Tag: Tobacco Cessation

It can be easy to stay in the day-to-day of our lives. Looking ahead can help you see further down the road at where you are headed. Think about how you picture the next year of your life and answer the questions below:

*  Who are the important people in your life?

*  Where do you live?

*  What are you working on?

*  What is the most important thing in your life?

*  At the end of one year, will you be using tobacco/nicotine?

Now, jump ahead 10 years. Ask yourself the same questions. Imagine how you want your life to be. Be realistic and think about where the things you are working on now may take you.

*  Who are the important people in your life?

*  Where do you live?

*  What are you working on?

*  What is the most important thing in your life?

*  In 10 years, how will you think of tobacco/nicotine?

Summary of Small Steps You Can Take:

*  Keep tracking your habit.

*  Wait 5 minutes when you have an urge to use.

*  Buy your cigarettes by the pack (not the carton), your chewing tobacco by the can, or a lower concentration of e-cigarette cartridge.

*  Store tobacco/nicotine products in a different place then usual.

*  Set up a buddy system. Write goals in S.M.A.R.T. ways.

*  Add to your list of “pros” for quitting. Star what is important to you.

Change Is Your Choice

The decision to make changes is up to you. You can decide which changes you want to make, how long it takes you to make them, and who you will tell. Answer the following:

*  What do I want to do? Am I willing to do this?

*  What am I going to do right now (within the next hour)?

*  How will today be different for me?

A tobacco/nicotine addiction has a degree of control over you, your time, the places you can go, and your experiences. Smoking steals your breath and your appearance over time. It also dims the world around you by dulling your senses of smell and taste.

Imagine taking a vacation to somewhere you’ve always dreamed of seeing. Now imagine being too out of breath to enjoy a hike, standing outside on the deck to smoke while your traveling companions enjoy a shipboard show, stopping to smoke when you’d rather be in the water swimming or paddle boarding. Imagine not being able to fully enjoy your dream vacation.

*  How does your current habit affect your life?

*  What could you enjoy more if you left tobacco/nicotine behind?

*  Relationships, career goals, financial goals, and other areas of life can also be affected. What other “big picture” goals do you have in your life right now?

*  How would cutting back or quitting support these goals?

Keep working hard on your other goals-you may find that seeing yourself succeed helps you feel more ready to tackle quitting.

Creative imagination is the acting out of an event or activity in your mind before it really happens. It allows you to work through the event or activity ahead of time so that you will be better prepared to deal with it. Many athletes practice an upcoming game in their heads before stepping onto the playing field.

A study was done to compare “creative imagination” to actual practice with a group of basketball players. Three groups of students were used.

*Group 1– Practiced making free throws every day for 20 days.

*Group 2– Threw the ball on the 1st and 20th days, but did not practice in between.

*Group 3– Threw free throws on the first day and then spent 20 minutes a day for the next 20 days imagining that they were throwing the ball. If they missed, they had to imagine changing their aim.

On the 20th day:

*  Group 1 – Improved their scores by 24%

*  Group 2 – No improvement

*  Group 3 – Improved their scores by 23% by using creative imagination

Mental practice can help you change your feelings about day-to-day events. Picture yourself succeeding with your goals and getting through trigger situations. The power of your mind to change what you imagine to be real is vast; all it takes is a little thinking and practice.

What would you like to imagine doing differently? Picture yourself doing things the way you want. Repeat this practice every day for at least 2 weeks.

Keeping your motivation and values in mind is a great way to encourage yourself when quitting gets tough. Look for ways to connect your motivation and values to your attitude and actions.

How do your attitudes and actions show what is important to you? If you feel there is a mismatch, it might be time for a new point of view!

Old view:Quitting is going to be horrible. I like to do what I want, when I want.

New view:I value time with my family and want to be a good role model for my kids. It will be awesome to enjoy family time without the interruption of smoke breaks. I can model healthy behavior for my kids.

This section gave you more strategies to add to your quitting toolbox. By knowing more about yourself and what may trip you up, you can be more prepared to succeed when challenges arise. Taking a whole-body approach to quitting by adding exercise and healthy eating to your quit plan can also help you quit for good.

*  Answer these questions as you review this section.

*  What are your top 3 relapse triggers you will prepare for?

*  What other lifestyle changes are you making to help improve your success with quitting?

