Carbon monoxide (CO) is a harmful substance that reaches the lungs and prevents the creation of hemoglobin. Thus, the smoker has less oxygen and less energy.

Everybody knows that smoking is a harmful habit, but most people are unable to quit.

These are 2 steps that can help you stop this addiction:

1. Motivate Yourself:
   Make a list of the reasons why you want to quit. Keep this list always with you, preferably in the same pocket with the packet of cigarettes. When you want a cigarette, pull out your list and read it. Here are a few benefits you will enjoy after you quit smoking. (When people quit smoking, the benefits begin within the first minutes from the last cigarette):
   • In the first 20 minutes, the blood pressure decreases.
   • In 8 hours the oxygen in the blood increases to normal levels and the carbon monoxide in blood drops to normal.
   • In 24 hours, the likelihood of having a heart attack decreases.
   • In 48 hours, nerve endings start to grow again, and the ability to smell and taste improves
   • In three months, the lung function improves.
   • After nine months: cough, nasal congestion and fatigue are significantly reduced.
   • After 1 year: Risk of coronary heart disease is reduced by almost 50%.
   • After 5 years: the risk of stroke is reduced to the level of people who never smoked.
   • After 10 years: the risk of lung cancer, cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas also decreases.
   • After 15 years: the risk of coronary heart disease is now similar to the risk of people who never smoked.
2. Convince your subconscious mind:After years of smoking you have programmed your subconscious mind to think that this habit is an indispensable part of your life. This behaviour is now deeply rooted into your subconscious and trying to stop this addiction without reprogramming your brain will be futile.
   Fortunately, by using a powerful method called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) you will be able to reprogram your brain effortlessly and you won’t have to struggle in order to kick this habit out of your life. In fact, in a recent study 5,000 smokers used just one session of NLP to help them quit smoking. 97.2% of them never smoked again!

-By: James S. Jacobs

Now you need to pay close attention-

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1. Once you decide to quit, put a date on it. When you pick the date, be nice, if you know you are going to have some parties to go to, or events where you are likely to slip up, then don’t pick that date. We are looking for positive encouragement from everyday that you can be successful to lead us into the next day.
2. Tell those around you what you are doing. They will be there to support you. This will keep you accountable. Knowing that you won’t just be letting yourself down but someone else, sometimes will be exactly what you need to keep going.
3. Reward yourself. The brain works off of reward mechanisms. Have small goals and rewards to re-enforce what you are doing. Say you go 7 days without smoking, have a reward for that, and make sure that you grant yourself that reward. The longer the time frame the bigger the reward. (You are saving at least $6 a pack!)
4. Take deep breaths when you are getting the urge to smoke. Feel how clean your lungs feel, how deep the air is moving into your lungs. This is very important as this will help to re-form your habit of smoking into a deep breathing habit, which has many benefits beyond the scope of this article.
5. Use a natural product to help with the withdrawal symptoms. Just because tobacco is legal, doesn’t mean that you won’t have strong withdrawals. Nicotine is one of the most addicting chemicals on the planet, not including all of the other additives that the tobacco companies put in the cigarettes. Often times the need to light that cigarette up is brief and can be overcome just with will-power alone. Other times, you may need to distract yourself, (deep breathing techniques), or use something that is going to alleviate the withdrawal symptoms.

Everyone is different, and everyone will have good days and bad days. Some people are hit really hard with the withdrawals the first 24 hours, others it sneaks up on you after 7 days. Just need to be strong and fight the urge to light another cigarette. Taking it one day at a time, you can finally quit smoking.

-By: Ritchie Inman

Tip #6 – Get your own bottle of Smoke Deter to stop smoking once and for all.

Imagine living everyday to the fullest without a cloud always around your head. After you quit smoking pot few months you will look back and not recognize the person you used to be.

Marijuana is the most used illicit drug in the United States. I recently learned that in 2005 nearly 300,000 people signed themselves into rehab to quit smoking weed. Let’s face it most of us are either smokers or ex-smokers. Of course there are a few who have never even tried pot, my thoughts, most did but refuse to admit it.

Either way at some point it becomes too much of a burden on your physical, mental and even psychological thought process to continue. Its time to quit!!!

Now for all those who say smoking pot is not addictive beware, yes physically it is not an addictive drug, however anyone who has ever tried to quit before knows there are serious withdrawal symptoms that can occur. Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, mood changes, feeling irritable, loss of appetite and changes in sleep patterns among others. Most of these symptoms are due to changes in brain activity and nerve cell neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are key to motivation, positive feelings, proper thought processing and memory. Not to mention trying to sleep!

