Nurture Your Own

Should you choose to quit smoking on a special day – like Valentine’s Day, on a Friday, or the 4th July? There is honestly no hard and fast rule, but, if you had tried stopping on a special day like this, and failed, please reconsider.

The main problem with selecting a special day is that you may not really be ready to quit on that day or worse, not ready to stop at all. You know you should be quitting smoking, but deep insider you, you really don’t have the desire to stop. Because you know to kick the addictive habit is no stroll in a park. It is hard and we human beings always tend to avoid pain at all cost.

The truth is if you are not ready, then don’t bother because your chances of success will be slim.

Rather than stop smoking on a special day, select a day that’s going to workfor you.

To illustrate, there will be some days when you smoke more than other days. So, if you smoke excessively on Monday, don’t pick Monday as the starting point. If you usually don’t smoke during weekends, pick a Saturday to quit smoking.

Any time is a good time to quit smoking when you have the will. However, if you want the best chance of being successful, you;ll have to invest enough attention to your own requirement so that your chances to quit successful is higher. It is definitely not a good feeling nor a good start to stop a few days and then go back to smoke even more.

Additional reading if you need more help to quit:

Quit Smoking Right Now program by Rick Beneteau

Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Quit Smoking Painlessly Now.

If you smoke one pack a day, you will spend about $1192 a year.

If you puff 2.5 pack a day, the figure will rise to $2983 a year.

The research is done by Rick Beneteau.

Can you imagine what you can do with this money if you chose to stop smoking? However, many people also have to spend money to quit smoking.

Rick Beneteau said the following is the amount of money a smoker could spend on another attempt at “chemical” quitting:

1. Quit Smoking programs range from free to $1,000.00′s. Most fail. Miserably.

2. A Nicotrol Inhaler will cost you approx. $509.88.

3. Three months of chewing Nicorettes will cost you approx. $337.50.

4. Seven  weeks of swallowing Zyban pills will cost you anywhere from $160.08 to $300.00+ depending on where you purchase.

5. Three  months of “withdrawal munchies” (with other programs) will add at least $700.00 to your grocery bill.

Additional reading:

Quick Smoking Today

Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

You would have thought that when the economy is experiencing a downturn, smokers would smoke less to make sure they still can buy some bacon home.

Nope. The opposite is likely to happen for many smokers. Instead of smoking less, they actually puff even faster and harder.

Mindful of escalating prices, increasingly worries about losing job or suffering a pay cut plus the uncertainties of the future brought forth tremendous pressure, stress, frustration, anger, feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. Where can they get help and whom they can look towards for a helping hand? Not many. Most people are in the same boat too. So instead of lamenting and complaining like before, smokers kept their silence and sought solace in the rings of smokes.

Is it solace they got? The smokers chose not to see that they are actually damaging their physical and financial health further by puffing more.

Smoking is bad for health, especially detrimental to the throat and lungs. Smokers knew it but chose to believe such illnesses only happen on other people, not them.

Smoking is also bad for the pocket, it studs out money that can be better utilized elsewhere. Smokers knew it too but they justified that cigarettes are their only indulgence in this hard time.

Assuming a bloke spent a mere USD5 smoking, he would use at least USD150 a month for this addiction. That could have been a week’s worth of petrol or groceries, or it could be a treat to the theater with a date or even some great books from Borders or a financial workshop on your bottom line.

I guess the above is just wishful thinking. I would have thought there are less shoppers this Christmas, instead we saw sales soaring on Boxing Days all over the world – from troubled USA, UK, Australia to the orients like Singapore and Hong Kong.  People still rush for retail therapy when they knew they should be more prudent in their expenditure. The shoppers justified by saying that they were saving more in the long run. Really?

I wish smokers are wise like my pal. This 32-year guy gave up smoking in November, and he found that he was USD450 richer.  The money he would have used for cigarettes, cigars, menthol sweets and whatnot went to dressing up his house and buying presents for his wife and three kids last Christmas. He did not become any richer, but his physical and financial bottom line did look a lot healthier!

