Smoking Paraphernalia

Blog #11

It has been a while that I have not updated my story about my decision to quit smoking.

Anyway, I learned a lot some new ways in helping myself successfully stop smoking for almost four(4) months now.

One effective method on smoking cessation is removing all smoking paraphernalia from your household, car, and even from your workplace. You need to remove ashtrays, safety matches, or lighters from said locations.

Absence of those things will help you avoid smoking cigarette one more time.

7 proven ways to effectively quit smoking

Blog #10

Today is the 70th day since I ceased to smoke cigarette. I cannot say the process was easy, however, determination to quit smoking is the biggest factor. Health and financial concerns played a big role also.

Below are my proven ways to effectively quit smoking:

1. Never buy a cigarette
2. When shopping, never go to the section where cigarettes are sold
3. Temporarily avoid people who smoke
4. Tell everyone that you already stopped smoking including your pets
5. Go to places where cigarette smoking are not allowed
6. If you have a child, be with him/her always (I have a daughter myself!)
7. Again, never buy a cigarette

Above simple techniques proved to be effective with me. Ways to quit smoking may vary to other person.

Drinking Tea Will Help You Quit Smoking

Blog #9

Another technique I used to quit smoking, aside from not buying cigarette, is drinking tea.

Everyday, I drink 4 to 6 cups of green tea (2 cups in the morning, 3 cups in the afternoon, and 1 cup one hour before I go to bed). By this way, I lost my cravings to smoke up a cigarette one more time.

I do not know why, however, it is known to be associated with good health.

So, here’s the recap of my method to quit smoking:

1. Don’t buy cigarette ever;
2. Drink ample amount green tea everyday.

Smoking and Falling Hair

Blog #8

Nearly two months had passed since I cleared out my lungs of cigarette smoke, is already a great achievement.

When I was still smoking, I did not make any serious attention that my hair was falling. I failed to recognize any relationship between a balding person and cigarette smoking: my hair is thinning because of hereditary factors.

But I was wrong. A friend of mine, who was previously a cigarette smoker himself, told me that smoking can help advance the thinning of hair due to lowered blood flow in the scalp. I tried to use minoxidil to help restore the growth of my hair but no success as falling of hair resumes when I discontinued the treatment.

Now that I stop smoking, I hope too that the thinning of my hair will be reduced or minimized.

Beneficial Health Changes When You Stop Smoking

Blog #7

After six weeks since I stop smoking, health changes are noticeable this time.

My lungs has started clearing out mucus and other smoking debris while my ability to taste and smell has greatly improved.

I can breathe deeper now without experiencing back pains. My bad breathe caused by nicotine and tar is eliminated and smell like a baby breathe now even in the morning.

My energy has also increased.

Again my advice, if you really want to stop smoking, imagine one of the best things you could do in your life. Making a complete break from smoking. Think about how great it would be to leave those health worries behind you. Picture yourself, waking up and feeling totally fresh. Surely, you will not smoke again.

If wish to recieve email notice on update of this blog, just email me at: lanslub @ gmail.com Subject: Smoking Update.

Good for the Heart

Blog #6

First of all, I want to greet my growing list of readers a Happy Valentines to you all!

If you have noticed, some cigarette packs are printed with words like: “Government Warning: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.” Another warning says: “Smoking is the number one cause of Heart Disease.”

Nicotine and Tar are identified to cause our arteries to harden resulting to an increased blood pressure. While this may take sometime to develop but it will eventually result to enlarging heart. Studies showed that an enlarged heart is one of the cause of heart attacks.

Quitting smoking will make you have a healthier heart and have a better life.

Happy Day of Hearts to All!

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Cigars versus cigarettes: which is the lesser evil?

There are claims that stress how much cigars are safer to smoke than cigarettes. Well, this is no a fact at all. It just so happened that cigar smokers are only occasional smokers and majority of the smoking population are into cigarettes so the gauge of how cigars is not that obvious. But, it must be known to people that cigars are not safer at all.

The following are the reasons that would tell you that the choice of smoking cigar is not lesser evil than smoking cigarettes.

• Tobacco is much in amount in cigars than cigarettes. This fact makes cigar much dangerous for as we all know, there are harmful elements found in tobacco. According to studies, a single cigar contains more tobacco than a whole pack of cigarettes.
• Experts identified that cigarettes are containing lesser nicotine. Compared with 8 milligrams found in nicotine, cigars have 100 to 200 milligrams. This only shows how much danger cigar could cause over cigarettes.
• A single cigar a day increases the possibility of acquiring cancer. Cancer involving the lungs, as well as the pancreas is common for those who are into cigar smoking.
• Cigarette smoke is not as toxic as cigar smoke. As what is shown by studies, cigars must undergo fermentation, this stage produces some of the most cancerous elements. Another thing is that the cigar wrappers are less porous compared to that of cigarettes. This has something to do with combustion. Proper combustion decreases the amount of harmful elements of a cigar or cigarette.
• For men, cigar smoking is associated with sterility or some problems like erectile dysfunction. The harmful components of a cigar is penetrating much on hormones that may cause this disorder.

These are just some of the harmful effects of cigar smoking and how harmful it could get comparing to cigarettes. The issue here is not what to smoke, cigar or cigarettes? He point is that, smoking is not beneficial at all. Yes, you harm yourself and even harm innocent secondhand-smokers.

Withdrawal Symptoms

Blog #5

I asked a coughing friend of mine why he doesn't stop smoking. "In this town it wouldn't do any good," he explained. "I happen to be a chain breather." The saying is attributed to Robert Sylvester (1907 - 1975)

Just like anyone who decides to abandon or quit something they have been used to in their casual activities, will probably experience the so called "Withdrawal Symptoms".

