Why You Must Stop Smoking Yesterday!

The mistake in the grammer is deliberate. Quit as of yesterday, if you have any idea how damaging smoking is.

With all of the bad press that smoking gets, it never surprises me to see just how many people still smoke or start smoking. Aside from the health effects, there are plenty of other reasons why smoking is such a bad idea, but it is very important to actually understand and be worried about these reasons when you are contemplating to quit smoking.  Simply quitting on an instinctive urge seems to be appealing, but it will rarely be the right thing to do and may often leave you discouraged and depressed when you fail in your attempt to quit.

Aside from considering your physical well being, there are some urgent reasons why you should drop smoking faster than a hot potato.  Everyone knows the risk of lung cancer and heart problems but there are many other conditions which have not been on the news much. Conditions like cancer of the larynx (voice box), emphysema (destruction of large areas of the lungs), chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, and a severely increased risk of stroke affect smokers more than non smokers.  Just listening to all of the potential health problems is enough to scare me silly and I would never pick up a pack of cigarettes again, ever. Smokers who continue to smoke either feel that they cannot stop, or they are just unable to muster up the will power to quit once and for all and stay that way. Cigarettes have a strange hold over the smoker. A man will defend his family and children against an imminent danger, but does he do any thing about the danger he exposes them to every day with his smoking? No chance.

Quitting cigarettes is not that difficult.  Look at yourself as a smoker. Is this really the example that you would like to set to your children?  Nearly all smokers admit that they would be really angry or at the least disappointed if their children decided to start smoking.  If you are constantly smoking in their presence, what kind of an impression do they have of you?  The depressing fact is that parents who smoke are much more likely to have children who smoke.  You JUST HAVE to work out of your habit not only for your self but also for the sake of your  children.

Many smokers find that, after years of smoking relentlessly and ignoring all their doctor’s advice, they have a serious problem with their health that creates an urgent need to quit smoking.  By the time the penny drops, it is often too late to quit.  They have already severely damaged their health; the consequences are often giving up many things they enjoyed and curtailing of the freedom to do many activites, rather than just only quitting cigarettes.  It is a pretty hard sacrifice to make and something that the smoker would regret bitterly when given the news.

I have said it many times on this blog and I will say it again – you cannot quit without a commitment to quit.  You can be persuaded to quit but the ultimate decision to quit has to come from within you. You cannot allow someone else to force the decision to quit on you, but all the same if you ignore warnings from your doctors you are on the path to doing serious damage to your body.  Failing to take action now can lead to heart breaking consequences, not only for yourself but for your family as well. Take some well meaning advice from this ex smoker – quit now while your health is still good.

Finally, look at your life style now. How would you like to improve it further?  If you quit smoking for good you can make a huge improvement not only to your health but also to your bank balance. I have calculated that you can save atleast a thousand dollars a year, if not two thousand, once you quit smoking. The added bonus is that you can also show your family that you deeply care about them all at the same time.  Your family looks on you, for leadership, protection and love.  So sit down and think deeply and plan to seriously start quitting smoking

Zeke.

How To Quit Smoking

Many smokers would do almost any thing to quit but have no idea on how to quit smoking. Here is my take on how to quit smoking.

First of all, think back to why you started smoking in the first place. Jot down all the reasons on why you started to smoke. Was it peer pressure? Was it because you wanted to rebel against something or someone? Was it just to impress a good looking member of the opposite sex? Or did you just want to advertise that you were now grown up? Whatever your reasons, you will find that they are no longer relevant. In fact, looking back it may sound down right silly now. Having realised that you probably started smoking for some stupid reason, you can now start with all earnestness to correct that mistake and make a plan on how to quit smoking.

The first thing to do is to make a commitment to quit. Nothing works with out a committment. Decide upon a date to quit and then keep that date. It may be during a long weekend or in the Christmas or summer holidays. Holidays are better suited for kicking the habit as there is less work pressure and you can avoid meeting friends and colleagues who smoke.

Next, make out a list on why you want to quit. Don’t just put down reasons like I don’t want to die of lung cancer or a heart attack. These kind of calamities only happen to “other people” and are never going to happen to you. Better reasons would be those that can get you worried, like my skin doesn’t look that great any more. It looks prematurely aged and if I continue, I am soon going to look old and wrinkled. I have yellow teeth, fingers and finger nails and my breath smells like an ashtray. There are plenty more reasons on why you should quit and some serious contemplation will produce some very strong reasons to quit.

The next thing to do is to get some advice on how to quit smoking. Quitting smoking is not going to be easy but if you have a plan and a method on how best to go about it, your chances of quitting would improve significantly. You do not necessarily have to get any counselling or make an appointment with a life style coach. There is plenty of information available on the internet as well as quit smoking ebooks that can put you on the right path. You do not need to quit cold turkey, if you find that stressfull. There are other ways of quitting. You can check out my ebook Stop Smoking by clicking on the link or try out  other methods I mention below.