So how exactly do you quit and control your emotional relationship to your old friend mary jane?

First you must decide its finally time to quit and get your butt in gear. I smoked for years and there is no doubt in my mind that I missed a lot of opportunities and disregarded many an important occasion, date, etc. just to stay home and get high. You need to decide to quit today. Then you need a support system to help you through the process of actually quitting and dealing with the consequences. For me I just could not deal at first. Then a friend of mine happened to mention he had a friend that had been in the process of developing a dietary supplement to help people quit smoking pot. He said I could try it for free and see if it helped at all. Let me just tell you this guy had it pegged. Not only was I able to quit, I had very little withdrawal symptoms at all. Now I had already tried the e-books and audio programs out there and while they were very informative and helpful, this really worked for me and maybe it can work for you too.

All I can say is its worth a look. If you are trying to quit and struggling this may be just what you have been waiting for. For now I thought I just had to tell somebody how well this has worked for me.

-By: James Cipriano

Authored by Jim Cipriano. I did it and you can too! For more info check out this website. http://www.maritox.com.

The various symptoms that people experience once they stop smoking cigarettes vary. As each of us is a unique individual so too are the symptoms anyone will experience. Being forewarned about these symptoms is one way to conquer the challenges they will present. But the most common side effects include:

Grumpiness, fatigue and experiencing headaches are probably the most commonly reported quit smoking side effects. There are some things you can do to make the experience less painful. Drink large amounts of water is an easy one. This helps your body flush out the poisons left by nicotine. At the same time avoid alcohol as much as you can as it does dry out your system and it may also work as an unconscious trigger. In the past drinking may have been linked with you lighting up.

Exercise during this period is another good idea. Not only do you release the endorphins into your body that make you feel better, it is hard to have a cigarette whilst exercising. Don’t over do it, but establishing a good exercise routine during this time can be an overall health booster for you.

Acknowledge you are tired and give yourself the chance of plenty of rest. Getting lots of rest will help you deal with all these side effects a lot better. Also, be sure to eat good healthy foods so that your body has the strength to purge itself of the toxins and get itself into better health.

Nicotine gum can be a way of alleviating the side effects of nicotine withdrawal. Chewing nicotine gum allows controlled amounts of nicotine into your system while you get used to no longer smoking. This should be seen as a temporary measure rather than a long term solution to your smoking problem.

-By: Lee Dobbs

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• They cost a lot of money and I heard the price is going even higher.
• They make your clothes and breath smell really rank. Plus, it follows you around all day.
• You will have to get your choppers whitened so they won’t be so yellow.
• You will probably look less like a lizard since smoking makes your skin look like leather.
• Smoking also makes you look older. It speeds up the aging process.
• Aren’t you also tired of having everyone telling you to quit smoking? That in itself is a good enough reason to quit smoking.

Health Reasons to Quit Smoking

There is also a ton of health risk to smoking; more than just those on the labels.

• Smoking can cause heart attacks and strokes.
• Smoking causes about 1 in 5 deaths from heart disease.
• According to the CDC, 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women are caused by smoking.
• This addiction has ties to other health problems as well like;
• Cataracts
• Macular degeneration
• Osteoporosis

Second hand smoke can also cause cancer in non-smoking individuals, according to the US Surgeon General and the E.P.A.

I am thinking all these are really good reasons to quit. If you want to quit, then great! You sure can, it’s not going to be easy but a lot of people do quit every day and there are various methods available a lot of tools out there.

Quitting Using NRTs

There are various NRT’s on the market. NRT’s are nicotine replacement therapies. They come in nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine inhalers, and nicotine nasal spray. All have their advantages. Therefore, talk to your doctor about which is right for you. Investigate and educate yourself on which is right for you.

Quitting Cold Turkey

Many people also just quit cold turkey, which is possible. I did it and so has thousands of others.

Quitting cold turkey has its advantages. It’s cheap but it’s hard. I used gum, read books and when I had really bad cravings, I went for a brisk walks. I also did some NLP, which really worked for me.

Try to remember that cravings really lightened up after day 3. Although for some after the cravings don’t lighten up until the 7th day. In either case, the cravings do lighten up.

