My husband is nicotine free!

I am dedicating this blog post to my husband who tried his best to quit smoking and yes, he is nicotine free!  After smoking for more than 10 years, it was a struggle  for him to stop smoking.  He said he started at the age of 20 and was a smoker of at least 4 to 5 cigarettes a day.  But today, his blood work showed he is nicotine free!

How did he do it? 

I am sharing with you his secret. Partly because I used to smoke cigarettes too before and quitted smoking for almost 7 years. Yes, clean for 7 years. But mine was a different story.

There are plenty of ways to quit smoking.  I could be by using alternatives such as nicotine patch, nicotine gum or an electronic cigarette. But you see, since smoking is more of psychological rather than physical dependence, motivating yourself to quit is the most important. There are also studies saying that the use of electronic cigarettes are not proven to be safe and that some are found to cause cancer. Although my husband did use the electronic cigarette for some time, he found it to be distracting so he quitted it too. Here are the ways how he quitted smoking.

How to quit smoking:

1. Set your goal and know your reason.

      My husband’s goal is to quit because he said our kids are growing up and he does not want any of our kids to engage into smoking because of the bad effects of it.  There were even instances before when our youngest child will get the cigarette box for him and this really touched him. Kids should know that cigarettes are not good. This reason, he has to keep in mind.

2. Set your time frame.

     It is very important to know how long you will try to quit. My husband set a goal of 3 months. He started with cutting one stick a day from his usual cigarette smoking. When he had the urge to smoke more, he uses the electronic cigarette, exercise, eat or just keep himself occupied.

3. Focus.

     There will be instances where friends who use to smoke will invite you to go back into the habit. What do you do? Stay focused. Do not engage yourself at any chance. You have exerted too much effort. Don’t let peer pressure cut it’s way. Or maybe you are stressed too much and you realize soaking is a way to relieve stress, look for other ways like deep breathing, jogging, strength building exercises (like going to the gym) or worst suggestion is to eat. Since quitting for some makes them fat, eating is an alternative way to satisfy the oral need, synonymous to smoking. In any way, find a way to stay focused and do what you can do to avoid smoking.

4. Look for your support system.

     Our children and myself are my husband’s support system. When at times he wants to smoke, we would remind him not to.  Also since cigarettes are quite expensive, I try to motivate him by counting all the money he is saving from all the cigarettes that he did not buy. With $52 to $56 per 10 packs, he was able to save almost $300. He did not realize it at first but when he did, he started saving it so he can use it to reward himself.

5. Reward yourself.

     My husband bought his new car after quitting. He bought his new playstation. He started rewarding himself with little things each day. An extra hour of sleep, an extra meal, loafing, or shopping. And to this day, he never smoked even a single cigarette.

As for me, if you want to know how I quit, I can share to you just one thing. One day, I realize I want to quit and I did. IN a snap, I never touched a single cigarette. True enough it gave me cold turkey feeling for a week but I never regret it from happening because up to this time, I am smoke free. 

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