Same of me, on the other hand as I decided to quit smoking more than a month ago, now experiencing the following withdrawal symptoms:

1. Whooping Cough – this may be due to the loosening of nicotine or tar on my lung tissues;
2. Headache – caused by shortness of breath due to whooping cough;
3. Back pain – may be due to my lung’s reaction on the reduction of pollutants from the alveoli where the air is exchanged.

The above are just some of the withdrawal symptoms I am still experiencing since I decided to quit smoking. It had disturbed my daily routines and sometimes became a good time for my smoking companions to laugh at me. But this will not discourage me, as I continue my journey on quitting cigarette smoking. That is all for now.

Smoking Habit - It is all in the mind

Blog #4

It is almost a month now (actually the 31st day) since I thought and decided to stop and kick my smoking habit.

At first, I doubted I cannot survive the urge of smoking cigarette when, above all, you are surrounded with cigarette smokers who are challenging that you will not last a week or two. It is so hard on situation like these when peer pressure disrupts your desire to avoid lighting up a cigarette one more.

What should I do to avoid smoking cigarette? I just keep telling my self not to smoke, not buy cigarette, and tell people that I already ceased to smoke. Maybe not all will mutually cooperate but they will understand later the importance of quitting smoking.

Well friends, the issue to quit smoking is not having a miracle to happen in a wink of an eye. It falls on the issue on your determination to stop smoking by any method available within your self and on the environment that you belong.

That is all for now, and on my next blog, I will share to you some tips how I was able to stop smoking successfully for the last 30 days.

Diseases Caused By Smoking

Blog #3

No update for today, however here is an articles I found in health magazine worth reading.

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Reasons to Quit Smoking

Aside from your family and friends giving you their countless reasons to quit smoking there are a million other reasons to quit smoking that you should consider. With a government that seems to back this opportunity with a good amount of literature on the reasons to quit smoking, it is important for you to take full advantage of the opportunity. If you are serious about quitting this nasty habit but haven’t yet found the right reasons to quit smoking then you need to look at a few statistics that are courtesy of your government:

In 2003, 45.4 million adults (21.6 percent) in the United States were current smokers—24.1 percent of men and 19.2 percent of women. For the first time since data collection began in 1965, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among women declined below 20 percent. Those who try to tell you that smoking is relaxing, enjoyable, or even just “cool” are flat out wrong as these numbers continue to decline. Fact is, people are quitting everyday, isn’t joining them a good enough reason to quit smoking in and of itself?

By education level, adults who had earned a General Educational Development (GED) diploma (44.4 percent) had the highest prevalence of smoking; those with master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees had the lowest prevalence (7.5 percent). Whether you reached a certain level of education or not you should be smart enough to realize the reasons to quit smoking. It is much more difficult to get an education or pay for your education than to quit smoking or pay for your smoking habit. Let saving money in itself be one of your biggest reasons to quit smoking.

The list of diseases caused by smoking has been expanded to include abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, pneumonia, periodontitis, and stomach cancer. These are in addition to diseases previously known to be caused by smoking, including bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, and throat cancers, chronic lung diseases, coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, as well as reproductive effects and sudden infant death syndrome. Can you honestly tell me that these are not reasons enough to quit smoking? If you say it’s not then you are beyond help, none of the reasons to quit smoking will ever change your mind.

Reasons Why I Want To Quit Smoking

Blog #2

In this blog, I write about the reasons why I decided to stop smoking. I feel that it is important that you have a number of good reasons as to why you want to stop smoking, as this will help you to get through the great number of cravings that you will no doubt have. I hope this blog proves to be of encouragement and can help other people to cut cigarettes out of their lives once and for all.

When several governments around the globe have tried to encourage people to stop smoking, they always seem to go down the health route. It could be by showing a man who is dying of cancer for example. I knew about all of the health risks that were involved with smoking but still I continue to do it. This was because in my own mind these health problems were unlikely to really start affecting me for around ten years. I used to say to myself that there is a good chance that I will not be alive in thirty years time and that I should live for today. I would also try to persuade myself that if I do live for another thirty years that there is a good chance that they will have found a cure for cancer by that point. When I decided to stop smoking, health was one of the reasons why I wanted to quit, but it was by no means the main reason.

The main reason was without doubt financial. The price of a packet of twenty cigarettes in the RP has rocketed upwards over the last few years. It is not that I can not afford to continue buying cigarettes; it is that I would rather spend the money on other things such as clothes or a holiday. I have worked out that I save over a thousand pesos a year by abstaining smoking. This for me is a lot of money and was what I always thought of when the cravings in my head were trying to convince me to light just one last cigarette.

There were of course other reasons why I wanted to stop smoking. These include the amount they make your clothes smell, the amount they make your house smell, the effect they have on your teeth, the fact that most women find smoking a turn off and the sheer dependency that one can get from cigarettes. For example I feel a bit stressed, I must therefore have a cigarette. I am drinking tea, therefore I must smoke a cigarette.

Quit Smoking

Blog #1

As the new year starts, my resolution would be that I will stop cigarette smoking for good.

I had been a smoker for almost ten years now. At a rate of one pack day, that would translate a huge number of cigarettes sticks burned through all those years.

I tried several times to quit cigarette smoking. But all those attempts were not successful as my cravings to smoke become more intense the moment I decided to stop it.

I thought changing brands can help reduce smoking as new taste will discourage to smoke one more, but what happened is the reverse of it.

Now, I hope that I will be successful and I will post here the actions I do to really quit smoking. If I will not smoke cigarette until six month, I will consider it a success. Wish me luck.