Quit Smoking

For most tobacco users, tobacco cravings or urges to smoke can be powerful. But you’re not at the mercy of these cravings.

When an urge to use tobacco strikes, remember that although it may be intense, it will probably pass within five to 10 minutes whether or not you smoke a cigarette or take a dip of chewing tobacco. Each time you resist a tobacco craving, you’re one step closer to stopping tobacco use for good.

Here are 10 ways to help you resist the urge to smoke or use tobacco when a tobacco craving strikes.

1. Have a Plan

A little preparation can help you get into the mindset to quit smoking and line up some tools to better manage the first week to 10 days after your last cigarette, which according to the American Lung Association, will be the hardest.

• Make an appointment for a physical.During the visit, let your healthcare provider know that you plan to quit smoking, and discuss which types of nicotine replacement therapy or nicotine-free quit aids would work best for you.
• Learn about nicotine addiction. Smoking is more than just a “bad habit” that you can choose to stop at any time. Nicotine is an addictive drug that affects your brain chemistry.
• “Schedule” your quit date. In order to not lose momentum, it’s best to plan no more than a week or two ahead of time.
• Decide how you’ll quit. For example, you might choose “cold turkey” or a more gradual approach.
• Plan for cravings. Create a list of “craving busters,” or activities you can quickly use to shake your urge to smoke. A few examples: Go for a walk, drink a glass of water, work on a crossword puzzle, eat a piece of fruit, or call a friend.

2. Try nicotine replacement therapy

Ask your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy. The options include:

• Prescription nicotine in a nasal spray or inhaler
• Over-the-counter nicotine patches, gum and lozenges
• Prescription non-nicotine stop-smoking medications such as bupropion (Zyban) and varenicline (Chantix)

Short-acting nicotine replacement therapies — such as nicotine gum, lozenges, nasal sprays or inhalers — can help you overcome intense cravings. These short-acting therapies are generally safe to use in combination with long-acting nicotine patches or one of the non-nicotine medications.

Electronic cigarettes have had a lot of attention recently as an alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. However, more studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation and the long-term safety of these devices.

3. Avoid triggers

Urges for tobacco are likely to be strongest in the situations where you smoked or chewed tobacco most often, such as at parties or bars, or while feeling stressed or sipping coffee. Identify your trigger situations and have a plan in place to avoid them entirely or get through them without using tobacco.

Don’t set yourself up for a smoking relapse. If you usually smoked while you talked on the phone, for instance, keep a pen and paper nearby to occupy yourself with doodling rather than smoking.

4. Delay

If you feel like you’re going to give in to your tobacco craving, tell yourself that you must first wait 10 more minutes — and then do something to distract yourself for that period of time. Try going to a public, smoke-free zone. These simple tricks may be enough to derail your tobacco craving.

5. Chew on it

Give your mouth something to do to fight a tobacco craving. Chew on sugarless gum or hard candy, or munch on raw carrots, celery, nuts or sunflower seeds — something crunchy and satisfying.

6. Don’t have ‘just one’

You might be tempted to have just one cigarette to satisfy a tobacco craving. But don’t fool yourself into believing that you can stop there. More often than not, having just one leads to another— and you may end up using tobacco again.

7. Take Care of Yourself

Early smoking cessation is a time when you should be taking extra care to make sure all of your physical needs are met. Taking care of your body, especially as you move through early cessation, will help you minimize the discomforts of nicotine withdrawal.

The following list of tips will help you weather nicotine withdrawal more comfortably:

• Eat a well-balanced diet. Your body needs good-quality fuel now as it works to flush the toxins from cigarettes out of your system.
• Get more rest.Chances are, nicotine withdrawal will leave you feeling fatigued for a few weeks. If you’re tired, don’t fight it. Sleep more if you can. Nine times out of 10, you’ll wake up feeling 100% better the next day, and when you do, you’ll be grateful to still be smoke-free.
• Drink water.Water is a great quit aid. It helps you detox more quickly and works well as a craving buster. By keeping yourself hydrated, you’ll feel better overall.
• Exercise daily.Exercise benefits both physical and mental health, and it’s another good way to manage cravings to smoke. Walking is a low-impact aerobic workout that is a good choice for those of us leading inactive lives. Be sure to check in with your doctor before starting a new exercise regimen.
• Take a daily multivitamin.Cigarettes deplete our bodies of many nutrients,⁴ so give yourself the boost that a good multivitamin provides for the first few months of smoking cessation. It may help you regain your energy more quickly.

Remember, while nicotine withdrawal may not be a pain-free experience, it is a temporary phase of recovery that we all have to go through to get through.

8. Find Ways to Manage Stress

We’ve talked about taking care not to neglect our physical health while going through nicotine withdrawal, but our emotional well-being is every bit as important. Stress and anger are probably two of the biggest smoking triggers we face, and they can build up and threaten our quit programs if we’re not careful.

Early cessation creates its own tension, and that can be overwhelming when paired with the stresses of daily life if you let it be.⁶ Don’t let yourself get run down to the point of exhaustion, and take time every single day to relieve stress with an activity that you enjoy.

