I do not smoke, never have, and admit to being one of those ‘pain in the butts’ (OK, bad pun!) that go on about the foul stench, and anti-social behaviour of smokers, especially in public places.

You can imagine my joy when one of my local pubs recently banned smoking. Shortly after the ban had come into force I spotted a guy poised with cigarette in hand, and was about to get huffy and even confrontational. Fortunately I held back and continued my beer - but was puzzled. The cigarette was unlit and yet he was putting it near his mouth, flicking the imaginary ash and generally acting as if he was smoking it. Curious about this I eventually enquired, only to find out this was his own rather unorthodox approach to keeping his hands busy and therefore, as he put it, keeping his weight down.

Although everyone knows that smoking is detrimental to health, it’s surprising how many smokers cite fear of putting on weight as a reason to not quit smoking.

The simple fact is that it is not quitting smoking that affects your weight, but the change of habit can result in you increasing your food intake.

But there are plenty of ways to ensure this does not happen to you.

There is no need for a special diet when you stop smoking, but you must use your common sense. If you eat chocolates instead of smoking then you are very likely to gain weight!

Monitor your diet for a fortnight before you stop smoking - write a food diary, noting everything you eat and when. You simply use this to make sure that what you eat post-quitting follows a similar pattern.

In a similar way, note how much exercise you can do as a smoker. When you stop smoking, you can begin to compare how much more exercise you can do with ease. This will inspire you to the possibility of becoming fitter in other ways, and will actually help you through the tough period of giving up the addiction.

Even moderate amounts of exercise can reduce tobacco cravings. A recent study found that women that maintained a rigorous exercise regime coupled with a stop-smoking programme were twice as likely to succeed as those who didn’t. Frankly, exercising is incompatible with smoking, and you are also more likely to be mixing with non-smokers.

Let’s face it, if you smoke 20 cigarettes daily, you are putting your hand to your mouth at least 200 times a day. When you quit, you need to keep your hands busy. How about peeling fruit for snacks, doing jigsaws or maybe even knitting.

Keep visualising yourself as a fit non-smoker, especially when your motivation starts to flag. You can always get help with this through the use of hypnotherapy. As in so many behavioural issues, it is simply a matter of re-programming our mind. Giving up smoking is tough, and self-hypnosis is a method that many are discovering as a simple way to help keep the mental attitude and motivation on course.

Like the chap in the pub, you may find your own method of coping with your quit smoking challenge, and well.. if it works - great!

Good health!

Keith Watson - 25 years as a registered nurse. Now writing about and promoting a holistic approach to health issues. To learn more about hypnosis as a therapy, visit http://www.adam-eason.com/

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I often hear people say that they have smoked for so long that they can’t see what good it would do to quit now. So what is the big deal if you quit smoking? Will it do you any good or is it a pointless exercise in futility?

My answer always is that the benefits of quitting smoking are enormous. Here are some powerful reasons for quitting: The excess risk of developing heart disease as a result of smoking may be reduced by as much as half in the year or two after quitting. After 15 years, the former smoker’s risk of heart disease approaches that of a person who has never smoked. Five to 15 years after quitting the risk of stroke returns to the level of those who have never smoked.

Quitting reduces the risk of lung cancer; 10 years after quitting the risk for lung cancer is 30% to 50% that of the risk of those who continue to smoke. Men who quit at age 35 increase their life expectancy by 7 to 9 years. Women who quit at age 35 increase their life expectancy by 6 to 8 years. It is never too late to gain benefits from quitting. Quitting at age 45 increases life expectancy by 6 or 7 years. Quitting at age 55 increases life expectancy by 3 to 6 years. Quitting at age 65 increases life expectancy by 1.4 to 4 years.

So how are those for good reasons? No matter how long you have smoked, quitting will provide you with some benefit. That benefit may be profound. It could lengthen your life by as much as a decade. Don’t wait. Throw out your cigarettes and stop smoking today.

Judy Brown is a director of http://www.lifenatural.com, http://www.smoke-rx.com and http://www.helpquitsmoking.net a pure informational resource where you will find further information on how to quit smoking.

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Ordinarily you would think that quitting smoking is the same for both sexes. Whether you are a man or woman there can be a variety of common reasons for starting smoking in the first place and another range of common reasons for quitting smoking across the sexes. Whilst on the surface this may appear true, there are important differences to understand which can definately aid quitting smoking for women.

According to research women start smoking and quit smoking for different reasons to men. For instance weight control is seen as a perceived benefit of smoking. Although smoking can help with weight control it does not help as much as it is perceived to help. As a clinical hypnotherapist I invariably ask my female clients who want to stop smoking this question “What would you rather deal with, a few extra pounds of weight or cancer?”. Often the response will be that they fear the extra weight. Of course this can be because the weight gain can seem more immediate and possible, whereas cancer seems more distant and less likely to happen.

Another reason why women may smoke is because of their closer emotional bonding to other women. Women are natural empathisers and in empathising with a close friend, if that friend is a smoker, by also smoking themselves they may perceive or feel that they understand their friend’s issue. To a lesser degree this response is true during a work break when a number of female colleague’s will smoke together and is another way of keeping strong bonds intact.

Stopping smoking, when female friends are continuing to smoke, can make the new quitter feel isolated and distant from formerly close friends and colleagues.

Yet a third influence on women quitting smoking is their cycle. For those women who suffer irritability or worse during their cycle, it would not be a good idea to add to this by quitting smoking at the same time.

In order to make your chances of success in quitting smoking increase following these tips to deal with the above issues can help tremendously :-

Weight Fears

If you worry that you may put on weight when you stop smoking, make a plan to deal with this possibility before it happens such as :-
1) Increase the exercise you currently undertake such as

a) If you go to the gym, do a few more repititions or push yourself a bit harder

b) Introduce a form or exercise that is fun and social such as line dancing, salsa dancing or even a social game of barminton, table tennis etc

c) Instead of riding up escalators, get into the habit of walking up them

d) Instead of taling the lift, walk up those flights of stairs

2) Reduce the amount you eat. Cut out something like an unncessary snack. May be that biscuit with a cup of coffee

3) Substitute ehealthier foods for fattening ones. Instead of that bag ofd crisps have an apple or better still a citrus fruit such as an orange

4) Introduce more water into your daily lifestyle even if it is just a couple of glasses of water a day. A glass of water that is taken 10 minutes before a meal will take the edge of your appetite.

Empathising With Friends

1) Find a more supportive way of helpibng your friend other that jointly poisoning yourselves. This can be by :-

a) Making yourself available at anytime on the telephone to give your friend support

b) Being a non-judgemental and solution orientated listener

c) Letting them know you are there for them

d) Suggesting forms of help or available support

Timing

Choose a time in the month when you know you are at your peak physically, emotionally and mentally and not when you are about to enter your cycle. Quitting smoking just after your menstrual cycle and when you are feeling good and on the up can be great timing.

We are all different whether men or women and ultimately knowing yourself, what makes you tick and when the best time is here for you to stop smoking, is the biggest asset to your success.

Steven A. Harold
Stopping Smoking Hypnosis

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