Healthylife® QuitWell™
Part 3
If you smoke, use matches instead of a lighter to light your cigarettes. When you reach for your lighter and it isn’t there, you will interrupt your usual routine. This can be a reminder to wait 5 minutes or to question how strong that urge really is. Using a match is also more difficult and may change the taste of your cigarette. This can interrupt and weaken the routine even more.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
MEDICAL NEWS
Many people have tried to quit smoking but couldn’t. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is because of triggers. A trigger is something that makes you want to smoke.
Emotional triggers
When you have certain emotions, you may get the urge to smoke. They may include feeling stressed, nervous, depressed or even bored.
You can help stop these triggers by dealing with your emotions in other healthy ways. Try meditation, deep breathing or exercise to help manage stress and anxiety. Exercise is also a great way to beat boredom and fight depression. Listen to calming music or talk to a friend who can encourage you to keep up your efforts to quit.
Pattern triggers
Sometimes you’re used to smoking when you do something else, such as drinking coffee or alcohol. This is known as a pattern trigger. You may also like to smoke after eating or during a work break.
Change your routine to help avoid these patterns. Chew your favorite gum, suck on a hard candy or mint or go for a walk. Try brushing your teeth after meals, coloring in an adult coloring book or squeezing a stress relief ball.
Social triggers
Many people want to smoke at bars, parties or when they’re with people who smoke. These can be powerful triggers for you to smoke.
It’s best to avoid these triggers if you’re trying to quit. Instead, surround yourself with people who don’t smoke or who want you to quit. Try taking a class or find a hobby, such as painting or cycling.
Withdrawal triggers
Your body will crave nicotine when you quit smoking. Nicotine is very addictive and you may go through withdrawal. Withdrawal triggers include:
* Cravings for cigarettes or e-cigarettes
* Feeling like you need to do something with your hands or mouth
* Feeling restless or uncomfortable
Withdrawal can be very difficult to manage. As with other triggers, spend time with people who don’t smoke and who want you to quit. Find things to do that have nothing to do with smoking. Avoid places or situations where you might see or smell cigarettes or vaping.
Quitting is hard. But if you have support from your doctor, family and friends, you can do it. Millions of people have quit and you can too!
Source: Smokefree.gov
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
Healthylife® QuitWell™
Part 4
This skill is very much like Smokeless Inhalation, but it takes 3 to 5 minutes. It involves both your abdomen and your chest. You will focus on the sound and feel of your breathing.
1. Sit in a chair. Put your arms at your sides and uncross your legs and feet. Or, lay down on a bed or couch.
2. Note any tension in your muscles.
3. Put one hand on your chest and the other hand on your abdomen.
4. Take a slow, deep breath through your nose. The hand on your abdomen should rise first. When your abdomen is full of air, the hand on your chest should rise.
5. Hold the air for 3 seconds.
6. Purse your lips and blow out through your mouth, making a whooshing sound.
7. Keep taking long, slow deep breaths in through your nose and letting long slow breaths out through your mouth.
8. Focus on the sound and feel of your breathing. Do this for 3 to 5 minutes. After a while, you can lower your hands.
When I will try this?
(After) How did your body feel after this activity?
(After) How did your stress level change after this activity?
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
Healthylife® QuitWell™
Part 2
Quitting is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Quitting tobacco/nicotine can lead to changes in your weight. There are ways you can manage your weight, as you are quitting and afterwards. You may even find that you lose weight over time as you adopt more healthy habits.
The average person who quits gains 5 to 10 pounds in the months after quitting. This can happen for several reasons.
* Nicotine has been speeding up your metabolism while you’ve been using tobacco/nicotine products. This means that your body was burning energy (fuel from food) faster. When you quit, your metabolism returns to normal.
* Nicotine has been raising your blood sugar and interfering with your body’s natural hunger cues. This is the main way that nicotine suppresses your appetite. Now that you are quitting, cravings for sweets may increase as your blood sugar drops. Plan for regular, healthy meals and snacks to help you feel better and avoid eating too many high-sugar foods.
* You may feel a strong urge to have something else in your mouth, leading to more snacking. If these are high calorie foods that are high in sugar or saturated fat, you are likely to gain weight.
