Quitting Day

You carefully selected the date and made the necessary preparations and now the time has come: quitting day.

What do you do on your first smoke-free day?

Keep yourself busy: do something and focus on what you are doing so you have no time to think about cigarettes.

Exercise: during exercise you normally don't think about smoking a lot, so doing sports is a good thing to keep your mind of cigarettes.

Spend time in smoke-free places: don't go to the pub in your first smoke-free week or to other places where's a lot of smoking activity.

If you don't know what to do with your hand, hold something like a pencil for example.

Put something in your mouth for oral gratification, like a tooth pick for example.

Drink lots of water to purify your system.

Stay away from your triggers. Find a replacing action for unavoidable triggers. Instead of lighting a cigarette after a meal you could for example brush your teeth or talk a walk.

Don't drink alcohol or coffee.

Managing cravings: what can you do when you are faced with a strong temptation to smoke? Work on your coping skills.

• Remember that it's normal you feel bad in the first few days (not necessarily though) and keep in mind that that feeling will pass. It are the nicotine withdrawal symptoms that make you feel that way. You are going to feel better, even though you feel the opposite right now.
• Think about the instant rewards you get when you stop smoking: the nicotine gets out of your system within 3 days and your body starts to clean itself by eliminating all waste you have been putting into it. Focus on the health benefits you enjoy when you stop smoking and on the progress you made.
• Remember how hard it was to stop smoking, you don't want to go through that again!
• Learn some kind of relaxation technique like meditation or yoga. Here are some quick relaxation techniques:
  
  • Breath in and tighten the muscles of you arms, hold the tension, count to 8, relax while breathing out. Repeat for other parts of your body.
  • Focus on your breathing and try to think of nothing else then your breathing. When thoughts pop up in your head, gently take your focus back to the breathing. Do this for several minutes.
• Review your reasons to quit list.
• Smoking will not solve the problem you are facing, smoking creates a problem. Deal with the problem! Lighting up a cigarette only gives you temporary relief.
• Give yourself some time to let the mood pass, it will pass.

Visit a stop smoking forum and read or make some posts.