Now is the time to quit smoking

Suppose you are thinking of quitting smoking — congratulations! It is a significant change among one of the most crucial decisions you could make for your health and well-being. You might have discovered that some men and women who stop smoking might gain weight. When it might be expected, it is not inevitable. However, the more you understand why it occurs, the more equipped you will be to prevent it from happening.

Almost instant health benefits from quitting

There are a couple of possible reasons: Both your senses of taste and smell usually become much stronger, which might increase appetite. Some folks seek relaxation in unhealthy foods that help suppress cigarette cravings, along with the strain of withdrawal might let you overindulge.

Don’t forget to fulfill your basic daily nutrient requirements whether you’ve recently given it up or not. If you are worried about gaining weight, then be certain that the vast majority of the food that you eat comes from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, grains, and wholesome, organic sources of fat, like olive or avocado oil (and as few as you can out of trans-fats and simple sugars). You might choose to refer to a nutritionist or other health specialist to inform you about your daily diet options.

RELATED: My own SHOCKING journey to stop smoking – What you MUST know

The ideal snack foods can allow you to cope with smoking cravings once you have quit smoking, so stock up and think about carrying them with you once you depart your house in the morning. Possessing these readily available can help you stay away from junk food and smokes.

Get going, get moving it will do you good

Exercise is a significant step to keeping good health while undergoing tobacco withdrawal. It could help to keep your weight in check and help reduce cravings. If you are not exercising frequently, begin gradually and work up to exercising a few times each week. It is imperative to have fun as you’re working out, so decide on an activity you currently enjoy: playing tennis, going for a swim, or bicycle riding. Over the years, you could realize that your body needs physical activity because it lacks nicotine.

Quitting smoking only requires you to do one thing – Never touch another cigarette.

My Journey To Quitting Smoking, Once and for Ever Week One

Paradigm shift, can I do this? Can I quit smoking? Have I ever really given it an honest effort?

Let me tell you unless you’ve tried to quit smoking before. You are in for a huge surprise.

You will come to grips with what a HORRIBLE addiction cigarette smoking is.

It’s almost as if these things are chemically engineered to be next to impossible to quit. People liken tobacco addiction to Heroin addiction, and I don’t know, but one thing I can say, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do!

I remember that day clearly, 17 years ago, how ignorant I was when I first took that puff of a cigarette.

I honestly thought I was the master of my domain; I was in control… So there’s no way I’d get hooked… Right? Wrong.

The world began spinning around me, I felt sick to my stomach, and my body gave me every sign that this was the beginning of a horrible mistake.

I, at the time, was thirteen years old, in grade 7, and felt that need to fit in.

I sometimes think how bad of a severe drug addict I’d become if it ever came to that. I mean, if cigarettes can control almost every aspect of my life like they had been for the last 17 years, imagine if I had gotten “hooked” on heroin.

I mean, I can see cigarettes for what they are now, but the truth is that I LOVE cigarettes.

So, as I begin writing this, all that pain keeps flooding back, and I find it hard to contemplate what exactly is happening to my body post cigarettes.

You see, my entire world has become flipped upside down, and I think that I will have to re-learn how to cope with life. I know that I am.

Never again, not even one puff!

Here I am before you professing my one-week (7-days) without any cigarette. Not even ONE puff.

I’ve learned throughout this week, so far, that for me to be successful, there is absolutely no way that I can even allow just one puff.

That’s right; I realized THE ONLY WAY is never to look back.

In my quest for finding information about quitting, I keep hearing the same worrisome thing… Cut out the behavioral cues that would lead to smoking.

However, I LOVE coffee.. and how the hell can I justify biting off more than I can chew and quitting more than one addiction at a time.

My advice is to take it hour-by-hour and day-by-day.. Don’t look at the bigger picture and focus on each smoke-free day.

So here I am, I can breathe… I may spend 99% of the day thinking of cigarettes and have (almost) physical neck pain (although probably from restless sleeping habits, but I do wonder…) and all I can do is hope it gets easier soon.

So, does it get better? Well, I have hope! Most people say relapse is typical, but I’m not listening to that because that sets me up for failure right from the get-go.

I know from experience that giving in just that one time will be the nail in the coffin for me.

So more advice, it is not OK to ever smoke again.. Make sure you get this point across to yourself.

