Give Up before you Clog Up!

Let this year’s No-Smoking Day on 10th March 04, be the start of your effort to KISS the habit – Kick it Swiftly and Sweetly! Every year, some 40,000 people stop smoking on No-Smoking Day as a result of their own individual efforts. Don’t suffer in silence if want to give up but know it’s going to be difficult – there’s plenty of help around to support you!

First off, some facts and figures:

• According to the charity No Smoking Day around 12 million adults in the UK smoke. Of all the men in the UK, 28% are smokers and of all the women, 26% are smokers. Of all the smokers in the UK, 70% would like to kick the habit.
  

• The results of a poll of DeskDemon users, in association with Office Team shows that smokers take as many as 9-10 cigarette breaks every day; 17% of office-bound smokers admit to spending as long as 15 minutes on each break! That adds up to a lot of lost time in puffing.
  

• Smoking kills 120,000 people in the UK every year. The title of this article – Give Up Before You Clog Up - is taken from the British Heart Foundation’s slogan to encourage people to stop smoking. (Visit www.bhf.org.uk/smoking/ for more information.)
  

• According to Cancer Research UK, after smoking a cigarette:
  20 minutes later, your blood pressure and pulse will return to normal.
  8 Hours later, the oxygen levels in your blood will return to normal.
  24 Hours later, your body will be free of carbon monoxide.

www.cancerresearchuk.org.uk has more information on cancer and the ways you can cut your risk – and not just by cutting smoking out or down!

Look Forward!

We want to focus here on what you can do to give up, rather than nagging on and on about how bad it is for you, so here are 10 tips to help you give up.

1. Be clear as to what and why you’re giving up: take a What’s in it for Me approach. How will you benefit? What will you gain? What will it cost you if you don’t give up? Tell yourself I will give up smoking. Don’t use the word try – it gives you an excuse for failure already. Take inspiration from people whose success stories are on various web sites mentioned at the bottom of this article.
   

2. Tell your friends and family you want to give up and get their support. If you feel like a cigarette, text a friend to tell them, to keep your fingers busy. Find out if anyone else at the office wants to kick the habit. Instead of going outside for a puff, go outside for a ten minute walk together. Walk briskly to work off that excess energy and stress.
   

3. You know what your self-discipline is like. If this is going to be tough, get some help from specialist counsellors, other smokers or stop smoking coaches. Enlist the support of other smokers. Cancer Research UK’s Stop Smoking web pages has a Quitters Message Board at www.newyearsresolutions.org/stopsmoking/ Visit your chemist and GP to see what help they can offer. Try nicotine replacement therapy which will help relieve your cravings by providing nicotine without the rubbish contained in cigarettes. Visit www.givingupsmoking.co.uk/find_your_local_stop_smoking_service/ for including a search to help you find assistance giving up in your area in groups or on a one to one basis.
   

4. Plan things to help you cope if you know you’re going to be tempted. Eat chewing gum or carrot sticks to keep your mouth busy; find something to do with your hands. Throw away anything in your house or at work that will enable you to have a puff. Have an anchor at the ready when you feel itchy to reach for a cigarette; it could be a picture of the lung of a smoker, an advert on the telly in your mind which focuses on the effects of smoking; a particular piece of music, or the scent of a beautiful rose to act as a reminder of why giving up is important to you. Visit www.bhf.org.uk/smoking/ for ways to keep your hands busy when you’re longing to have a cigarette in your hands.
   

5. Be prepared for withdrawal symptoms – www.bhf.org.uk/smoking/quit/withdrawal.asp gives indications of what to expect and how long for. If you have a bad day, don’t give up altogether. Giving up smoking is a process, just as trying to lose weight is. If you have one bad day or hour, make a fresh start the next. Look at anything else you’ve succeeded in giving up and pull on the resources you used to help see you through.
   

6. Take a different route to the places you’d normally go – to work, home again – so that you don’t pass your usual haunts where you buy cigarettes.
   

7. Try to unwind by doing things with people where you cannot smoke, such as going to the cinema, swimming, the gym; or treat yourself to a long lingering bath in your favourite bath salts, or a massage. Keep away from anywhere you’d normally have a cigarette. Do something totally different to throw you off track.
   

8. If you want fast results, why not enlist the services of a Stop Smoking Coach? Check out www.commit-2-quit.com. Most coaches have very high success rates within one or two sessions, so give it a go!
   

