Quitting smoking is not easy for many people. A quit smoking calendar can help you put an end to a bad habit.
The release calendar allows you to know all the upcoming changes in the body and prepare for them.
What is a quit smoking calendar
The quit smoking calendar for months and days is a powerful support on the way to getting rid of nicotine addiction. It allows you to understand how the body will react to nicotine withdrawal over different periods of time and psychologically, as well as physically prepare for possible difficulties.
Note!In addition to keeping track of changes in your body and psyche on a calendar, we recommend that you keep a journal, as it helps you better understand the reasons for your tobacco addiction.
Often the desire to smoke another cigarette is not associated with the body's physiological need for the next dose of nicotine, but with certain psychological triggers. For example, a morning cup of coffee or a break from work is strongly associated with smoking. Noticing the urge to smoke at these times, you should move on to another more useful routine. For example, you can make another note in your calendar or call your loved one.
What to expect from the body
The daily calendar of a smoker who quits smoking contains all the probable sensations and experiences that accompany the process of quitting smoking. Most often, people who quit smoking experience the following symptoms:
- Nicotine crash. This is a rather painful condition, which particularly bothers a person in the first days of quitting smoking.
- Psychological break. The main reason people continue to smoke is not physiological, but psychological. Smoking a cigarette is perceived by a smoker as a certain ritual, with the help of which he reacts, responds to various situations in her life. With the rejection of the usual ritualized actions, a lot of empty space appears, which often the psyche has nothing to fill. Hence the feeling of anxiety and anxiety that often occurs in a person who has recently quit smoking, when suddenly there is nothing left to occupy the hands and mouth with in the usual circumstances.
- Exacerbation of chronic, often hidden diseases. It is the annual calendar of a heavy smoker who abruptly quits smoking that allows you to realize that unpleasant physiological symptoms in the first weeks and even months when you stop smoking are signs of cleansing the body and restoring the normal functioning of its systems. and organs.
Additional information.The intensity and duration of withdrawal symptoms are different for everyone. However, in most cases, after a few weeks, the body restores the ability to independently produce nicotinic acid in the right amount, and the physiological desire to smoke disappears. Much more difficult is the release from psychological addiction.
Emotions and thoughts
A person who has given up on cigarettes can experience completely different emotions about it: from self-pity to pride in the willpower shown. To achieve this, it is necessary to get rid of the idea that giving up tobacco is a restriction, a severe asceticism that requires enormous effort and the most severe self-control.
Quitting smoking can be fun and easy. You just have to agree with your subconscious, convince your "inner child" that living without cigarettes is much more interesting, more pleasant and more "cool", that quitting smoking can bring real pleasure.
For example, smokers lose their sense of smell and taste. However, this process is reversible. You just have to quit smoking, and familiar dishes will shine with new shades. Why not a reason, the most hedonistic, to quit smoking?
Helps tune in to the right wave of global life goal review. It is necessary to understand why all these changes in the usual way of life. For example, a rare woman does not dream of becoming a mother someday. When you realize that the pleasure of a cigarette is nothing compared to the health and well-being of the unborn child, it is much easier to give up a bad habit.
Preliminary preparation
Quitting smoking without serious preparation is not recommended. After all, this means exposing your body and psyche to a severe jolt. It is best to allow yourself a week, two, a month to mentally prepare for upcoming events.
You should write down all the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of smoking and quitting, and personally for yourself. If a loved one requests you to quit smoking, you shouldn't put a check mark in front of the "health" element. Here we are already talking about the value of relationships and the comfort of a partner. Only finding real and positive motivations will facilitate the process of changing your lifestyle.
Next, you need to observe yourself and notice what situations and emotions make you want to take out a cigarette and smoke. So it is necessary to work out compensatory activities. For example, many smoke to calm down. For the same purposes, you can use various breathing exercises, visualization techniques, drink herbal teas. Any of these activities can be turned into your hobby, a new "healthy" addiction.
Throwing out lighters, ashtrays and other things that resemble an old habit is not necessary at all. Sometimes a hidden pack of cigarettes "for a rainy day" helps you to endure the nicotine weaning process more calmly. The absence of emotion when looking at previously preferred smoking devices is a sign of the eventual release from nicotine addiction.
Quit smoking calendar by month
Having known detailed information about the upcoming changes in the body for the coming year, quitting smoking will not be surprised by any of his reactions and will not lose faith in the correctness of the decision made.
First month without smoking
This is the most difficult period, characterized by unstable physical and psychoemotional states. Therefore, it is desirable that the first days and weeks without cigarettes coincide with weekends or holidays. With a decrease in the number of physical exertions, stressful situations and an increase in the number of new positive impressions, it is much easier to survive the withdrawal syndrome.
To minimize the unpleasant consequences of nicotine hunger, it is recommended to introduce more green vegetables and fruits rich in pectins (apples, oranges, apricots, plums) into the diet. Buckwheat, legumes, nuts will help fill the lack of nicotinic acid. To reduce nervousness and improve sleep, you can use a decoction of motherwort.
Restoration of taste sensations leads to an increase in appetite, which can adversely affect body weight. Therefore, do not abuse sweets and high-calorie foods.
Second and third month
The active recovery phase begins in the lungs. Dry mouth, coughing, and sputum production may periodically occur, especially with increased physical activity. But this is a good sign: it means that the body has resources for cleansing.
The cardiovascular system also undergoes changes. By the end of the third month, the vascular tone returns to normal and the ex-smoker stops suffering from dizziness and migraines.
Important!The end of the three-month quit period is a critical period in which many return to smoking. Therefore, at this time it is necessary to stay away from temptation. Any attempt to smoke, "remember" the taste of a cigarette can bring a person back into the ranks of smokers.
From the fourth to the sixth month
The work of the gastrointestinal tract is restored, the stool is normalized. The ability to fully absorb all the necessary nutrients returns to the intestines, improving the condition of the skin. Peeling, itching, which could bother a person in the initial stage of quitting smoking, no longer bother him.
Many former smokers notice that by the fifth or sixth month it becomes easier to breathe, as if their lungs have expanded. This is a sign of restoration of the broncho-pulmonary system. From this moment it is recommended to start playing sports.
Cycling, swimming are the best options for physical activity for a still weakened body.
from the seventh to the ninth month
Coughing and sputum production at this stage are practically no longer a problem. It is permissible to introduce running and strength exercises into your training program.
At this time, many have forgotten the difficulties of the first weeks of abandonment, but the strength of the habit is still great. It is important not to let the cigarette ignite "on the machine", mechanically.
tenth-twelfth month
Physiological dependence on nicotine is completely overcome. However, the risk of returning to the old habit is still high, as many continue to experience psychological distress due to a change in their usual daily routine, the loss of some elements of communication. Until a person learns to fill in these psychological "gaps", the desire to smoke a cigarette, to keep busy with "business", may continue to haunt him from time to time.
Advice for people who quit smoking
A former smoker shouldn't be criticized for any relapses. It is better to consolidate each of even the most insignificant successes of him with positive emotions: praise, sincere admiration for the willpower shown, a gift. Also, another milestone surpassed on the way to getting rid of a bad habit can be celebrated by spending free time together completely according to the wishes of the one who has given up. Only positive emotions, the manifestations of love of the closest people will give the addict the mental strength necessary for change.
Does a diary help?
As practice shows, the diary turns out to be a very effective tool for many in the fight against nicotine addiction. Here you can throw away all your negative emotions and celebrate the successes at each stage of the launch. Studying other people's public journals and positive experiences of quitting smoking is stimulating like nothing else.