The QuitWell™ program will teach you how to avoid gaining too much weight after quitting. Read on to learn ways to manage urges with food and ways to plan your eating with your health in mind.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
Healthylife® QuitWell™
Part 4
There are many ways to practice quitting before getting all the way there. You can improve your health even before you feel “all in”.
* Leave your pack, can, or vape pen home when you go out for short errands. Try leaving products home when you go to work one day.
* If you are a smoker, put a certain number of cigarettes in a pack for the day. Try to put one or two less in the pack than you’d normally smoke. If you usually smoke a full pack, take a few out at the beginning of the day so “finishing the pack” means smoking 18 instead of 20 cigarettes. After a few days, cut out one or two more.
* Put your cigarettes, can, or vape pen out of reach in your car. Maybe keep them in the trunk of your car, or in the backseat. When you want to have one, you will need to pull over to the side of the road to safely get it. When you do, just take one. This makes your habit a lot less convenient. Practice working through an urge while you are deciding if you want to pull over or keep going.
What are some other ways you can practice change?
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
Healthylife® QuitWell™
Part 3
Over the next week, whenever you have an urge, wait 5 minutes before using your tobacco/nicotine product. If, after 5 minutes, the craving is still there, go ahead and have it. If the urge has gone down to the point where you can put it off further, try stretching that 5 minute “time out” to 10 or 15 minutes. You may find that, with time, the craving goes away on its own.
Waiting 5 minutes is like adding a speedbump to your regular routine. When you approach a speedbump, you probably slow down before carefully going over it. Even if you aren’t ready to quit, this helps you flex your muscle of self-control and show yourself that you can put off tobacco if you really want to.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
Healthylife® Weigh
Part 1
Learn what is pulling you toward your goal and what is holding you back. All thoughts and feelings are valid. Is your goal more important to you than the challenges to achieve it? Are you pursuing this goal just because someone said you “should” do it? If you think of something later, come back to this to add another point.
Benefits – “Pros” vs Costs-“Cons”
Making a change.
Pro Example: I will have more energy.
Con Example: I won’t be able to have sweets as often as I do now.
Not changing.
Pro Example: I can keep all of my current habits.
Con Example: I could keep putting on more weight.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
Healthylife® Weigh
Part 3
Smoking and the use of other tobacco products causes serious harm to the body, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and emphysema. Smoking can also complicate diabetes and other health conditions.
If you are smoking, try to quit. Talk to your doctor about tools to help you quit. Call 800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669) to talk to someone who can help you quit.
Quitting smoking may cause some weight gain as your body learns to regulate blood sugar and appetite normally again. Smoking can also be a coping strategy for stress, so you will need to learn new ways to manage stress. It is worth it to quit smoking.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
SELF-CARE CORNER
Each year Americans buy nearly 300 billion cigarettes. A vast number of those cigarette butts, including the filters, will be flicked into the environment, landing along waterways, parks, beaches, and public roads. This makes cigarettes the number one littered item in the nation, according to Legacy, the nonprofit created in the wake of tobacco lawsuits. Cigarette butts are made mostly of plastic, which can take years to decompose, and they only break up into small particles of plastic. Join a cleanup event and help build awareness around your community and workplace.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine
WELL-BEING
Bad habits may be hard to change, but it can be done. Smoking, for example, can be stopped. So can alcohol abuse.
If you could only … but why don’t you? Scientists at the NIH study what happens in your brain as habits form. They come about through repetition. Brushing your teeth in the morning is a good habit. Reaching for a cigarette-bad habit.
Habits trigger pleasure centers in your brain. First, focus on becoming more aware of your bad habits. Then try these strategies to counteract them:
* Avoid tempting situations. If you don’t buy candy bars, it won’t be as easy to eat one.
* Prepare mentally. Think about how you want to handle it and mentally practice what you plan.
* Enlist support. Ask friends, family, and coworkers to support your efforts to change.
* Replace unhealthy bad habits with healthy ones. Exercise or try a new hobby.
* Reward yourself for small steps.
© American Institute for Preventive Medicine