-By: Sherri Haggard

Sherri has been writing articles for nearly 2 years. Her recent Breast Cancer has led her to develop a wig site. Come visit her latest website over at http://blackhairwigs.org
which helps people find the best Long Human Hair Wigs

Chantix was shown to be quite effective as a smoking cessation treatment in clinical trials. In one clinical trial, it was seen that Chantix helped up to 51% people to quit smoking in 9-12 weeks and 12% people placed on placebo were able to stop smoking. This shows that Chantix helps more than half of the people to stop smoking. Chantix is even more effective than Zyban, another drug to stop smoking. In one comparative study, it was found that Chantix helped 44% people to stop smoking whereas Zyban helped only 30% of people. Chantix is even more effective in long term quitting because it facilitates abstinence more as compared to Zyban.

Are there any side effects of Chantix?

If you take Chantix to stop smoking, you might experience some mild to severe side effects. Most prescription drugs cause side effects and Chantix is no exception. Some of the common Chantix side effects are:

• Nausea
• Insomnia
• Headaches
• Abnormal dreams
• Gas
• Changes in taste
• Constipation

Most of the side effects of Chantix are actually withdrawal symptoms. So even if you don’t take Chantix to stop smoking, you may suffer from these effects after quitting. In fact, if you quit straight away, the intensity of these effects can increase.

What is the difference between Chantix and Zyban?

Both Chantix and Zyban are prescription oral drugs that do not contain nicotine. However, the 2 drug treatments have separate benefits and side effects.

While Chantix is a smoking cessation medication that is designed to block nicotine specifically, Zyban is an antidepressant that can enable you to stop smoking. In a recent study conducted at Oregon Health

A small weight gain is a normal thing but those who develop a habit of eating after they quit smoking can have large weight gains that might be a problem for them. Therefore, a proper diet plan and exercises should be the order of the day after you quit smoking.

However, weight gain should not be the reason that you do not want to kick this habit. You can keep your weight under control really easily. The main reason that certain ex smokers gain weight is due to the fact that the smoking activity burns up to 200 calories a day for medium to heavy smoking activity.

Since a large amount of calories is burnt, the metabolism within the smoker is boosted to a large extent. Another important factor is that nicotine works as an appetite suppressant that brings down the urge to eat food items. All these things tend to keep the weight constant for a person.

However, I’ve noticed overweight smokers in my life as well as thin ones. “But I’ll gain weight if I stop smoking.”… this is a weak excuse. In the long run through smoking, there is a possibility that the person looses weight and the body’s strength of immunity. Once the side effects of smoking are visible in you, it becomes difficult to repair the damage if not prevented in the early stages.

Weight gained after you quit smoking can be easily lost… I repeat EASILY LOST. However, the negative effects of smoking cannot be reduced within a week or two if they cause maximum damage.

The gain of 5 to 10 pounds during the first few months after you get rid of the smoking habit is a normal scenario. But then again, for some people they gain ZERO POUNDS! And in fact lose more weight because they’ve decided to get their lives in order, to get fit and healthy to be in charge of what goes into their body, to block out toxins and to take in only the good stuff.

Activities like walking, jogging, and swimming can help in a big way to reduce any unwanted weight gain.

The main reason your body wants more energy supply in the form of food could be due to the adjustment it goes through after you quit smoking. Increase in appetite is a minor side effect that ex smoker may or may not face during the initial days after quitting smoking.

Another reason is that nicotine acts as an appetite suppressant that makes the person avoid normal eating habits. Smokers fail to eat proper food during the day when they lit up for smoking. By blocking the release of insulin hormone on certain occasions, the necessary eating habits go off gear. The feeling of hunger vanishes from the person with smoking habit. Therefore, when a person quits smoking it is natural that the eating habits will get normal. However, there is a need to understand the body and its metabolism and avoid smoking completely.

The myth of excessive weight gain needs to be busted through constructive efforts like healthy snacks, exercise, avoiding alcohol, and being patient about the whole thing.

-By: Idris Arkette

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Just about every smoker on the planet has managed to quit smoking for days, weeks and months. But how do you stay quit from smoking for good? How do you manage to go that stage further than the last time you tried to stop.

I have quit smoking on four occasions now but I have finally managed to stay quit for 13 months and I tell you, it feels great. I have not thankfully become one of those annoying anti-smoking ex-smokers because I understand the mind of a real smoker, understand the pleasure a person gets from smoking and so I cannot possibly criticize anyone who smokes. What I can say though is that once you have stayed quit for over 6 months it becomes much easier and you actually don not think about it as often.

So how did I quit and stay quit once and for all? Well I took some advice of a friend who quit about three years ago.

