New Year's resolution: Time to go smoke-free

By Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.3
from the Mayo Clinic Smoke Free Blog ...

As attention shifts to a new year ahead, it brings about a focus on change, what we want to be new and different in our lives.

Most New Year's resolutions are sound in what they represent, but fall flat due to lack of planning and lack of actual resolve. Many wish for the change and set the intention to lose weight, exercise more or quit smoking, but without making a definitive decision, accompanied by determination and a doable plan, success will be evasive at best.

The result of broken resolutions is a betrayal of the self. Whenever you tell yourself you'll do something, and then you don't complete it, you erode your self-trust. You then have to make justifications for why you didn't follow through, which can show up as blame or pity. When you don't trust yourself in one area of your life, how can you really live authentically in other aspects?

Let 2011 be the year you choose to become smoke-free. It doesn't have to be on the first day of the year. Don't get attached to the date; just be resolved about the final outcome. If you slip, it's OK. Just connect to your resolve and start again as soon as possible.

Here are a few tips to help you get geared up for success:

* Plan, plan, plan. Know what you will do instead of smoking before your quit date. Get your supplies of both tobacco cessation aids, like the patch, and substitutes for your hands and mouth.

* Consider exceptions. You might feel like you can't quit, but think of a time when this wasn't true. You may have quit in the past or perhaps you can go all day long at work without a cigarette. Perhaps there was something else in your life you thought you couldn't do and you proved yourself wrong. Find whatever it is that shows you're capable and hold that image.

* Be purposeful. Dedicate yourself to you and your health. Grow your self-esteem and self-trust by following through over and over again until you achieve the success you want.

* Future focus. How will you feel when you conquer your tobacco addiction? I predict you'lll feel more confident, capable and have a deep knowing that you can accomplish anything you commit to. How will the rest of your life be impacted by this?

Make 2011 your time to finally resolve to be tobacco free and start living the life you really want!

Merry Christmas ... and a Happier New Year!

1) WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU - Find out about all of the free NHS services available to support you as you go smoke free. There are lots of options across Hampshire located in easily accessible places, such as GP surgeries, pharmacies or community centers.

2) TAKE THE ADDICTION TEST – Are you an addict? Easy question and you know the answer!

3) MAKE A DATE – Consider 01/01/11 Research shows that the more prepared you are, the more likely you are to succeed in going smoke free. The first thing to do is choose a stress-free day to stop a few weeks from now. This gives you a day to aim for and time to prepare.

4) MAKE A PROMISE THIS CHRISTMAS - What better way to motivate yourself to stop smoking than to promise to quit for those who love and support you?

5) QUIT TOGETHER - The support provided by the Together Program may be perfect for those with a busy lifestyle. You have a friend for support, encouragement and advice including regular mail packs, emails, supportive text messages and phone calls.

6) SUPPORT AVAILABLE - Use nicotine replacement products or other stop smoking medicines to cope with the withdrawal symptoms.

7) COUNT UP THE SAVINGS - Just imagine when you go smoke free, how much extra money will be in your pocket – and spending this Christmas!

8 HEALTH TIMELINE - The first few days after you quit can be challenging but you'll be amazed at how quickly your body starts to recover. The benefits start almost immediately - Use our interactive timeline on the website to see how your body improves after you stop smoking.

After 20 minutes - Blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal…and you have saved 5.9p so far, so just keep going …

After 8 hours - Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in blood reduce by half, oxygen levels return to normal…£1.42 saved – maybe not that much, but you can already feel the improvement in both pocket & body….

9. TAKE A DEEP BREATH - Use a carbon monoxide monitor to see for yourself how quickly your body recovers once you stop smoking. Local NHS Stop Smoking Services offer carbon monoxide monitoring as part of their stop smoking programmes – a great motivating tool to keep you going.

10. SPRING CLEAN YOUR HEALTH - Chuck out your ashtrays, matches and lighters and anything else you needed to smoke. Put potpourri where your ashtrays used to be – your home will smell fresher in no time at all.

11. CHANGE YOUR ROUTINE – Keep in mind that you have taken steps to positively improve your life in a variety ways by quitting smoking. Change your usual daily routine to counteract your old smoking triggers. Do something to help you relax such as taking a hot bath, exercise, or reading. Plan something enjoyable to do every day – you deserve it.

12. TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME - each day without a cigarette is good news for your health, your family and your pocket.

Please DO Lead Me From Temptation ~

What a long depressing week ...

No need to go into it all here. But I did finally visit a Smoke Shoppe.

I went to the post office to overnight a very important letter. That was the only time in two days I had left the house. After leaving the post office I went straight to a 'New-American' run C-store and Smoke Shop.

When I entered the woman in line just ahead of me was bumped and pushed by three inconsiderate teenagers leaving the crowded little store. She turned my direction to show her displeasure with the youth.

I nodded in agreement and then just asked her if she had just one cigarette I could have. NO, that was why she was there. She wanted to know why I wanted just one and if I had already quit. Yes, I said I was well into my 500 days but had a really bad week.

She told me I should turn around and leave. She said she'd give anything to be in my shoes. (I doubt that, especially not this week). I know I almost had tears in my eyes. I just reiterated: I had a really bad week. But she was right, I should leave, the desire will leave me eventually.

