Tips to help you stop smoking

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 5, 1 July 1986, Page 7

Tips to help you stop smoking

1. Never carry cigarettes with you and make them as inaccessible as possible: keep the cigarette packet tied up with an elastic band and shut away somewhere difficult to get at. Always take only one cigarette out and replace the packet. The annoyance of this procedure will cut down your desire for a cigarette. While driving, keep cigarettes in the boot of the car. Do you want a cigarette enough to pull over, get out, and open the boot? 2. Designate one room, say the iaundry, or one chair, say the most uncomfortable one. for smoking. Smoke in this place only and break the association between smoking and relaxation and pleasure. 3. Never do anything else while you smoke. Don't talk, read, watch TV or drink. Have your fix of nicotine, but don't let smoking

enhance other activities — in this way you break the links. 4. Change to a brand of cigarettes you know is distasteful to you. As soon as you begin to like them, change to another. 5. Use no-smoking signs at home, at work and in the car to remind yourself not to smoke. (These can be obtained from The National Heart Foundation or The Cancer Society.) 6. Spend more time with non-smoking friends and in situations where smoking is not allowed. 7. Tell everybody of your decision to stop smoking. Not wanting to "lose face" is a powerful persuader.

8. If your smoke with tea or coffee, try alternatives to the "trigger" beverage, say herb tea or fruit juice. 9. Save the money you don't spend on cigarettes in a big jar which is readily noticeable so you can see the amount increasing. 10. Have anactivity which busies your hands, say knitting or doodiing. and resort to that when you don't know what to do with your hands. Keep your hands too dirty to smoke by gardening or fixing the car, or too wet by washing or bathing. 11. Have alternatives for taste, forexample, carrot or celery sticks which are low in calories yet crisp and easily accessible