I'm not Onederchic, but I will answer anyhow. The most effective method for quitting long term is to quit cold turkey. Do not believe sites that say otherwise, they are using the statistics after 12 months, that is not truly long term. The sites that say cold turkey is less successful are almost always trying to sell something.
Wiki - There's some info for you. I tried many times to quit and the time it finally worked was when I just stopped.
Some tips:
-cranberry juice - other acidic juices will help too, but cranberry is the best. It helps your system clear away the nicotine faster and as soon as the nicotine is gone (about 3 days) and true physical cravings should be gone.
- Remember that after about 3 days any cravings you have are not actually physical, even if it feels like they are. You CAN talk yourself out of it, you ARE strong enough to do this. The craving will probably only be a few minutes at a time. Keep in mind that you can make it through a few minutes.
-pictures - look up some pictures of smokers lungs, just keep looking at them, print them and put them where you would normally be to have a smoke
-journal - write down all the reasons you want to quit, copy them over and over and over. This keeps them fresh in your mind and also gives your hand something to do other than smoke.
-Sleep - if you can force yourself to sleep through the worst of it things will be much easier.
-Tell people - they can help keep you accountable and give you someone to talk to when you are craving - if you are home alone call someone and stay on the phone until the craving is over
- Find something to do to distract yourself
- Give yourself permission to gain weight while you quit smoking. You can work on getting the weight off afterward and it will be much easier to do as a non-smoker, trust me. It makes working out and eating healthy a lot easier because my lungs are better and my taste buds are intact.
- Get the cigarettes out of your house and try to stay away from smokers as much as possible in the very beginning.
- If you do slip up that does not mean you have to be a smoker again. Just just stop as soon as you realize what you've done, go brush your teeth and get back on track. It's not any different than when we have a slip up on our diets.
Onederchic!