Here are a few relaxing activities to try to help you better manage the stress of quitting smoking:

• Take a warm bath. Enjoying a bath is a great way to de-stress and distract yourself from thoughts of smoking. Light a few candles, use some scented bath salts, and sit back and relax.
• Go for a brisk walk. Lacing up your sneakers and heading outside for a brisk walk (even if only for 15 minutes) can help reduce edginess and stress.
• Try visualization. Take a few minutes to close your eyes and visualize a relaxing place (real or imaginary) in your mind. Get comfortable, take a deep breath, and go there when you feel the stress building up.

Whether it’s time alone with a good book, a hot bath, or working on a hobby, think of this as insurance for your quit program, not as time spent selfishly.

9. Call for reinforcements

Touch base with a family member, friend or support group member for help in your effort to resist a tobacco craving. Chat on the phone, go for a walk together, share a few laughs, or get together to commiserate about your cravings.

10. Go online for support

Join an online stop-smoking program. Or read a quitter’s blog and post encouraging thoughts for someone else who might be struggling with tobacco cravings. Learn from how others have handled their tobacco cravings.

11. Remind yourself of the benefits

Write down or say out loud the reasons you want to stop smoking and resist tobacco cravings. These might include:

• Feeling better
• Getting healthier
• Sparing your loved ones from secondhand smoke
• Saving money

Remember, trying something to beat the urge is always better than doing nothing. And each time you resist a tobacco craving, you’re one step closer to being totally tobacco-free.

Symptoms when you quit smoking

Common symptoms you may experience during your recovery include:

• Cravings – these may be strong at first, but they usually only last a few minutes. If you resist each one they will get less powerful in time.
• Restlessness and trouble concentrating or sleeping – these will pass as your body gets used to not smoking. Relaxation and deep breathing can help. It’s also a good idea to reduce your caffeine intake because when you quit smoking your body absorbs almost twice as much caffeine as usual, which can leave you feeling anxious, irritable and restless.
• Irritability, anger, anxiety, depressed mood – this is all normal: don’t panic. Just accept that you will be emotional for a while and that it will pass.
• Increase in appetite and weight gain – this may last several weeks.

Less common symptoms you may experience – which will also pass – include:

• Cold symptoms such as coughing, sore throat and sneezing.
• constipation.
• Dizziness or light-headedness.
• Mouth uncers.

As time passes, you will find these symptoms grow weaker, and you will think about smoking less.

Feeling emotional when you quit

In the first days and weeks when you quit smoking, the emotional ups and downs could feel like a rollercoaster ride. Making big changes in your life can naturally lead to heightened emotions.

Some people describe giving up smoking as feeling like you’re losing a friend. As long as you understand that this is just a stage and what you’re feeling is normal, you can ride through the hard times and settle into feeling more confident without cigarettes.

Knowing how quickly you will recover with quitting can help:

• Within six hours your heart rate will slow and your blood pressure will become more stable.
• Within one day your bloodstream will be almost nicotine free, the level of carbon monoxide in your blood will have dropped, and oxygen will be reaching your heart and muscles more easily.
• Within one week your sense of taste and smell may have improved.
• Within three months you will be coughing and wheezing less, your immune function and circulation to your hands and feet will be improving, and your lungs will be getting better at removing mucus, tar and dust.
• Within six months your stress levels are likely to have dropped, and you are less likely to be coughing up phlegm.
• After one year your lungs will be healthier and breathing will be easier than if you’d kept smoking.
• Within two to five years your risk of heart disease will have dropped significantly (and will continue to do so over time).
• Within five years, a woman’s risk of cervical cancer will be the same as if she had never smoked.
• After 10 years your risk of lung cancer will be lower than if you had kept smoking.
• After 15 years your risk of heart attack and stroke will be similar to that of someone who has never smoked.

Weight gain and quitting smoking

Weight gain is not always part of quitting smoking but it is common. You may find you feel hungrier than usual after you quit – this is a common withdrawal symptom and it will settle down with time. It can help to plan ahead and have plenty of healthy snacks in the kitchen, such as nuts and fruit, and to get rid of the junk food from your house.

If you do gain weight  in the early days, try not to be too hard on yourself. By quitting smoking you’re doing great things for your health. 

Benefits of quitting smoking

Quitting is the best thing you will ever do for your health. It can affect your life in ways you may not even imagine.

Benefits to your health and life from quitting smoking include:

• Your sense of taste and smell may improve, so you may enjoy your food more.
• Exercising to increase your fitness will become easier.
• You will be free from the hassles of smoking, such as smelling of smoke, or always having to make sure you have enough cigarettes.
• Your fertility levels will improve (in both men and women), and if you’re a woman, your chances of having a healthy pregnancy and baby will also increase.
• You will save thousands of dollars a year that you can save or spend on other things.

Your family and friends will also benefit because:

• You won’t put their health at risk with second-hand smoke any more.
• Your children will be less at risk from bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, meningitis and ear infections.

If you start smoking again

If you slip and have a cigarette, don’t use it as an excuse to go back to smoking. 

Remove yourself from the situation. Go for a walk, take a deep breath or have a drink of water, and ask yourself if you really want to be a smoker again. Try not to waste your energy on self-blame. Instead, treat your slip-up as a sign to revise your quitting strategy.

If you’ve tried several times to give up smoking and you haven’t succeeded yet, don’t lose hope. It’s common for people to try to quit a number of times before they stop smoking for good.

Next time you quit, spend some time thinking about what has worked for you in the past, and what challenges caused you to relapse. Then make plans for what you will do this time when those temptations come up again.