes, they are yellow... and will be brown.

- Clean up your children's lungs. Secondhand smoke is now believed to be a risk factor for children to develop asthma; it also contributes to respiratory infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, and ear infections, as well as coughing, wheezing, and decreased lung function.

- You will be more patient. Smoking addiction raises irritation levels. You will be more calm. Addiction causes anxiety that smoking temporarily relieves.

All smokers harbor the secret hope that they will be spared the disease and death that follows nicotine addiction. We tell ourselves we'll quit in time and somehow dodge the bullet that smoking is. But with four million people dying every year due to tobacco use around the world, the odds are not in our favor. So, quit smoking to be free and have more control over your life.

In Time

2008-09-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

Plenty of time left to quit? Such thoughts are very likely to prove both deadly and wrong. Nicotine addiction ignorance costs half of all smokers an average of 13 years of life. Try to imagine nearly five millions tobacco victims each year. Imagine having a 50% chance of already knowing the cause of death that will appear on your death certificate.

Bryan started smoking at age thirteen. A 34 year-old Marlboro Light smoker, Bryan thought that because his mother still smoked that he had plenty of time left to quit. He was wrong. This is a photo of Bryan with his two year-old son, Bryan Jr. It was taken on March 29. The photo below was taken just 63 days later on June 3, the day Bryan died. It shows the aggressiveness of smoking induced small cell lung cancer. In Bryan's hands is a copy of the picture of him with his son.

Nicotine has physically rewired your brain growing millions of extra acetylcholine receptors in eleven different regions. Your mind is now de-sensitized to its own natural neuron-chemical flow. Quitting is a temporary journey of readjustment where you allow the time needed to restore natural sensitivities, where you break subconsciously conditioned links to smoking triggers and where you allow your conscious mind time to move beyond the years of smoking rationalizations you created in order to justify that next nicotine fix. When quitting there is no such thing as smoking just one. Like alcoholism, it is all or nothing.

Although your nicotine induced dopamine and adrenaline high reflects alert intoxication, chemical dependency upon nicotine is every bit as real, deep and permanent as alcoholism, crystal meth, or heroin addiction. Once hooked the remaining questions become, on which side of the bars will you spend the balance of life, what quality will your life have and how long will it last?

Set Your Mind to Find Freedom

2008-09-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Be patient with yourself and allow for as much time as you need to heal from this addiction. However, there is important step in finding freedom from nicotine addiction that is just as important as practice and time. It involves your mind-set. I'm sure you've heard about people who still struggle years and years after quitting. They are the ones who say they "still miss smoking" 20 years down the road. That's a fearsome thing to hear, but do not let it throw you. The reason they are in that position has to do with the fact that they never did the work to change what cigarettes meant to them.

Along with using patience and time to help you reprogram your associations with smoking, you must also revise the way you think about your cigarettes. The path to freedom has to do with shifting your attitude to smoking, and the way to make that mental change is through education. Educate yourself by reading everything about nicotine addiction. It will help you set up new meaning that cigarettes have for you. Once you do that, the mental chains of this addiction will begin to break down for good. You'll truly be free, and believe me, it is a great place to be.

I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever - I will never smoke again. How can I be so sure? I've changed what cigarettes mean to me. Tobacco is now equal to death and slavery in my mind. Smoking has lost its attraction completely. Read about nicotine addiction and do the work to change the way you identify cigarettes. They are instruments of death. They deserve nothing more than your disdain. Do not look at quitting tobacco as a sacrifice. You are not giving up anything of value. Quitting smoking is a gift. Change your mind and you will find your freedom.

Same Reason for Relapse and Inability to Quit Smoking

2008-09-14T02:46:00.001-07:00

If you think that you relapse to smoking after quitting because you do not have strong mental defense to beat back the cravings of the nicotine, then you are wrong! Cravings and relapse have equal roots. When smokers smoke cigarettes, their minds set tons of reasons why they are doing this, while smoking is the greatest threat to health, wealth and welfare of smoker and his family members.

If smoker are not able to remove all this reasons from this mind and heart, he will not be able to successfully quit smoking. Even this person is managed to quit smoking, the state of non-smoking is too hard for him, because he still has many reasons to smoke, but doesn’t smoke just because of willpower. This mismatch will transform to the stress with relapse as most likely outcome.

To successfully quit smoking you need to know more about smoking addiction; why smoking cigarettes never helps you, and have clear-cut understanding why you are smoking. Really, these are very simple tasks for non-smokers and very hard for smokers. Smokers believe that smoking helps them, when they need to concentrate or to relax; non-smokers know that smokers are just feeding their addiction. If you think that cigarettes are your best pals, please, do not try to quit. Instead, change your mind at first.

Trying to quit smoking is the hardest thing I’ve ever done

2008-09-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Story by Maura Tierney. Maura Tierney stars in NBC's ER and recently appeared in Playwrights Horizons' Three Changes. Soon, Maura will be leaving "ER" in it's final season, in which she has had a permanent role for 9 years playing nurse turned doctor, Abby Lockhart. Maura was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series for this role.

Maura has also starred alongside some of the biggest actors in Hollywood, with films such as "Forces of Nature", with Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, opposite Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding in "Instinct". Alongside John Travolta and Emma Thompson in "Primary Colors", and opposite Jim Carrey in "Liar, Liar". In 2001 she was seen in "Scotland, PA", written and directed by her now ex-husband Billy Morrissette. Her most recent movie roles are "Baby Mama", with Tina Fey, "Finding Amanda" co-starring Matthew Broderick, and Will Ferrell's fun basketball flick, "Semi-Pro".

