Have you tried to stop smoking without cutting back first, only to smoke again a day or even an hour later? Many health practitioners will tell you that cold turkey is the only way to quit. What do you do if you simply can't quit this way? You must create a method to quit smoking that enables you to quit, your own way.
Have you tried cutting back a single cigarette at a time, over a period of a few weeks? Cutting back gradually allows you to wean your body of the addictive effects of nicotine. Additionally you will take charge of your addiction by smoking "on purpose."
Use the following steps to create a gradual stop smoking schedule for yourself:
Step 1. Determine how many cigarettes you normally use per day.
Step 2. Establish how rapidly you will quit smoking. In other words, how many cigarettes will you reduce each day? I recommend the number to use is 2 per day. I will call this the Daily Reduction Number.
Step 3. Divide #1 by #2. For example, if you smoke 60 cigarettes per day, divided by 2, you get the number 30. This is how many days you will need to eliminate your smoking.
Step 4. Take a piece of paper and on the left-hand side write out the number of days you calculated in step 3. For example, if your result was 20, write Day 20. Now below that write Day 19, Day 18, Day 17, etc. until you reach Day 1.
Step 5. From the bottom of the list (Day 1) write your Daily Reduction Number from step 2 (in this example, 2). On the line for Day 2, add the Daily Reduction Number to the number on Day 1. In our example, you would write 4 on Day 2. On Day 3 you add the Daily Reduction Number to your number on Day 2. Continue this process until you add up to the top of your list. You are only that number of days away from quitting smoking!
After taking the steps above you are now ready to begin cutting back, gradually. Carry your "countdown plan" with you wherever you go. You may want to put the plan inside your pack of cigarettes.
Begin the plan by smoking the number of cigarettes on the beginning date of your plan. Each time you smoke, make a mark next to the current day. When the number of marks equals the number of cigarettes specified for that day, you are done smoking for the day. Pace your smoking accordingly!
Here is a tip that will make this method 100% more effective by keeping you honest. Like most anything of value it takes some effort (but very little). At the beginning of day, gather together all the cigarettes you will be smoking that day. Since you can see exactly how many cigarettes you will be smoking that day, you can more easily judge how to pace your smoking. One more thing: if you get to the end of the day and have cigarettes left over, don't add them to the next day’s cigarettes. Just congratulate yourself for smoking less than your allotment.
Use the following formula to calculate your smoking reduction plan:
(Average Number of Cigarettes Smoked Daily) ____ / ____ (Daily Reduction Number) = ____ days
(for example 40 cigarettes / 2 cigarettes less per day = 20 days)
The plan I have outlined above is only one variation of the weaning method. Adjust the plan to suit your own situation, if this exact process doesn't fit for you.
Gradually reducing your cigarette smoking can be a highly effective way to destroy a cigarette addiction. By weaning yourself from the prison that is nicotine, and taking charge of your habit, you make quitting much more achievable. Start the weaning process today!
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Fred Kelley
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