Deciding to make a change and taking the steps to succeed will take some of your time. It’s an investment that will pay off down the road-it is worth it to take the time to plan and execute change.

First, think of “time” management as “me” management. Time continues on, no matter how much we want it to slow down or speed up sometimes. The one thing you can work on is how you manage yourself given the time that you have.

Look at how you currently spend your time. Get a piece of paper and write down how you spend each half hour of your day. A lot of this time may be sleeping or working, but there are probably blocks of time you have some flexibility (even if they are small).

Think of quitting as a high-priority project that you would schedule into your day. Identify two 15-minute blocks of time that you could spend planning your day and what you are going to do when you have an urge. Try to make at least one of these blocks of time early in the day, as this will set the tone for the rest of your day.

If you are having trouble finding a 15-minute block of time, look for the ‘low-hanging fruit’ in your day- time you spend doing things that are relatively mindless and don’t take a lot of thought. This could be when you are usually looking at your phone, watching TV, or walking the dog. Your dog will still need a walk, but this could be time you think through what you want the rest of your day to look like.

Think about tomorrow-when can you spend 15 minutes reviewing the guide or thinking through your goals?

While there is no healthy level of tobacco/nicotine use, it can be helpful to cut back before quitting completely. This allows you to:

*  Reduce the amount of tobacco/nicotine your body must process every day, reducing the damage and toxic load on the body.

*  Practice strategies without the pressure of quitting completely.

*  Build confidence as you show yourself how strong and capable you are with making changes.

*  Get used to going through different times of the day without a cigarette/dip/vape.

*  Learn which strategies are going to work for different triggers.

*  Gradually change habits and how you respond to triggers.

Remember, every less cigarette, dip, or vape gives your body a break.

Cutting back can be helpful for all stages of quitting.

*  If you aren’t ready to quit completely, cutting back can still give you all the benefits listed above. You may find that the new tobacco/nicotine-free habits stick and you now are at a lower level of tobacco/nicotine. While it can be hard to stay at a low level for a long time, due to the addictive nature of nicotine, you are now more ready to quit in the future.

*  If you are thinking about quitting but not fully ready, cutting back can get the ball rolling. As you see yourself succeed with small steps, you may be ready to take more small steps. Eventually, all those small steps take you to the finish line.

*  If you are fully ready to quit, taking a week to cut back before your quit date can help you prepare for the triggers you may face. It gives you time to try the strategies in this guide and prepare your environment.

Start to plan your response to slip-ups even before you have fully quit. Slip-ups are very common, especially in the first few weeks of trying to be tobacco/nicotine free. A slip-up is also called a ‘lapse’. The better you manage a lapse, the easier it will be to avoid full relapse. Relapse refers to going back to a regular habit of using tobacco/nicotine products.

No one is perfect. Try not to view the slip-up as a failure of willpower or strength. Remember, you are so strong.

Become hyper-aware of what just happened. It is important to understand the triggers related to a slip-up.

*  Where are you? Is this place still a trigger for you? If possible, try to avoid this area for now. Or, make sure you have substitutes handy, like NRT gum or cinnamon candies.

*  Who are you with? How can this person support you in the future?

*  How are you feeling? Learn to separate your emotional response from situations and feelings. Smoking/chewing won’t change anything about the situation.

What do you need to work on so that you can respond differently next time? Review the urge tamers, call your support person, or give your mind a quiet moment to really answer the question.

How do you want this situation to go next time? Imagine responding differently to the trigger. Use the creative imagination exercise. See yourself doing what you want to do.

Anytime you are given a reward for something you do, chances are you will do it again. For example: If a person popped out and handed you a $100 bill each time you walked around the block, you would take a lot of walks.

The more rewards you get for quitting (from yourself and others), the more likely you will be successful.

Ciggy Bank

Take a jar and place it next to your “Butt Bottle.” Each day put the amount of money you would have used to buy tobacco in the jar. Write a reward you might buy with the money. Past QuitWell™ participants have taken vacations with their family, bought tickets to sporting events and concerts, and even bought a boat with the savings from quitting.

The Little Things

Give yourself a reward each day that you are successful. Choose things and activities that bring you joy. They don’t have to cost money.

*  Buy or pick flowers

*  Picnic in the park

*  Call an old friend

*  Take your car to the carwash

*  Rent or stream a movie