He recommended that I detox my lungs as soon as possible. This is not pleasant and lasts about a week. The detox is not painful or anything but if I were to say that you actually see what a mess is inside your lungs first hand, then I think you get what I am talking about.

What it does is fast track the breakdown, and removal of toxins that have collected in your lungs over the period of time that you have been smoking. Once you are rid of these toxins then your body removes the physical cause of craving for a cigarette and just leaves you to cope with the mental side. Stopping smoking is a much easier thing to deal with once the physical cravings have been removed and you will find that even after a few days your getting a more positive outlook on life and a belief that you can stay stopped.

The funny thing is I actually remember hearing about this remedy many years ago, probably in my teens, so it has clearly been around for a while so I imagine many people have stopped and managed to stay quit from smoking over the years using this method.

Good luck with quitting smoking and I hope you begin feeling the benefits very soon.

-By: Martin Stan

Here is the lung detox plan I used. As I said, it is not very pleasant for few days at the beginning so make sure you have plenty of tissues at hand. It does work though: LUNG DETOX

The majority of smokers trying to get rid of their bad habit find the cravings or the urges for lighting up a cigarette to be the most difficult quit smoking symptoms to deal with. You can expect their frequency to be greater in the beginning and to drop gradually over time. Also, it has been calculated that the urges created by the addictive nature of nicotine last for approximately three to five minutes each. This is good news since there is a lot you can do for such a short period of time instead of sticking a cigarette in your mouth. You can try chewing gum or simply going out of the room to take a fresh gulp of air. It is a good idea to keep busy whenever you feel a craving to smoke. You can do a crossword or play a computer game if you are behind the computer. If you are at home you can make yourself a herbal tea or just go for a short walk to the grocery store and do some shopping. It is essential to remember why you have decided to quit smoking every time a craving comes – as said earlier there is nothing more powerful than the motivation.

The psychological quit smoking symptoms are also common – you can experience depression, anxiety, anger and boredom. These are not to be underestimated, but they can be cured naturally. During the first days after quitting the symptoms tend to be most severe so you can try to stop over the weekend in order not to have problems at work. You should find ways in which to be as relaxed as possible – for some this might be the listening to music to others doing an active sport. Spending more time with your loved ones will also help. Still, the great intake of food should not be the cure for these quit smoking symptoms. You will also find it beneficial to avoid drinking coffee and green tea and any other kinds of caffeine containing drinks to prevent anger and anxiety.

You will find it much easier to deal with the physical quit smoking symptoms such as tiredness, headaches, nausea and dizziness and sore throat. The simple over the counter vitamins and medications will do a great job. Also, try to rest as much as possible.

-By: Jack Sillow

Jack Sillow is an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) expert who specializes in smoking cessation treatments for normal people. He runs the site http://QuitGuide.net where he has posted the most comprehensive list of quit smoking symptoms.

I won’t lie to you. There is a very good chance that yes you will gain some extra pounds when you quit smoking. There is no getting around the fact that gaining weight usually goes hand and hand with quitting smoking. I know most men and women alike are very bothered with the thought of gaining unwanted weight, and understandably so. But be serious, between continuing smoking or gaining some extra pounds, which do you think may be more harmful.

When you finally make your decision to stop smoking, you cannot let the thought of gaining weight get in the way of your real goal which is to become an ex smoker.

Quitting smoking is hard enough without worrying about anything else. Your first priority must be not having another cigarette, for how ever long it takes to become smoke free. Then and only then when you have completely stopped smoking cigarettes for good and the craving for a cigarette is totally gone, should you even begin to think about gaining weight and dieting.

Be sure you don’t start to soon on a fad diet, that could spark your craving for a cigarette. That’s why you should go slowly.

First you should really be so very happy and proud of yourself. You have finally done it, you quit smoking which is no small feat. Take a moment and just enjoy the freedom you have now that you are a ex smoker. You can go to restaurants and to the movies and not have to rush right out so you can have that smoke

Take time to enjoy the new healthier you. Then when you think you are strong enough and believe you can handle a healthy diet, then and only then should you consider a diet to lose any of the weight you may have gained after your triumphant win over nicotine.

But remember quitting smoking was a big obstacle to overcome. So don’t start anything that could cause you undue stress, like worrying about your weight.

-By: Charmaine Hearn

As an ex smoker who smoked for more then 37 years, I know what a difficult task you have ahead for yourself. You can do it One of the most important things you can do for yourself is just take it one day at a time, and don’t get down on yourself if you slip up, just keep trying. For more information on how to quit smoking Click Here http://quitsmoking-hearn2.blogspot.com/.