Withdrawal Symptoms

It's important to anticipate the challenges ahead and one of the challenges are withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms are symptoms that occur after the chronic use of a drug (nicotine) is stopped. In the case of nicotine they usually last about 1 week.

Here's a list of possible withdrawal symptoms:

Feeling down, depressed

Feeling hungry: you will experience an increase in appetite that will fade after some time. Most people gain 6 to 8 pounds (2 - 3 kg) after they have quit smoking.

Some of the reasons you gain weight:

• You seek a new kind of oral gratification.
• Food tastes better after quitting.
• Nicotine speeds up your metabolism, so you burned more calories when you were a smoker.
• Your likes and dislikes change and you start to eat more sweet and fatty foods.

Some of the things you can do to prevent weight gain:

• Eat healthy: eat a lot of vegetables and cut down on red meat, soft drinks, coffee, dairy products and sugar. Do some research on how to eat healthy.
• Drink lots of water.
• Exercise: starting an exercise routine is a very effective way of counteracting withdrawal symptoms. Sporting is more fun after you have quit and while doing it you'll have no time to smoke or thinking about smoking. Sporting diminishes stress and appetite.

However, gain weight is not a sure thing, not all people get it and remember: gain weight is always better then smoking!

Insomnia

Feeling angry, irritable

Feeling anxious, nervous

Lightheadedness

Headache

nausea

Constipation