Think of all those years you smoked and how it took this long for you to get fed up enough to give quitting an honest try.

Remember, all that pain, hardship, and progress goes away with just one puff. Worse off, you might die before you give quitting another try.

I mean, if it took me 17 years to get to this point, I might not have that much time left to hit that POINT OF WANTING TO QUIT AGAIN finally.

Go figure, day 7, and I have the worst craving…

Be strong and join me in never having another puff, ever again. Life is too short for bull-shit like this.

Who would have known that this journey of quitting smoking could lead to so many self-discoveries?

Smoking for as long as I have, I find that I have no idea how to deal with anything because my response has always been to light up a cigarette.

Related: How to break free of bad habits, Once and for all

I am the most vulnerable person right now, and I have to accept. I have to wonder whether things will get better or if this is life now.

Maybe, because I’m an animal, I have this primal urge to always be on guard and feel that punching someone or flipping out is the right course of action.

Maybe, this is life now, and perhaps smoking has only really covered up my true nature.

I wonder what I’m addicted to here. Is it the escape from reality that smoking provides, or is it the nicotine addiction, or, maybe instead, it’s one of those other 7000 chemicals?

Who knows, remind me again, and why are these things still legal? Smoking has always been there for me… It was always my very best friend.

There through all the hard times and the best times. So, I smoke; therefore, I am, and if I choose not to smoke

So congrats to me. I’ve been 13 days without any smoking. Man, it feels great. I have a few issues, though, and I figured I’d take a moment and share what is going on with you guys.

So, because I’d spent so much of my life smoking (started when I was 12 and am 32, so 20 years), I, to put it basically, didn’t get to experience life to its fullest.

It turns out, and I had no idea how gross some of my favorite snacks were. Now that I can taste these foods, yuck.

I enjoyed some foods like pepperoni and beef jerky, and now I’m not too fond of these foods. I find that even chocolate milk tastes horrible, and this was my longtime favorite brand that I had enjoyed for years.

I will stop complaining, and believe me, and there is little to complain about in retrospect. I feel excellent and can tell that my breathing has already improved.

Trigger warning some graphic info the squeamish may want to skip this…

I’m now noticing that I have that quitters flu; it worried me at first because I had not smoked but still was coughing up this phlegm that consisted of black speckles.

I consulted a plethora of internet knowledge about said issue and was surprised to find this a normal reaction to quitting.

So to go into a bit more detail.. It turns out when we smoke tobacco or anything otherwise carcinogenic, our lungs and throat lose the ability to clean themselves out.

It turns out this is due to the cilia or tiny hairs that function to clean and remove impurities that we breathe.

The tiny hairs usually operate as waves in the ocean, sweeping foreign material upwards to be coughed up easily.

Smoke renders these cilia or “small hairs” useless. As a result, they become paralyzed and cannot perform their job.

As it would turn out, this phlegm is an excellent sign that my lungs and throat have begun the healing process. Yay!

Be aware that this should not last too long, and if it persists with you, maybe you should consult a doctor.

So far, the most significant win is that there is hope, and I’m seeing some significant improvements (and some not so great).

Cigarette smoking rewires the brain who’d of thought…

As it would turn out, quitting smoking for me has also been an incredible journey of self-discovery so far.

I feel like I’m in the process of learning how to live again, this may sound strange, but that’s how bad of addiction this was for me.

I am learning a lot about my triggers also. Driving takes the most patience now because I used to chain smoke driving. It has been challenging.

I still drink coffee and love it; I will work on caffeine addiction later…

I think biting off too much right now would not help me in the long run. I will conquer smoking before I move on to other vices and will use this experience to empower positive change in the future.

One thing is for sure.. We ex-smokers, I believe, can conquer anything post smoking.

So, until my next update.. Hang in there and remember NOT EVEN A PUFF, ever again. Seriously learn from MY mistakes and realize that it is counter-productive to go back, for even one puff….

I’ll keep updating this journey as time goes on.. I want to hear your comments and experiences!

Good luck and keep motivated. If I can do it surely, you can too!

This helped me out so much. It’s called the Truth Of Addiction, click here to read more about it.

Related: Rebuilding your health – Takes work but is absolutely possible

This helped me out so much. It’s called the Truth Of Addiction, click here to read more about it.