Tag: tobacco

We will teach you four skills to relax:

*Relaxation Reflex:Getting rid of muscle tension.

*Mental Imagery:Thinking of calm, restful places.

*Deep Natural Breathing:Feeling relaxed by breathing in more oxygen.

*Spend Time with Animals:Feeling relaxed, happy and secure.

These relaxation strategies are not designed to take your stress away. Done correctly, they will help you calm your body and mind so that you can think more logically, see major problems as manageable challenges, and get through a tough day.

If something helps you-even a little-add it to your quitting tool kit. Remember, you will probably need a lot of strategies to be successful in the long run. One strategy may work on Monday morning, but you’ll need another tool on Friday afternoon!

Tobacco and nicotine products can affect many areas of your life.

*  If you aren’t sure if you want to quit, read this section to learn more about how tobacco/nicotine use may be affecting your current and future life. Think about how important each of these reasons is to you. This may change over time, or if you start noticing impacts in your life.

*  If you are ready to quit, consider adding these to your list of reasons you are making this change. Building a longer and stronger list of reasons you are choosing to make this change can help when the going gets tough.

*  If you have already quit and are trying to stay quit, this information can help you talk yourself through a craving or tough situation. It may reinforce your decision and help you feel good about the change you have made.

Many people use tobacco to manage stress-and return to old habits in times of stress. If you currently use tobacco/nicotine products to manage stress, it is very likely your mind will go there in times of stress in the future. If you have quit, having a plan for when stress increases will help you from returning to tobacco/nicotine.

What is stress?

Stress is normal and can be a healthy, productive force in your life. Stress can have a good or bad effect on you depending on:

*  The type of stress

*  The amount of stress

*  How well you deal with stress

“Good” stress can help you pay attention, stay focused, feel challenged, stay interested, and complete tasks.

“Bad” stress or chronic stress is intense stress over a long period of time. You may not be able to manage this stress as you would like. You tend to stay tense and don’t or can’t relax after things are once again under control. In our modern world, there are many things that can “push your buttons” and stress can become a way of life.

When we have too much stress to manage, our bodies can be more prone to illness-heart disease, cancer, ulcers, asthma, and colitis.

The stress response is the way your body and mind react to change. Our bodies have an inborn “fight or flight” response to a stressor:

*  Heart rate and breathing speed up

*  Blood pressure rises

*  Blood moves away from the internal organs to the muscles

*  Muscles tense

*  Sweating occurs

*  Blood sugar (glucose) increase which gives the muscles and brain a lift

Create Your Stress Strategy

1. Explore what causes you stress and how you react to these stressors.

2. Identify stressors that can be reduced.

3. Learn tools to reduce the feeling of stress, even with the same trigger.

4. Learn ways to manage the stress that remains.

Know Your Stressors

Everyone reacts differently to stress. In order to manage stress, you need to find out the source of your stress and how you react to it.

1. Look at the list that follows and think about stressors in your life. Check off any that apply to you right now or that are common stressors for you. Knowing your stressors will help you better prepare for triggers.

2. In the space next to each, write how you react to these stressors. What do you do? How do you feel?

What you eat or drink and how you eat or drink can influence your urges for tobacco products. By working on quitting, you are taking an important step to manage what goes into your body.

*  Drink at least 8 glasses of low-sugar, natural liquids per day: water, herbal tea, sparkling water. This will make you feel less hungry and give your body the water it needs to function. Water is important for clearing toxins from the body.

*  Eat small, nutrient-dense meals and snacks throughout the day. This will help your blood sugar and energy stay steady and avoid feeling too tired during the day. You will also get the fuel your body needs.

*  Eat protein as part of all meals and most snacks: lean meats, fish, poultry, low-fat cheese, nut butters, nuts, and seeds. These foods are full of nutrients and help give you even energy throughout the day. They are also filling, so you will find you don’t reach for as many snacks.

*  Eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, and salads. These foods are filling, vitamin-rich, and low in calories.

*  Eat foods high in calcium, such as dairy or calcium-fortified juice. Smoking can add to your chances of having brittle bones, so extra calcium may be needed.

*  Avoid high sugar foods. Look at food labels to spot added sugars. “Sweets” are not the only culprit! Cutting out added sugar helps prevent your blood sugar from going too high or too low. Low blood sugar can trigger an urge.

*  Cut down on coffee, tea, colas, and other caffeinated drinks. These drinks are often tied to a smoking habit. Cutting out caffeine, even temporarily, while you are quitting, can help reduce urges.

*  Avoid alcohol. Alcohol causes blood sugar to rise. Your habit may also be linked to drinking habits. Alcohol can lessen your desire to quit in the moment.

*  After eating, brush your teeth and rinse with mouthwash. The minty fresh taste in your mouth won’t go well with tobacco. It also helps scramble your old routine, if you smoked after a meal.

