Great American Smokeout; American Cancer Society Ad ~

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Great American Smokeout; Going Cold Turkey ~

If you're a pack-a-day smoker, this means going from 20 to 0 cigarettes in the matter of a day. With the cold turkey method, you completely stop your smoking all at once, relying on your will power to fight your nicotine addiction.

This is the most popular, yet possibly the most uncomfortable, tobacco reduction or cessation strategy. It involves setting a reduction or quit date, and simply reducing or quitting on that date without any prior reduction, preparation or nicotine withdrawal.

The "cold turkey" approach can cause mild to severe nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Drastic reductions in tobacco use will result in withdrawal symptoms that can include irritability, fatigue, headache, insomnia, constipation, sweating, coughing, poor concentration, depression, increased appetite, and cravings for tobacco.

Quitting cold turkey is extremely difficult because most of us have lives that require us to function as somewhat normal human beings for most of the day. When you are suffering through the initial five days of craziness without nicotine, you will feel more like an angry, rabid bear than a human, and you will be about as fit company for other humans. Here are some things you can do to make quitting cold turkey difficult as opposed to impossible:

* Smoke until your last day of work or school, and then begin quitting on the weekend (or whatever days you have off).
* Indulge in other things you like, to the point of foolishness if you feel like it, during the first few days; sleep a lot and watch a lot of TV.
* Avoid situations that frustrate you – you won't deal with frustration very well.
* Avoid any place where people will be smoking.
* Call people whom you know well enough to impose upon and complain to them about how lousy you feel.
* Keep a lot of your favorite non-alcoholic drinks on hand. You will probably feel very thirsty, you'll want to replace the oral gratification of cigarettes with something, and drinking fluids helps to flush the nicotine out of your system faster.
* Have something to do with your hands and/or your mouth. If you like chewing gum, chew it, if you like ripping apart action figures, do so.
* Remember that you're one cigarette away from failure.

These hints apply to some degree to every method of quitting smoking, but if you quit cold turkey you need all the help you can get

Great American Smokeout; Fast Facts ~

It's time to kick off the Great American Smokeout week ~
The American Cancer Society first sponsored this event in 1977. On the third Thursday in November of each year, the Great American Smokeout encourages people to stop smoking, even if it is for just one day.

Fast Facts:

*Held on the third Thursday of November each year.
* 2009 Great American Smokeout: Thursday, November 19th
* Challenge: Quit smoking for 24 hours
* The Great American Smokeout began in Massachusetts in 1971 when a high school guidance counselor asked people to give up cigarettes for a day.
* The idea caught on and the first "D-Day" or "Don't Smoke Day" was held in Minnesota in 1976. * The American Cancer Society began sponsoring the event in 1977.
* By the early 1980s, nearly 16.5 million people participated in the Great American Smokeout.
* Smokers who smoke one pack a day spend about $1,600 a year on cigarettes.
* Use of tobacco products contributed to over 438,000 premature deaths in the U.S. between 1997 and 2001.
* 87 percent of lung cancer deaths are associated with smoking.
* At least 16 types of cancer are associated with smoking.

Great American Smoke Out, 2009 ~

November 19th 2009;

Less than five days from now --
it's almost time and it's the perfect time to set your date and prepare to quit for good!

In an effort to help anyone who desires to quit now I want to encourage you to read and follow my previous post, ~ 11 Steps ~ . This will give you many of the tools you need.

If you want to strip it down to the bare bones there was a post in August, Preparing To Quit: which will break it down to five simple steps, however it all comes down to one real trait -- Commitment.
And for even more encouragement, men may want to read: Do It For Your Penis ~ If that's not encouragement, I'm not sure what else would be.

A good read for both men and women would be Tobacco Facts ~ from September. It's scary that we continue to smoke with all the knowledge we have in today's day and age.