Quitting smoking is not easy for many people. A quit calendar can help you break a health-destroying habit.
The stop smoking calendar allows you to know all the upcoming changes in the body and prepare for them.
What is a quit smoking calendar?
The stop smoking calendar for months and days is a powerful support on the path to eliminating nicotine addiction. It allows you to understand how the body will react to nicotine withdrawal in different periods of time, and to prepare psychologically and physically for possible difficulties.
Note!In addition to keeping track of the changes in your body and psyche on a calendar, it is recommended to keep a diary, as it helps to better understand the reasons for your dependence on tobacco.
Often, the desire to smoke another cigarette is not associated with the body's physiological need for the next dose of nicotine, but with certain psychological triggers. For example, a morning cup of coffee or a break at work are strongly associated with smoking. Realizing the urge to smoke at such times, you should switch to another, more useful routine. For example, you can make another entry in your diary or call your loved one.
What to expect from the body
The daily calendar of a smoker who quits contains all the possible sensations and experiences that accompany the process of quitting. Very often, people who quit smoking experience the following symptoms:
- Nicotine crash. This is quite a painful condition, especially bothersome for a person in the first few days of quitting smoking.
- psychological collapse. The main reason why people continue to smoke is not physiological, but psychological. Smoking a cigarette is perceived by a smoker as a certain ritual, with the help of which he reacts, responds to various situations in his life. With the rejection of habitual ritualized actions, a lot of empty space appears, which the psyche often has nothing to fill. Hence the feeling of anxiety and anxiety that often arises in a person who has recently quit smoking, when suddenly there is nothing to occupy their hands and mouth under the usual circumstances.
- Exacerbation of chronic diseases, often hidden. It is the annual calendar of a heavy smoker who quits smoking abruptly that makes it possible to realize that the unpleasant physiological symptoms in the first weeks and even months of quitting tobacco are signs of cleansing the body and restoring the normal functioning of its systems and organs.
Additional Information.The intensity and duration of withdrawal symptoms are different for everyone. However, in most cases, after a few weeks, the body restores the ability to independently produce nicotinic acid in the correct amount, and the physiological desire to smoke disappears. Much more difficult is the liberation from psychological dependence.
emotions and thoughts
A person who has quit smoking can experience completely different emotions about it: from self-pity to pride in the strength of will shown. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to get rid of the idea that giving up tobacco is a restriction, a severe asceticism that requires enormous efforts and the most severe self-control.
Quitting smoking can be easy and fun. You just need to agree with your subconscious, convince your "inner child" that living without cigarettes is much more interesting, more pleasant and "cooler", that giving up tobacco can bring real pleasure.
For example, smokers lose their sense of smell and taste. However, this process is reversible. You just need to stop smoking, and familiar dishes will shine with new shades. Why not a reason, the most hedonistic, to quit smoking?
It helps to tune in to the right wave of revision of global life goals. It is necessary to understand why all these changes in the usual way of life. For example, a rare woman does not dream of becoming a mother one day. When you realize that the pleasure of a cigarette is nothing compared to the health and well-being of the fetus, it is much easier to give up a bad habit.
preliminary preparation
Quitting smoking without serious preparation is not recommended. After all, this means exposing your body and your psyche to a strong reorganization. It is better to give yourself a week, two, a month to mentally prepare for the upcoming events.
You should discuss all the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of smoking and quitting in writing, and personally for yourself. If a loved one needs to stop smoking, he should not put a check in front of the item "health". Here we are already talking about the value of relationships and the comfort of a partner. Only finding real and positive reasons will facilitate the process of changing your lifestyle.
Next, you need to observe yourself and notice what situations and emotions make you want to take out a cigarette and smoke. Then you need to think about compensatory activities. For example, many smoke to calm down. For the same purposes, you can use various breathing exercises, visualization techniques, drink herbal teas. Any of these activities can become your hobby, a new "healthy" addiction.
No need to throw out all the lighters, ashtrays and other things that remind you of an old habit. Sometimes a hidden pack of cigarettes "for a rainy day" helps ease the process of weaning off nicotine. The absence of any emotion when looking at your favorite smoking devices above is a sign of final release from nicotine addiction.
Calendar to stop smoking by month
Having familiarized yourself with detailed information about the upcoming changes in the body for the next year, quitting smoking will not be surprised by any of your reactions and will not lose confidence in the correctness of the decision made.
First month without smoking
This is the most difficult period, characterized by unstable physical and psycho-emotional states. Therefore, it is desirable that the first days and weeks without cigarettes coincide with weekends or holidays. With a decrease in the amount of physical exertion, stressful situations and an increase in the number of new positive impressions, it is much easier to survive the withdrawal syndrome.
To minimize the unpleasant consequences of nicotine hunger, it is recommended to introduce more green vegetables and pectin-rich fruits (apples, oranges, apricots, plums) into the diet. Buckwheat, legumes and nuts will help fill the lack of nicotinic acid. To reduce nervousness and improve sleep, you can use a decoction of motherwort.
Restoration of taste sensations leads to increased appetite, which can negatively affect body weight. Therefore, do not abuse sweets and hypercaloric foods.
second and third month
In the lungs begins the stage of active recovery. Dry mouth, cough, and sputum production may occur periodically, especially with increased physical activity. But this is a good sign: it means that the body has resources for cleaning.
The cardiovascular system also undergoes changes. At the end of the third month, vascular tone returns to normal and the ex-smoker no longer suffers from dizziness and migraines.
Important!The end of the three-month cessation period is a critical period when many return to smoking. Therefore, at this time it is necessary to get away from temptations. Any attempt to smoke, "remember" the taste of a cigarette can return a person to the ranks of smokers.
Fourth to sixth month
The work of the gastrointestinal tract is restored, the stool is normalized. The ability to fully absorb all the necessary nutrients returns to the intestines, which improves the condition of the skin. Peeling, itching, which could bother a person at the initial stage of quitting smoking, no longer bothers him.
Many ex-smokers notice that by the fifth or sixth month they find it easier to breathe, as if their lungs have expanded. This is a sign of restoration of the bronchopulmonary system. From this moment it is recommended to start doing sports.
Cycling, swimming are the best physical activity options for a still weakened body.
seventh to ninth month
Cough and sputum production at this stage are practically no longer a concern. It is permissible to introduce running and strength exercises into your training program.
By now, many have forgotten the difficulties of the first few weeks of quitting, but the force of habit remains strong. It is important not to allow the cigarette to light "in the machine", mechanically.
tenth to twelfth month
The physiological dependence on nicotine is completely overcome. However, the risk of returning to the old habit remains high, as many continue to feel psychological discomfort due to a change in their usual daily routine, the loss of some elements of communication. Until a person learns to fill in these psychological "gaps, " the desire to smoke a cigarette, to keep busy with "business, " may continue to haunt him from time to time.
Tips for people who are quitting smoking
An ex-smoker should not be criticized for any relapse. It is better to consolidate each of his successes, even the most insignificant ones, with positive emotions: praise, sincere admiration for the displayed willpower, a gift. Also, another milestone passed on the way to get rid of a bad habit can be celebrated by spending free time together completely according to the wishes of the quitter. Only positive emotions, manifestations of love from the closest people will give the cigarette addict the necessary mental strength for change.
Does a diary help?
As practice shows, the diary turns out to be a very effective tool for many in the fight against nicotine addiction. Here you can get rid of all your negative emotions and celebrate the successes at each stage of the launch. Studying other people's public diaries and positive experiences of quitting is inspiring like nothing else.