I left -- Drove to the next c-store and craving wasn't gone. I pulled in. I pulled back out and went on back home. The craving and desire did finally leave me.

And I'm now (and Still) 537 Days Smoke Free!

~ MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY ~

Stress and Smoking ~

We all know pretty much what is required in order to stay healthy. Get plenty of sleep, drink plenty of water, eat the right kinds and amounts of food, drink in moderation, don’t smoke, and so on. We all know this, but very few of us get this right. Why? Well, in many cases, it may be due to stress.

Smoking is an example of something we may do that is unhealthy but may help us cope with stress. Most smokers take a break in order to smoke. The smoking is relaxing as they take time from their work or activities in order to “light up”. But what is really happening is that each puff is actually only relieving the tension caused in the body due to nicotine withdrawal. And that can be said for many addictions, including pain relievers, caffeine, alcohol, even food. Without these addictions, the stress would be even greater.

You see, these “addictions” and bad behaviors only multiply the adverse effects of stress. In order to fight your stress, you must first “peel the onion” to get through all the layers of behaviors that you have created to help you deal with your stress in the first place. The only way to succeed is to first gauge your level of stress and how you have been dealing with it until now. Then you can create an action plan to address each and every behavior that gets in the way of you living a full and stress-free life.

Come along with me to the next section and let’s get started.

Not Even In Moderation, Study Finds ~

Think the occasional cigarette won't hurt? Even a bit of social smoking — or inhaling someone else's secondhand smoke — could be enough to block your arteries and trigger a heart attack, says the newest surgeon general's report on the killer the nation just can't kick.

Lung cancer is what people usually fear from smoking, and yes, that can take years to strike. But Thursday's report says there's no doubt that tobacco smoke begins poisoning immediately — as more than 7,000 chemicals in each puff rapidly spread through the body to cause cellular damage in nearly every organ.

"That one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack," said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.

Or the one that triggers someone else's: "I advise people to try to avoid being around smoking any way that you can," she said.

Health highlights Nation of whiners shares every ache, pain
From raging sinus headaches to relentless insomnia to those weird toe cramps we get when we wear the wrong shoes, Americans are no longer suffering in silence about their aches and pains.

About 443,000 Americans die from tobacco-caused illnesses every year. While the smoking rate has dropped dramatically since 1964, when the first surgeon general's report declared tobacco deadly, progress has stalled in the past decade. About 46 million adults — one in five — still smoke, and tens of millions more are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. The government had hoped to drop the smoking rate to 12 percent by this year, a goal not only missed but that's now been put off to 2020.

Thursday's report is the 30th issued by the nation's surgeons general to warn the public about tobacco's risks.

"How many reports more does Congress need to have to say that cigarettes as a class of products ought to be banned?" asked well-known nicotine expert Dr. K. Michael Cummings of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, who helped to review the report. "One-third of the patients who are in our hospital are here today because of cigarettes."

Still, this newest report is unusual because it devotes more than 700 pages to detail the biology of how cigarette smoke accomplishes its dirty deeds — including the latest genetic findings to help explain why some people become more addicted than others, and why some smokers develop tobacco-caused disease faster than others.

There is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke, whether you deliberately inhale it or are a nonsmoker who breathes in other people's fumes, the report concludes. Nor is there evidence yet to tell if efforts to develop so-called safer cigarettes really will pan out.

But more recently it's become clear that some of the harms — especially those involving the heart — kick in right away, said Dr. Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That means social smoking, the occasional cigarette at a party, can be enough to trigger a heart attack in someone whose arteries already are silently clogged, he said.

"Too often people think the occasional social cigarette is not so dangerous, when in fact this report says yes, it is," he said.

So is breathing secondhand smoke. When Pueblo, Colo., banned smoking in all public places in 2003, the number of people hospitalized for heart disease plummeted 41 percent in just three years, the report found.

Why? Cigarette smoke immediately seeps into the bloodstream and changes its chemistry so that it becomes more sticky, allowing clots to form that can squeeze shut already narrowed arteries, the report explains. That's in addition to the more subtle long-term damage to blood vessels themselves, making them more narrow. And no one knows how little it takes to trigger that clotting.

Kicking the habit lets your body start healing, Benjamin stressed: "It's never too late to quit but the sooner you quit the better. Even if you're 70, 80 years old and you're a smoker, there's still benefit from quitting."

Don't Stress the Small Stuff ~

My new boss needs a new whipping boy ... So glad it can be me.

Couple that with two of my four kids leaving for bootcamp this week, my other two -- one across country, the other across the globe -- and I have to say I have a stress filled week.

Oh -- and my annual Christmas job at the Post Office. This is my second year there as a non smoker, which is a very good thing considering how cold it is outside.

Anyway, I was just sitting in my bosses office getting 're-directed' and all I could think about was how much longer would it be before I could go outside and have smoke. But then I kept reminding myself that I do NOT smoke!

The thought actually occurred to me -- the VERY DANGEROUS thought, mind you -- that I wonder if it'd be okay to run to the store and just buy ONE pack of cigs .. and then just smoke ONE or maybe TWO ............. We all know how that goes.

I'm an addict; with an addictive personality, obviously .... & just like any recovering addict, there is now such thing as 'JUST ONE" .... only the LAST one!

And that was over 515 days ago for me ... & STILL counting. Thank Goodness. :)