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So why should we quit smoking and go through weeks of cravings? To protect our health and boost our lung power right? It seems like an obvious question with a straightforward answer but it is a very good idea to write down all the benefits of becoming a non smoker before you start stopping, and have your list close to hand for those trying times, because there will be trying times, wo mamma!

Money to burn: using cigarettes is a very costly habit. Of course it doesn’t seem so bad when it is an individual purchase, a few pounds or dollars, but if you had all the money you spent in a year on smoking in your hands at one time, say for example between two and three thousand pounds, I very much doubt anyone would wish to hand over that money to a faceless company and in return all you get back is a rasping cough and lungs like wet toilet paper. Think about that for moment or three… It’s utter lunacy!

How and why you started smoking could be and important factor in how you quit. The age you started and the circumstances have created a series of beliefs which are locked away in your subconscious.

One of the strangest stories I heard was a young girl at age eight was prescribed cigarettes to address and hyper active state which today would be called ADD. Soon she was sneaking more and more cigarettes but her behavior never changed. This happened decades ago but the way she started has been a controlling factor ever since.

She was given the cigarettes in the hope that she would just sit and be quiet after meals while she smoked. In her subconscious she filed away the idea that smoking would calm her down and let her relax

A common and popular way to stop smoking is the one we have all heard of, and the one some of us fear, the dreaded “cold turkey”.
The phrase cold turkey means to stop a bad habit immediately and usually to go through withdrawals, mood swings, nasty cravings and a touch of the sweats. Some doctor or other coined the phrase while observing drug addicts going through withdrawal symptoms, when in this state of stress the body diverts blood to the internal organs and the skin becomes white with goose bumps, making it look like turkey skin.

Luckily for the person quitting smoking this withdrawal phase does not last forever, usually between one and two weeks, sometimes three for a heavy smoker. It is one of the most common ways to quit but is it a good way? It definitely has a lower success rate than other methods, hypnosis for example, but I believe it is a very good way to quit.