Over the next few weeks, as you move through the QuitWell™ program, you might notice yourself moving back and forth between the stages as different factors affect your thinking. For example, a stressful day at work can make you feel like you’ve taken a step backward. Don’t let that stop you! This guide will give you tools to work through challenges and be better prepared for future ones.

You can try out nearly all the activities in this guide, though pay special attention to the activities highlighted for your stage of change. Look for the tips throughout the guide that help you fit an activity to your stage of change. This will help you feel good about where you are at and help you feel more confident about the future. When you feel yourself moving forward in the stages of change, you can go back to these activities and do them again, using the tips for your new stage of change.

In a few words, describe how you are feeling right now about quitting. What brought you here? What stage of change do you feel fits you best right now?

Secondhand smoke is the smoke that occurs when a cigarette, pipe, or cigar is lit. The secondhand smoke going into the room from the end of a burning cigarette is not filtered. People breathing in secondhand smoke are breathing in this smoke, as well as what the smoker blows into the room. Secondhand smoke puts non-smoking bystanders (maybe your loved ones) at risk for the same health problems as the smoker.

Some of the toxins found in secondhand smoke are tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide, cadmium, benzpyrene, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acetone, pyridine, and formaldehyde. Although secondhand smoke becomes mixed with the air, there are safety risks for both the smoker and non-smokers, as well as pets who breathe these vapors in.

Infants & Children

Children of smokers are at a higher risk for respiratory infections, tonsillitis, pharyngitis, and middle ear infections. Asthma can become more severe. Children of smokers are also much more likely to start smoking.

Pets

Your beloved fur ball can develop serious health problems, including nose and lung cancers, from secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke can also cause respiratory illness in cats and dogs and make skin conditions worse. Thirdhand smoke, or the smoke residue that settles on surfaces, can be especially damaging to cats. When cats lick their fur to clean themselves, they lick the toxins from smoke. This makes cats more than twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma, a type of cancer.

Protect Your Loved Ones

To protect others from secondhand smoke, avoid smoking in enclosed spaces that you share with others, like your house or car. If you are going to smoke, go outside and make sure windows are closed to the house near the area you are smoking. Avoid using a “smoking room” in the house or smoking in an attached garage-smoke will still get into the rest of the house.

Heart Disease

Smoking is the greatest risk factor for heart disease. A smoker’s chance of having a heart attack is 3 times that of a non-smoker. High blood pressure is a major cause of stroke and a prime risk factor for heart disease. High blood pressure is more severe in smokers. People with high blood pressure can lower their risk of heart disease by 50% when they quit.

1. Carbon monoxide reduces oxygen going to the heart.

2. The heart works harder to move  the oxygen through the body. Breathing speeds up.

3. Nicotine causes the blood vessels to constrict. Blood pressure goes up. The heart becomes more stressed.

4. A greater amount of cholesterol forms on the blood vessel walls.

5. Over time, less oxygen puts strain on the heart and heart cells die.

Cancer

Cigarette smoke has been proven to contain cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) and co-agents (co-carcinogens). The parts of the body that come into direct contact with smoke are more likely to develop cancer: lungs, mouth, trachea, esophagus, and larynx. The breakdown products in smoke also affect other organs that do not come into direct contact with smoke:  the pancreas, kidney, and bladder.

Chronic Bronchitis

Chronic bronchitis can make it very hard to breathe. This is because the lining of your bronchial tubes (the tubes that air goes through to get to your lungs) becomes inflamed and irritated. While acute (temporary) bronchitis caused by a cold or virus usually goes away within a few weeks, excess mucus and lung damage can mean months and months of coughing and breathlessness.

1. Cigarette smoke paralyzes hair like fibers (cilia) that line and clean the bronchial tubes.

2. Excess mucus is produced in the tubes. The result is a mucus plug.

3. Chronic coughing is the way a smoker removes the plug so oxygen can get in.

Emphysema

Emphysema can also make it very difficult to breathe. This problem develops in a different way than chronic bronchitis:

1. Oxygen enters the blood stream through air sacs in the lungs. The ‘tars’ from cigarette smoke gather on the lung walls and burst the sacs.

2. These heavy tars also make the lungs longer and less able to stretch.

3. Breathing becomes difficult.

If you are punished for doing something, you are less likely to keep doing it. If a person threw a bucket of water in your face each time you walked around the block, you would take fewer walks.

Urge Zapper

1. Place a stretchy band on your wrist.

2. Snap your wristband whenever you have an urge to use tobacco/nicotine.

Tobacco Consequence Control

When you get an urge, think of something you want to avoid-shortness of breath, cancer, heart disease, or letting someone down. What do you want to avoid?

As the urge goes away, reward yourself by thinking of something you are looking forward to with quitting-feeling in control, breathing more easily, or having more money. What do you look forward to?

Butt Bottle Revival

1. Keep your butt bottle where you can see it.

2. Open it up and smell.

3. Add water to highlight the foul odor.