The Health Blog

The idea to stop smoking might seem really great, but what are you actually going to get out of the process?  For many people there are some benefits that are immediately obvious.  Of course, your clothes and house will smell a lot better, and if you have been a car smoker, your car will start to smell better as well.  However, if you dive beyond these shallow reasons, what can you really expect to gain by quitting?  The issues of money and even your health are far greater than any minor smells that cigarettes can give off.

One of the biggest benefits is the savings of money.  Consider that a one pack a day habit can easily rack up a bill of $35 a week, $150 a month and finally $1,825 in a year.  This adds up to an enormous amount that is really hard to play down.  It is important to be really honest with yourself about how much your cigarettes are costing you, if you are attempting to slash your budget, quitting smoking can go a very long way towards freeing up a lot of money.

While the money is obviously nice to save, there are huge benefits to your health as well.  For example, research tells us that as little as 20 minutes after you stop smoking you will be able to see a difference in your health.  If you consider that quitting smoking can help you reduce your risk of heart problems, stroke, high blood pressure, lung cancer, and even breathing complications you have just located a plethora of reasons why smoking really is good to avoid.  The research that tells us smoking is bad has proven that just a short period of time after quitting is able to reverse many of the harmful effects that cigarettes have caused, no matter how long you have been a smoker.

Most people can readily agree that the idea to quit smoking is rather terrifying.  Giving up the comfort that smoking can provide is not easy, nor can it be done instantly.  Struggling to quit requires a lot of honest talks, not only with yourself but also with your family.  There are three major struggles that you will encounter as you are working to quit smoking.  Being fully aware of these struggles will help you to create a plan to quit smoking for good that can help you to overcome these difficulties and emerge in better health as a non-smoker.

Struggle number one is going to find you looking temptation right in the eye.  There is simply no other way to put it.  Everywhere you look cigarettes and more cigarettes.  The number of people who smoke is astonishing, and when you are trying to stop smoking it seems like the number is quadrupling around you.  While it is nothing more than your mind playing tricks on you, it can still be rather difficult to overlook all of the temptation and still stick to your plan to quit smoking.

Anytime you find yourself overwhelmed by temptation you need to walk away.  If you are at your job and cannot simply walk away, you need to develop a stress relieving strategy to fall back on which can help you to ignore the cigarettes that you see.  To really help you avoid temptation you need to work at finding a place where you can eat your lunch away from the smokers and other temptations.  Always be on the lookout because they are around, and if you slip up they will be there to lure you back into smoking rather quickly.

With so many tips and suggestions on how to stop smoking it is really easy to see why so many people really do not quit.  The vast majority of people are completely confused by the entire process!  What of the conflicting messages passed around?  The fact is that with so much information passed around that is confusing to people it is often much easier to just continue smoking and hoping for a simple solution.  Actually taking the necessary steps to really quit smoking is not easy.  It means coming to terms with the fact that stopping smoking really is best for you, as well as your health.

Most people are readily aware that stopping smoking can improve their health, but learning how to really conquer the urges to smoke is not easy.  With so many temptations circulating around, as well as the stresses of daily life it is easy to see why jumping into a pack of cigarettes seems like a good idea.

Tip #1 You need a good reason to quit.  Simply deciding to quit because the sky is blue is not a sufficient reason.  The need to quit smoking is obvious, but the desire to quit needs to come from inside in order for the process to be successful.

Tip #2  Look for small rewards that you can give yourself as you make progress.  You are not likely to just quit cold turkey with no complications.  Set up small rewards that will help you to want to make progress towards ultimately quitting.  This can be a great motivation to keep you on target.

Trashing tobacco out of one’s system improves health.  Here’s what happens when a smoker quits after:

• 20 minutes, blood pressure and pulse rate returns to normal.  Circulation in hands and feet improves.
• 8 hours, oxygen levels in blood return to normal.  Chances of heart attack begin to fall.
• 24 hours, carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body.  The lung starts to clear out mucus.
• 48 hours, nicotine is no longer detectable in the body.  The ability to taste and smell improves.
• 72 hours, breathing becomes easier as the bronchial tubes relax.  Energy levels increase.
• 2-12 weeks, walking becomes easier as circulation improves throughout the body.
• 3-9 months, breathing improves as coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing incidence decline.  Lung function increases by 5-10 percent.
• 5 years, risk of heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.
• 10 years, it’s like you never smoked as risk of heart attack falls to about the same as that of a non-smoker.  Risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker.

Indeed, the only quitters to win are the smokers.

Source: A White Paper on Tobacco and Smoking