9. Set yourself sensible goals and reward yourself for achieving them. Put the money you’d normally spend on cigarettes for a week or two into a jar. At the end of a week or two, treat yourself on something totally wild and wacky that you’d never normally dream of doing.
   

10. Ultimately, find a method which works for you. Everyone is different! If you’ve tried one strategy before and it hasn’t worked, don’t’ waste time trying it again. Develop a new approach and try that.

But then in case you need a little persuasion…

Here are 3 reasons to give up smoking. Visit the web sites, print off the implications of smoking, stick them where you can see them – put a picture of the lung of a smoker in your handbag so when you reach for your ciggies and lighter, you pull out that picture instead. Develop positive and negative leverages to help you stop smoking for each one.

I’ve heard it all before. Smoking’s bad for your health. So it’s my risk. So what?

Visit the NHS site www.givingupsmoking.co.uk/why_give_up/inside_a_smoker/ and compare the photos of a healthy lung and a lung with cancer. Hold on to the picture of one of the lungs and use it as an anchor next time you want to have a cigarette. If you think of the lung of a non-smoker, you’re using a carrot approach to encourage you towards good health; if you think of the lung of a smoker, you’re using the stick approach to drive you away from cigarettes - www.bhf.org.uk/smoking/ will give you the facts on the damage implications to your lungs. Visit too www.quitsmokinguk.com/scary_facts.htm for further reasons to say goodbye to your cigarettes and start a healthier life!

What are you putting into your mouth? What are you inhaling and exhaling?

Tobacco smoke has over 4,000 chemicals, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cynadide, arsenic, formaldehyde and more. Most chemicals are present naturally in the tobacco and transfer in the smoke or are formed when the tobacco is burned. Those around you who are not smoking inhale side-stream smoke from your burning cigarette; and mainstream smoke by inhaling the smoke you blow out of your mouth, after pulling on a cigarette. Non-smokers breathing in your smoke are exposed to the same 4,000 chemicals that you are. Think about those you care about. One thousand people die every year through passive smoking.

What could you spend your money on other than cigarettes?

The next time you go to the corner shop and buy a packet of ciggies, just remember that most of the hard-earned cash you hand-over to pay for them is going to the tax man. Do you seriously want to give him even more of your money?

Visit www.newyearsresolutions.org/stopsmoking/costcalculator.asp to find out how much you’re costing on cigarettes every week or month, and can decide what you’d do with all that money instead.

There are other costs for smokers as well as simply buying a packet of cigarettes. If you smoke at home, recent research shows that you’re likely to decrease the value of your property by £16,000 and put off prospective non-smokers from paying the full asking price. And smokers pay around 30% higher insurance premiums because smoking causes more health problems. Work out what you’re going to spend that extra money on in terms of treats, savings plans, adding a ‘wow’ factor to your life.

If you’ve got a friend or relative who is trying to give up smoking, advice from of the specialists include:

1. Don’t nag them to give up. It won’t help.

2. Do something with them in the first few days they give up. Expect them to be irritable – there will be withdrawal symptoms.

3. Take them window shopping or help them draw up a list of treats they can spend the money on they would otherwise spend on cigarettes.

4. Ask them not to smoke when they’re with you as a favour to you and your body.

5. Why not try giving something up yourself as a way of showing your support, such as alcohol or chocolate, while your friends or family member are going through the difficult times?

And what about handling smoking issues in the office?

Recruitment specialists Office Team suggest that managers provide employees with a clear policy on how many cigarette breaks are acceptable, so that all staff know where they stand. Put up No Smoking Day posters around the office and offer incentives to people who give up smoking or, to be fair to those who don’t, who give up something for one month. Why not enlist the support of colleagues who don’t smoke by doing a sponsored Stop Smoking for charity?

Finally, some help:

Help-lines with specialist counsellors:

England and Wales NHS Smoking Helpline: 0800 169 0 169
Scotland: Smokeline: 0800 84 84 84
Northern Ireland: Smokers Help-line: 0800 85 85 85

Useful websites include:

www.nosmokingday.org.uk – Lots of information and tips on how to quit from the charity itself, which organises the day.

www.quit.org.uk – this site has help, support and information to help you quit smoking and it has details of Asian language quit-lines and pages for teenagers and people who are pregnant.

www.ash.org.uk – Action on Smoking and Health. This site has some great information, especially on the tobacco industry, and a chance to register your views with the Prime Minister on whether local authorities should have new powers to enforce smoke-free work and public places.

www.givingupsmoking.co.uk – the NHS web site with lost of useful information such as why give up, how to give up and how to stay stopped.