If reading an ebook does not appeal to you, check out these programs.  The first one is a video seminar which induces you to quit smoking through hypnosis. Jay Block, the creator of the program, has had a 90% success rate from a customer base of about 100,000. Click here to visit the site. While on the site don’t forget to read the scores of testimonials from smokers who have successfully quit. If you also have a weight problem, Jay offers his weight loss video seminar along with the smoking seminar at a reduced price. There is also a money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase.

If you want an audio book on quitting  smoking which you can listen to at your leisure and in a place of your choice, then click here to visit the site. The advantage with this format is that you can glean all the information in a short time and without getting bored.

I hope that you have had some guidance on how to quit smoking from this article. The next thing to do is to take some action and be smoke free.

Finally, whatever you decide to do, quit smoking before you damage your health permanently.

Zeke

Strong Reasons For Quitting Cigarettes

Do you really need any reasons for quitting cigarettes considering the fact that smoking can give you so many medical conditions? It is surprising that in spite of all the bad publicity and widespread knowledge of the long term effects of smoking, millions of smokers continue with their habit and inadvertently encourage others to take up smoking.

If you do need reasons to quit, then read on because I can give you plenty of them:

Lets start with your children. Did you know that smokers’ children are more likely to smoke then non smokers? The reason is not difficult to understand. Children have an innate curiosity to try out new experiences. There is nothing to prevent a child to try smoking when there is nobody around. I know this for a fact because I did try out my Dad’s left over butts in the ashtray when I was a child. In later years as an adult, I went on to become a smoker. Thankfully, I managed to kick the habit before my health was seriously affected. 

Did you also know that smokers’ children are more susceptible to middle ear infections, asthma, chronic bronchitis and breathing problems then other children? This is true. There is research available to  back up these claims. I am sure that you are like most people who care about their children. If you do, then that is a strong reason for you to quit smoking.

What about some personal reasons to quit? Have you ever tried to climb up three flights of stairs recently? Or tried jogging for at least 5 minutes? Try both - you will have another reason for quitting. These activites which you could so easily do when you were a non smoker seem so difficult now. In no time at all you tend to get breathless and have to stop.

 Now think about the effect your smoking has on the people closest to you. Your breath smells, your clothes smell and even your carpets and curtains smell of cigarette smoke. Perhaps, nobody mentions it out of courtesy, but you do smell and will continue to do so till you give up.

Is this seriously the image you want for your self? I don’t think so. You ignore other peoples reactions to yourself only because you cannot do anything about it. So quit now and polish up your image.

Most smokers do not give up till they have a serious medical condition. I gave up only after my doctor told me that I had acute bronchitis and it would progress to chronic bronchitis  if I did not quit smoking. That made me quit smoking in a hurry. So why not give up now and enjoy a healthy and vigourous life rather than wait for that shocking diagnosis?

You can only give up smoking if you yourself are convinced that you have to do so. Half hearted efforts or being nagged in to quitting rarely ever work. The decision to quit has to come deep with in yourself. So persuade your self that quitting is the best course of action for yourself and your family and do it  now. Health and wealth await you once you are free of the weed.

If you need information on resources available for smokers who want to quit, check out my book on the first page of this blog.

Good luck!

Zeke

Quitting Cigarettes For Good

Have you ever wondered which industries are recession proof? Health care along with food have always been considered to be recession proof. Whether Joe Public has a bank balance or not, he needs to eat or go to the doctor if he falls sick. Let me add one more industry to that list. Cigarettes and tobacco products. The simple fact is that those who smoke cannot do without cigarettes and tobacco. A smoker is going to buy his cigarettes, no matter what his present financial situation.

In these times of severe recession, it is necessary for you to look at how much you are spending on cigarettes every week and seriously consider whether you can justify that unnecessary expense.  You may not be committed to quit simply because you, like many other smokers, have read all the articles about the effects smoking has on your health. I know many smokers who constantly read about smoking and then light up. For the last almost 35 years, cigarette packs have carried health warnings, with little effect on smokers. I do not see any smoker even reading those warnings. But doing the sums on how much it costs you every year may open your eyes and induce you to take some positive action.

Cigarettes, at the moment, cost at least $5 a pack or even more depending on where you live. Most states as well as the federal government have slapped on very high taxes to do both – discourage smoking as well as collect additional revenue.  If you smoke between one and two packs a day, your minimum annual expense on smoking would be around $1800 a year. Yes – $1800 going up in smoke every year. There are also other costs that smokers generally do not consider. For example, smokers pay higher premiums for health and life insurance. If you are diagnosed with a serious condition and have to be hospitalised, you will have even more expenses and loss of earnings. Now calculate all the money you have spent in the last 5 or 10 years that you have been smoking and the total figure may very well shock you.

Governments around the world, especially those that provide free health care, have concluded that smokers are just too costly to treat when hospitalised and their health care budgets would be much better off with fewer smokers. Cancer and heart disease are expensive to treat and many governments are now spending more of their budgets in getting smokers off their habit.

Think about it and make concrete plans to quit.

Zeke