Additional Reading:

Up Your Bottom Line by Knowing Your Wealth Dynamics

Quit Smoking Painlessly Now.

Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

According to Dr Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and her colleagues, smoking increases the risk of moderate to severe PMS and provides another reason for women especially adolescents and young women, not to smoke.

Smoking has been shown to affect levels of several different hormones and the handful of studies looking into PMS and smoking have suggested that women with the syndrome are more likely to be smokers.

These researchers looked at a subset of women who were PMS-free during the first 2 years of the study, comparing 1057 who did go on to develop PMS to 1968 who did not.

The women who were current smokers were 2.1 times more likely than non smokers to report PMS within 2 -4 years. Women who picked up smoking at a tender age had their risk increases.  Dr Bertone- Johnson said,

“Previous studies suggested that smoking may alter levels of oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone and other hormones, many of which may be involved in the development of PMS.”

“Some studies have found that smokers have shorter and more irregular menstrual cycles than non-smokers”

“Smoking may also lower levels of vitamin D in the body, which also may increase a woman’s risk of developing PMS”.

Additional Reading:

Quit Smoking Painlessly Now.

Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Smoking creates an imbalance in women’s hormone levels, which leads to changes in body shape.

Some folks said smokers are thinner than non-smokers. However, smoking actually affects the endocrinal system – the glands that secrete hormones – and changes body shape, increasing the waist-to-hip ratio. So, despite possibly weighing less, smokers can be pot-bellied with spindly legs. This is attributed to smoking upsetting the hormone levels. This, in turn, resulted in smokers storing normal amount of fat in an abnormal way. So smokers tend to acquire an ‘apple’ shape.

Stop smoking means your body can get back to normal and recover from the effects of smoking.You want to look young, you have to delay the process of aging. Smoking accelerated the process of aging.

Additional Read: Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

You may know smoking is the cause for respiratory problems, heart diseases, lung cancer and stroke but do you know these …

Smoking causes Blindness:

In a cross-cultural survey in Scotland and Singapore, only 1 in 3 respondents was aware that smoking can cause blindness! The survey was conducted by a group at Scotland’s Ninewell Hospital and Singapore’s Alexandra Hospital from November 2007 to February 2008. Researchers polled 112 participants from Scotland and 163 participants from Singapore to compare their awareness of various smoking-related conditions as well as attitudes towards the use of graphic health warning labels printed on cigarette packs.

85% in both countries knew the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, mouth and throat cancer (oral cancer) and stroke but only about one-third of the respondents knew about smoking causes blindness. More info to read here.

Smoking causes Baldness:

According to The New York Times, epidemiological studies looked at more than 600 men and women, with 50% of them being smokers. After controlling for variables, researchers found a significant and consistent link between smoking and early greying. More info can be read here.

Whether it’s for functional and aesthetic reasons, smokers should really consider quit smoking. Especially the recent fuel price hike, it doesn’t make health or economic sense to spend money to burn your life away.

Additional Read: Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Each year on May 31, the World Health Organization celebrates “World No Tobacco Day,” a day that WHO uses to highlight the risks of smoking and to advocate for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. This year, the theme is TOBACCO-FREE YOUTH.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Young people are aggressively targeted by the tobacco industry which spends billions of dollars each year marketing its products.” To protect the world’s youth from experimenting with tobacco and becoming regular users, this year’s campaign calls for a ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.”

Even if you are a smoker, stub it out just for 31 May 2008. After all, I’m sure you know all the harmful effects of tars and nicotine. Anyway, stopping one day won’t kill you, in fact it will help you to lower these risks in 24 hours.

• Risk of a heart attack reduces
• The lungs start to be cleared of mucous and toxins

If you want to know more about benefit of quit smoking, click here as this article listed the goodness from 20 minutes to 5 years.

