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This checklist can be used to help you take the necessary steps to stop smoking. Check off an item each time you complete a step and get ready to progress to the next section. Good luck on your path to a smoke free lifestyle!
Quitting
- Make a personal pact with yourself to quit.
- Pick a date for quitting completely (my date is _____________).
- Write down the three most important reasons for quitting on a card. Carry it with you from now on. Look at it several times each day.
- Prior to quitting, eliminate smoking completely in two or three of your high-risk situations.
- Reduce consumption to one pack a day or less.
- Change to a less desirable brand of cigarettes.
- Discard your lighter; use matches.
- Carry your cigarettes in a different place.
- Spend a little time each day picturing in your mind stressful events occurring in the future and you are not smoking.
- Consider enrolling in a formal smoking cessation class or support group
Click here for more information on programs offered in your area.
Actual Quitting: The First Two Weeks
Get rid of ALL cigarettes! Put away all smoking related objects such as ashtrays. Ask people you live with not to smoke in your presence for two weeks.
- Spend as much time as possible with non-smoking people.
- Keep busy, especially on evenings and weekends.
- Avoid “high risk” situations (large parties, bars, etc).
- Spend lots of time in environments that discourage smoking (e.g., theaters, libraries).
- Drink plenty of fluids.
- Practice yoga, breathing or other relaxation techniques.
- Don’t substitute food or sugar based products for cigarettes. Instead choose ice water, high bulk/low calorie foods, brushing teeth.
- Begin (or increase) a regular exercise program including aerobics, stretching and weights.
- When experiencing withdrawal effects:
1. Remind yourself of why you are quitting (from your card).
2. Remind yourself that whatever discomfort you are feeling is only a fraction of the probable discomfort associated with continued smoking (i.e. painful diseases, surgery, chemotherapy).
3. Remind yourself that you can free yourself from this unhealthy, expensive, messy and disgusting habit and become a nonsmoker.
Now that you have completed the first two stages congratulate yourself. Celebrate by enjoying a favorite activity that does not involve a smoking environment. You can now move on to the maintenance stage of quitting.
Maintenance of Quitting: After Two Weeks
- Remind yourself that the desire to smoke is linked to a great many situations, certain individuals, and your emotional state of mind.
- When you do have a desire to smoke, remember that it only lasts a few seconds; distract yourself, and leave the situation if necessary.
- After each desire to smoke has passed, give yourself a “pat on the back” --you have just made progress in breaking your habit forever.
- Save the money you wasted on cigarettes in a “special fund” and buy something nice for yourself.
Maintenance of Quitting: After Two Months
- Be particularly vigilant when unusual life events occur (e.g., weddings, holidays, and vacations).
- Be particularly vigilant when stressful life events occur (e.g., relationship problem
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