Quitting smoking is not easy for many people. A smoking cessation schedule can help you kick a health-destroying habit.
The dropout calendar allows you to learn about all upcoming body changes and prepare for them.
What is a Withdrawal 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 at different periods of time, and psychologically, as well as physically prepare for possible difficulties.
Observation!In addition to tracking changes in your body and psyche on a calendar, keeping a journal is recommended 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 rather with certain psychological triggers. For example, a cup of coffee in the morning or a break from work is strongly associated with smoking. Noticing the urge to smoke at these times, you should switch to another more useful routine. For example, you can make another journal entry or call your loved one.
what to expect from the body
The daily calendar of a smoker who quits smoking contains all the likely sensations and experiences that accompany the process of quitting smoking. Most of the time, people who stop smoking experience the following symptoms:
- Nicotine accident. This is quite a painful condition, especially irritating for a person in the first few days of quitting smoking.
- Psychological destruction. 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 his life. With the rejection of the usual ritualized actions, a lot of empty space appears, which the psyche often has nothing to fill. Hence the frequent feeling of anxiety and anxiety in a person who has recently stopped smoking, when suddenly there is nothing to occupy their hands and mouth under the usual circumstances.
- Exacerbation of chronic, often hidden, diseases. It is the annual calendar of a heavy smoker who abruptly quits smoking that makes it possible to realize that unpleasant physiological symptoms in the first weeks and even months of smoking cessation 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 urge to smoke disappears. Much more difficult is the release from psychological dependence.
emotions and thoughts
A person who has given up smoking can experience completely different emotions about it: from self-pity to pride in the willpower shown. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to get rid of the idea that quitting smoking is a restriction, a severe asceticism that requires great efforts and the most severe self-control.
Quitting smoking can be easy and fun. You just have to agree with your subconscious, convince your "inner child" that living without cigarettes is much more interesting, more pleasurable and "cooler", that giving up tobacco can bring real pleasure.
For example, smokers lose their sense of smell and taste. However, this process is reversible. You just need to quit smoking and familiar dishes will shine with new hues. Why not a more hedonistic reason to quit smoking?
Helps tune into the right wave of review of global life goals. 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 there is a perception 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 strong shock. It's best to give yourself a week, two, a month to mentally prepare for upcoming events.
You should analyze in writing all the advantages and disadvantages of smoking and quitting, and personally for yourself. If a loved one needs to stop smoking, you should not put a tick in front of the "health" item. Here we are already talking about the value of relationships and the comfort of a partner. Only finding real, positive reasons will make the process of changing your lifestyle easier.
Next, you need to observe yourself and observe what situations and emotions make you want to grab a cigarette and smoke. So you need to create compensatory activities. For example, many smoke to calm down. For the same purposes, you can use various breathing exercises, visualization techniques, drinking herbal teas. Any of these activities can be turned into your hobby, a new "healthy" addiction.
Throwing away all the lighters, ashtrays and other things that remind you of an old habit is not at all necessary. Sometimes a hidden pack of cigarettes "for a rainy day" helps to more calmly support the nicotine weaning process. The absence of emotions when looking at previously favorite smoking devices is a sign of the final release from nicotine addiction.
Quit smoking calendar by month
Having familiarized yourself with detailed information about the upcoming changes in the body for the next year, quitting smoking will not be taken by surprise by any of your reactions and will not lose confidence in the correctness of the decision made.
First month without smoking
This is the most difficult period, characterized by unstable physical and psycho-emotional states. Therefore, it is desirable that the first cigarette-free days and weeks 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) in the diet. Buckwheat, vegetables, nuts will help to 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 negatively affect body weight. So don't abuse sweets and high-calorie foods.
second and third months
In the lungs, the active recovery phase begins. Periodically, dry mouth, coughing, and sputum production may 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. At the end of the third month, vascular tone returns to normal and the ex-smoker no longer suffers from dizziness and migraines.
Important!The end of the three-month cessation period is a critical period when many return to smoking. Therefore, at this time it is necessary to stay away from temptations. Any attempt to smoke, "remembering" the taste of a cigarette can return a person to the ranks of smokers.
fourth to sixth month
The work of the gastrointestinal tract is restored, stools are normalized. The ability to fully absorb all necessary nutrients returns to the intestine, which improves the condition of the skin. Peeling, itching, which could disturb a person at the initial stage of quitting, no longer bothers him.
Many ex-smokers find that in the fifth or sixth month it becomes easier to breathe, as if their lungs had expanded. This is a sign of restoration of the bronchopulmonary system. From this moment on, it is recommended to start playing sports.
Cycling, swimming are the best physical activity options for a still weakened body.
seventh to ninth month
Coughing and sputum production at this stage are virtually no longer a concern. It is permissible to introduce running and strength exercises into your training program.
At this point, many have forgotten the difficulties of the first few weeks of quitting, but the force of habit is still great. It is important not to allow the cigarette to be lit "in the machine", mechanically.
tenth to twelfth month
The 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 discomfort due to a change in their usual daily routine, the loss of some elements of communication. Until a person learns to fill these psychological "voids, " the desire to smoke a cigarette, to keep busy with "business, " may continue to plague him from time to time.
Advice for people who are quitting smoking
An ex-smoker should not be criticized for any relapse. It is better to consolidate each of his successes, even the most insignificant ones, with positive emotions: praise, sincere admiration for the demonstrated willpower, a gift. Also, another milestone passed on the way to getting rid of a bad habit can be celebrated by spending leisure time together completely in accordance with the quitter's wishes. Only positive emotions, expressions of love from the closest people will give the cigarette 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 successes at each stage of the pitch. Studying other people's public diaries and positive experiences of quitting is inspiring like nothing else.