Additional Read: Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Back in the 1940s, NBC’s Announcer Michael Roy disclosed that three independent research organizations conducted a nationwide poll with doctors, surgeons, and specialists in every branch of medicine. 113,597 doctors in all participated in this poll. The brand of cigarette the doctors named most often was Camel.So if doctors smoke Camel, it must be good. The “More Doctors Smoke Camel” campaign slogan was so successful that various ads was signed. This is just one of Camel’s vintage ads. You can see more of Camel’s vintage ads here.

Today, medical practitioners distanced themselves from any association of cigarette and smoking. Yet many doctors are still smoking.

For me, I choose my doctors and dentists carefully. I won’t choose a smoker to be my doctors or dentists. If he/she smokes, he/she probably wouldn’t care much about his health and wellness. So why should he/she bothers too much about mine?

Info from “Doctors Recommend Smoking Camel”

Have you been smoking for quite some time already? If you have, do you think you are just a casual smoker or are you addicted. Addicted? Me? That’s not possible. Denying that you are an addict is an understandable reacation. Most of us believe that we are in control and command. We don’t believe that we can be slaves to alcohols or cigarettes.

Still, it will be good to take a test to check out your dependence level on nicotine:

1. When do you smoke your first cigarette after you woke up?
a) Within 5 minutes
b) About 6 – 30 minutes
c) About 31 – 59 minutes
d) After 60 minutes

2. Do you find it tough not to smoke in “smoke-prohibited” places?
a) Yes
b) No

3. Which cigarette would you hate most to give up?
a) The first in the morning
b) Any other
4. How many cigarettes do you smoke a day?
a) 31 or more

b) 21-30
c) 20-11
d) 10 or less

5. Do you smoke more frequently during the first hours after awakening than during the rest of the day?
a) Yes
b) No

6. Do you smoke when you are sick (where you have to be confined in bed)?
a) Yes
b) No

Test Results
Stage 1- Score 0-2: Very low dependence on nicotine
Stage 2 – Score 3-4: Low dependence on nicotine
Stage 3 - Score 5: Medium dependence on nicotine
Stage 4- Score 6-7: High dependence on nicotine
Stage 5 – Score 8-10: Very high dependence on nicotine

Test Verdicts
Stage 1 and 2: Your dependence on Nicotine is still low and that’s great! That mean it’s easier for you to stop smoking. You have to act now before you grew more attached with cigarettes and nicotine. You have a very high chance to quit smoking forever and never ever look back.

Stage 3: Your level of nicotine dependence is considered to be moderate. You have to act soon otherwise your dependence will grow and make you a bona fide addict. You still have a high chance to quit smoking easily and successfully.

Stage 4 – 5: Face up, you are an addict. You have no control whatsoever over cigarettes and the effect of nicotine is damaging your healthy slowly but definitely. Unless you are committed to stop smoking, don’t bother to quit. You will quit one day and go back to smoke double the amount on the next day. If you really want to quit, you will get over the up-hill hurdles that mark the quit-smoking journey. It will be tough but the pain can be lessen if you adopt the quit smoking painlessly way. You can choose your preferred method or experiment with various but the most important thing is to decide if you want to quit today.

Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking

Technorati Tags: stop smoking, Icotine Dependent Test

Going by Earl Cassel’s words of wisdom, who are you in your journey of stop smoking?

I Won’t is a tramp,
I Can’t is a quitter,
I Don’t Know is lazy,
I Wish I Could is a wisher,
I Might is waking up,
I Will Try is on his feet,
I Can is on his way.
I Will is at work,
I Did is now the boss.

Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking

Technorati Tags: stop smoking

I found this video posted at QuitSmokingPainlesslyNow. It was an attempt by Disney in 1951 to ridicule smoking and show how desperate a man who is dependent on nicotine can be. What I found really weird is Disney had Goofy asking for weeds. Weeds cannot be better than smoking. What’s wrong with Disney?

Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking

Technorati Tags: Disney discouraged smoking through Goofy, Disney no smoking cartoon, Goofy: No smoking

Today’s is 1st January 2008 and I’m calling all smokers to make it your new year resolution to stop smoking forever!

No? Is it because you thought the journey is going to be too tough? You had done it too many times but each time you went back and smoke even more? You don’t have confidence that you could make it this time? Whatever is stopping you is FEAR. Another meaning to FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. Just look at the cartoon below and take some time to muse and ponder over it.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking

Technorati Tags: stop smoking

Just saw these ads over at QuitSmokingPainlesslyNow and I had the same sentiment as the writer there: “Can you imagine mums puffing away and the innocent babies, toddlers and children growing up as passive smokers inhaling all the poison? I shuddered at the thought of it.” In fact, I was so astonished to discover that Goofy (yes, the famous Disney dog) actually smokes. Pop over to see that short Disney movie on Goofy’s smoking.

Mums and Mums-to-be shouldn’t smoke at all cost. Contrary to what the ads said, they should feel over-smoke every time they want a puff!They should not put the young ones at peril any time, anywhere.

Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking

Technorati Tags: Marlboro advertisement, cigarette ad, smoking

Before you even try to stop smoking, tell yourself you are committed to quit smoking. Not “wanting to try”, not “trying” but 100% committed to make quit smoking a success. There is a difference between a “want” and a “commitment”. A “want” is simply a nice-to-have and we basically just shrug our shoulders if we couldn’t have that luxury. A commitment is almost like an oath, we promise ourselves that we will live and breath that something. Unless you commit 100% to stop smoking, the chances of failure is very high.

For things to change first change yourself. I recently attended a money-management seminar that emphasized a lot on the process of “unlearning”. If you have negative thoughts about yourself for being a failure to stop smoking, stop being so hard for yourself. The process of unlearning is tough as we need time and effort to re-condition our minds to think positively about ourselves and everything we do. How we do anything is how we do everything. If you are the type who doesn’t have perseverance and patience, quit smoking will be tough but that doesn’t mean you are doomed to failure. It just means that you need to be conscious about it.

Take a look at yourself … … (more…)

Kids think that smoking is cool because most of the macho guys in the movie, TV as well as computer games would spot a stick in their mouth. Of course, with the chic babes hanging by their sides, the world seems a lot more glamorous with cigarettes.

They probably will not believe you when you tried your best to explain to them smoking is bad.

Here is one method you can try:

1. Explain to them that when people try smoking for the first time, they will often cough a lot and feel pain or burning sensation in their throat and lungs.

2. Tell them that some folks might even feel their stomachs churning and wanted to throw up.

3. These are signs that your body is protecting you. Your body can feel that the chemicals entering the body is bad. Your body know it’s being POISONED.

4. Anyone who tried to swallow tobacco may actually get killed.

5. Show them really awful pictures of smoking-related disease – like this one here depicting oral cancer. Kids probably heard of lung cancer, asthma and respiratory diseases but seeing actual pictures might just hit it home. It is true that such images may cause them to have nightmares but it certainly beat having them starting to smoke because of curiosity or harboring the notion that it’s “cool”to smoke.

If by telling the kids cannot convince them, showing the pictures just got you a shrug of shoulder, you might want to consult the school councillor for advice and assistance. I knew some parents will get their kids to try a few puff to prove the point that it actually hurts, and the taste and smell of cigarette are not great. However, you must be extremely careful if you want to go onto that route.

I learn from my Chinese friends here that there is a Chinese saying that: “The children is the creators and masters of the future”. We have to keep our children from smoking to ensure we have a smoke-free tomorrow. It is easier not to start than to stop smoking.

(source of photo: Health Promotion Board, Singapore)

Additional Reading: Hypnosis To Change Your Life by Steve G Jones.

Additional Wisdom on Stop Smoking
What’s harmful inside a Cigarette?
Benefits of Stop Smoking
FAQ on Stop Smoking
A Painless Way to Stop Smoking