Quitting smoking is not easy for many people. A quitting calendar can help you put an end to a habit that is ruining your health.
The Quit Calendar allows you to know and prepare for all the upcoming changes in your body.
What is the Quit Smoking Calendar
A quit smoking calendar with months and days is a great support for getting rid of nicotine addiction. It can give you an idea of how your body responds to nicotine withdrawal at different times and prepares you for the difficulties you may encounter, both psychologically and physically.
notes!In addition to keeping track of your physical and mental changes on a calendar, it is recommended that you keep a diary as it can help to better understand the reasons for your dependence on tobacco.
Often, the desire to smoke another cigarette is not related to the body's physical need for the next dose of nicotine, but rather to some psychological trigger. For example, having a cup of coffee in the morning or taking a break from work is strongly associated with smoking. Noticing the urge to smoke at times like these, you should switch to another, more useful routine. For example, you can add another entry to your diary or call your loved one.
What to expect from your body
The ex-smoker's calendar includes all the feelings and experiences that may arise during the quitting process. In most cases, people who quit smoking experience the following symptoms:
- Nicotine crash. It's a pretty distressing situation, especially bothering a person on the first day of quitting.
- Psychological breakdown. The main reason people continue to smoke is not physical, but psychological. A smoker sees smoking as some kind of ritual, with the help of which he reacts to various situations in his life. With the rejection of the usual ritualized behaviors, many voids arise, and the mind often has little to fill. As a result, a person who has recently quit smoking often experiences feelings of anxiety and anxiety when, as is often the case, suddenly nothing occupies his hands and mouth.
- Chronic diseases are exacerbated and often insidious. It is the almanac of a heavy smoker who suddenly quit that makes it possible to realize that the unpleasant physical symptoms that appear in the first weeks or even months of quitting are signs of cleansing the body and restoring its systems and organs to normal function. .
Additional Information.The intensity and duration of withdrawal symptoms varies from person to person. However, in most cases, after a few weeks, the body regains its ability to independently produce moderate amounts of niacin, and the physiological craving for smoking disappears. Even more difficult is getting rid of psychological dependence.
emotions and thoughts
A person who quits smoking may experience completely different emotions about it: from self-pity to pride in the willpower shown. To achieve this, it is necessary to abandon smoking cessation as a limitation, a severe asceticism that requires great effort and the strictest self-control.
Quitting smoking is easy and fun. You just have to agree with your subconscious mind and convince your "inner child" that life without cigarettes is more fun, enjoyable and "cool" and that quitting smoking can bring real joy.
For example, smokers lose their sense of smell and taste. However, this process is reversible. You just need to quit smoking and familiar dishes will take on a new look. Why not one of the most hedonistic reasons to quit smoking?
It helps to align with the right wave of revisions to global life goals. It is necessary to understand why all this changes the usual way of life. For example, a rare woman would not dream of becoming a mother one day. It's much easier to quit a bad habit when you realize that the joys of cigarettes are insignificant compared to the health and well-being of your unborn baby.
Preliminary preparation
It is not recommended to quit smoking without careful preparation. After all, it means giving your body and mind a strong shake. It's best to give yourself a week, two, a month to mentally prepare for the upcoming event.
You should analyze all the "pros" and "cons" of smoking and quitting in writing and for yourself. If your loved one needs to quit smoking, you shouldn't tick the "healthy" item. Here, we're already talking about the value of relationships and the comfort of your partner. Only finding authentic and positive motivation can facilitate the process of changing your lifestyle.
Next, you need to watch yourself and notice what situations and emotions make you want to pull out a cigarette and smoke. Then you need to come up with compensation activities. For example, many people smoke to calm down. For the same purpose, you can use various breathing exercises, visualization techniques, drink herbal tea. Any of these activities can become your hobby, a new, "healthy" addiction.
Throwing out all the lighters, ashtrays, and other reminders of old habits isn't necessary at all. Sometimes hiding a pack of cigarettes "for a rainy day" helps to endure the quitting process more peacefully. The absence of any emotion when looking at a former favorite smoking device is a sign of the ultimate release of nicotine addiction.
Monthly Quit Calendar
Knowing the details of the upcoming changes in his body in the coming year, quitting would not be surprised by any of his reactions, nor would he lose confidence in the correctness of the decisions he made.
No smoking for the first month
This is the most difficult period, characterized by unstable physical and psychological emotional states. Therefore, the first day and week of non-smoking ideally coincide with weekends or holidays. Survival with withdrawal syndrome becomes easier as physical exertion, stressful situations decrease, and the number of new positive impressions increases.
To minimize the adverse consequences of nicotine starvation, it is recommended to introduce more pectin-rich green vegetables and fruits (apples, oranges, apricots, plums) into the diet. Buckwheat, beans, and nuts help supplement niacin deficiency. To reduce tension and improve sleep, you can use motherwort decoction.
Restoration of taste can lead to increased appetite, which can negatively affect body weight. Therefore, do not abuse sweets and high-calorie foods.
2nd and 3rd month
In the lungs, an active recovery phase begins. Dry mouth, cough, and phlegm may occur periodically, especially with increased physical activity. But that's a good sign -- it means the body has clean resources.
The cardiovascular system also changes. By the end of the third month, vascular tone returned to normal, and the former smoker no longer experienced dizziness and migraine headaches.
important!The end of the three-month quit period is a critical time for many to return to smoking. So, stay away from temptation at this time. Any attempt to smoke, "remembering" the smell of a cigarette can put a person back on the list of smokers.
4th to 6th month
Gastrointestinal function recovered and stool normalized. The ability to fully absorb all essential nutrients returns to the gut, thereby improving the condition of the skin. Peeling, itching, which may bother a person early in quitting smoking, no longer bothers him.
Many ex-smokers notice that by the fifth or sixth month, breathing becomes easier, as if their lungs have expanded. This is a sign of recovery of the bronchopulmonary system. From this moment on, it is recommended to start exercising.
For those who are still weak, cycling and swimming are the best options for physical exercise.
seventh to ninth month
Coughing and expectoration is actually no longer a problem at this stage. Allows running and strength exercises to be incorporated into your training program.
At this time, many people have forgotten the difficulty of quitting smoking in the first few weeks, but the power of habit is still great. It is important not to let the cigarette ignite mechanically "on the machine".
tenth to twelve months
Completely overcome the physiological dependence on nicotine. However, the risk of returning to old habits remains high, as many people continue to experience psychological discomfort due to changes in their daily routines and the loss of some elements of communication. Until a person learns to fill these psychological "vacancies", the desire to smoke a cigarette and keep himself busy with "business" will torment him from time to time.
Advice for those who are quitting smoking
Ex-smokers should not be criticized for any relapse. It is best to underpin each of his even the tiniest of successes with positive emotions: a compliment, a sincere admiration for the willpower shown, a gift. In addition, spending leisure time together exactly as the ex-smoker wants to celebrate another milestone overcome in the process of breaking the bad habit. Only positive emotions, expressions of love from those closest to them, will give the addict the necessary mental strength for change.
Are diaries useful?
Practice has shown that journaling is a very effective tool in the fight against nicotine addiction for many people. Here you can let go of all negativity and celebrate success at each stage. Studying other people's public diaries and positive experiences of quitting smoking is unparalleled inspiring.