I never thought I would be able to break my smoking habit. It seemed like I was always waiting until the stress in my life was at a minimum to begin to quit and of course that just never seemed to happen. I used my smoking as a stress reliever and I just didn't know what to replace it with. I was afraid of gaining weight and it seemed like every time I stopped smoking I replaced eating with my smoking and as soon as I saw a weight gain over five pound I was once again smoking. So, I was sure I was going to have to find a behavior to replace my smoking or other methods of dealing with stress. At work instead of taking ten minutes smoke breaks I started to replace them with ten minute walks outside in the parking lot. In the mornings instead of a cigarette with my coffee I ate a healthy breakfast instead of my usual breakfast of a cigarette and coffee. After eating instead of a smoking I took a walk or worked out or read a book. In the car I listened to books on tape or music that took my mind off usual times in the car when I would smoke. It wasn't easy but I started replacing other activities and habits for times when I would usually smoke. When I decided that I had to break the smoking habit I started with a list of pros and cons for my decision to smoke or to quit. In other words what I was getting out of smoking and then the cons to keeping with my smoking habit. Of course the pros far outweighed the cons. The financial and health cost of a smoking habit makes the decision to continue one you cant really justify in any sense except for the fact that as a smoker this is a habit that you enjoy. After I made my list I hung this list up on my bathroom mirror and also on my refrigerator door. I wanted everyday to see my motivation for changing my behavior this helped quite a bit since quitting smoking is a decision on has to make everyday day by day. When you stop smoking you have to expect some times when you may slip but in times past once I slipped I just accepted failure and started smoking full steam ahead but this time if I slipped and bought a pack of cigarettes or smoked one I begged from a friend I allowed myself forgiveness for not being perfect and started right back up. When I saw the scales go up I made sure to exercise more and not to replace eating with smoking. I also rewarded myself by pampering myself with something I usually wouldn't do for myself. Maybe by a splurge on shopping or a movie I wanted to see a nice dinner a Starbucks coffee just something I enjoyed to remind myself that smoking wasn't the only enjoyable thing for me. I can't say I still don't think about smoking from time to time and probably always will but I also remind myself that what you save is money your health and generally just feeling better. Your clothes don't smell like smoke your hair doesn't reek of smoke you can taste the food you eat. You can also put the money you would have used for buying cigarettes into a saving account and watch it add up.
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