You can currently see Maura in Nicky Silver's play "Three Changes" alongside Dylan McDermott, in a limited run from August 22 to September 28. ER's 15th and final season starts late September. Maura will appear in the first three episodes.

I grew up in a haze of smoke. No one in my family concerned themselves too much with nicotine addiction and its attendant diseases. My father lit up at the dinner table and puffed away in the car with the windows rolled up. (The car, incidentally, was a Plymouth Duster without seat belts or a working lock on the passenger-side door. It wasn't unusual for that door to fly open when we made a left turn; on two such occasions, my sister and I were catapulted out. The phrases "child safety" and "secondhand smoke" didn't get much play in my house.) But this blithe attitude wasn't particular to my family. My high school, an all-girl's Catholic school in a suburb south of Boston, had its very own smoking lounge. A note from your parents - authentic or forged - was all you needed for permission to smoke the day away. Hey, it was the early eighties.

I took my first drag off a cigarette at the ripe old age of eight. My grandmother went to the bathroom, and I stole one of her butts from the ashtray. I lit it, took a quick puff and snuffed it out before she even returned. Then, when I was about 13, my best friend, Adra, and I started smoking at her house after school. Both her parents worked, so we basically had two full hours every afternoon to smoke our heads off. For the next six months our schedule was as follows: School, 8 A.M. to 3 P.M. Chain-smoking, 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. Homework. Dinner. Bed. Repeat.

Adra and I tried every brand of cigarette: More, Virginia Slims, Marlboro, Camel, Kent. Back then, you could just walk into a drugstore and buy a pack without an ID - cashiers assumed you were buying them for your parents. This is how two scrawny eighth graders marched into various convenience stores and bought enough cigarettes to pay a Philip Morris executive's salary for a year. Then Adra moved away. With my underage smoking headquarters closed down, I was forced back into clean living until my freshman year of college, when I majored in dance at New York University.

Smoking was my life

Nobody smokes more than dancers. Dancers don't eat food; they inhale cigarettes. By the time I graduated, I was up to a pack a day. After NYU I moved to Los Angeles. I began working as an actor and discovered I was wrong about something: Nobody smokes more than dancers except actors. And makeup artists. And camera operators. And directors. The truth is, as exciting as film and TV work is, there can be stretches of downtime. Cigarettes fill them. They're something to do when there's nothing to do. They turn a moment into an event.

And when I can't have one, I'm f - ked. I've found myself doing things I'm not proud of, like, say, digging through the trash for a butt. Or smoking through bronchitis. Or telling people who try to bum a cigarette that I don't have any left when actually I do. At times it feels that smoking runs my life. During a five-minute break at work, I've had to make the decision: Should I pee or should I smoke? I've tried doing both at the same time, and it's not very satisfying. There's been only one time in my history when I didn't smoke or even think about it: About 12 years ago, my brother was hit by a car and ended up in a coma. For a period of six or seven days, he was so sick my family couldn't leave his bedside. But the moment he showed signs of recovery, so did my urge to smoke. I stood in front of the hospital next to patients attached to IV poles who were also smoking. I thought, look at those poor bastards - as if I had no experience with that same lack of self-control.

In 2003 New York enacted the Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking in bars and restaurants. I didn't mind, actually: It forced me to smoke less, at least when I'm having dinner with friends. But I did start to notice that, one by one, everyone around me started to quit. My castmates on ER quit. My mother quit. Even my father, who'd smoked two packs a day for I don't know how many years, quit. He told me he had just picked a date and done it. If only I were a "pick a date and do it" kinda gal.

My best pals

I have tried to quit - a few times. But I usually give in at around day four, when I'm weeping at the drop of a hat and considering eating my steering wheel. In Martin Amis' book The Information, the main character, who's having a midlife crisis, talks about smoking a cigarette in between each cigarette. When I'm stressed, that's exactly how I feel. I've considered getting hypnotized; I've considered taking antidepressants; I've considered getting acupuncture. But I haven't done any of those things. Part of the reason could be that on one level, being a smoker is tied up with my identity, which is absurd. I also have this misconception that cigarettes are my little best pals. When I'm upset, they comfort me. When I'm anxious, they calm me down. When I'm tired, they wake me up. It's a great little drug, nicotine…until you try to give it up.

But recently I've decided my little pals are turning on me. It really started with vanity. A few years ago, I began noticing wrinkles around my eyes and mouth. I thought, Oh, no - I'm beginning to look like Aunt Evelyn! The aging process is traumatizing enough; I don't need to speed it along by sucking all the collagen out of my face. And it's not just about that. It's about being healthy and taking responsibility for myself.

I hate being a prisoner to these little pieces of paper filled with weeds. I hate being a hypervigilant freak about what I smell like. I hate stepping outside from any indoor occasion to get my fix. I hate that I'm one of the few who hasn't come to her senses. Every day I see young women smoking, and I want to go over to them and say, "Listen, please don't smoke - please!" But they won't listen. I didn't.

I've now been smoking regularly for 20 years. That's just appalling. I'm going to stop. I do have a plan actually. I'm going on vacation with my family, and my plan will start the minute I step off the plane. You see, I hate smoking in front of my niece and nephew. But when it comes to my smoking, they both seem to have developed psychic abilities: No matter where I sneak off to fire up, I eventually hear, midpuff, the scamper of their approaching little feet. Not only do I not want to be that weird, smelly, smoky aunt who sets a bad example, but at this point, I figure the tension of trying to quit can't be much worse than the tension of trying to hide my habit. I'm not taking any cigarettes, and I've loaded up on Nicorette. I won't be driving, so there'll be no steering wheels to eat. Everyone in my family has seen me cry before.

I plan on coming back from this trip smoke-free. And this much I know: I will be prouder of that accomplishment than anything I've ever done.