I quit smoking on September 25 2010 and am very proud of making the right choice to have a healthier lifestyle for me and my family and I’m working on improving my health to have a better future so that I can do the things that I want to do.

I’m not going to tell you that it was a piece of cake to just quit smoking after smoking for 22 years on a daily basis, the truth is that I was truly addicted to smoking cigarettes and I just did not function well at all if I didn’t have them, I would find myself with 2 cigarettes burning at the same time, sometimes one in one room and one in another.

Aside from the bad habit that I had developed over time I was really feeling the results of smoking for so long, I was coughing up mucus almost constantly from my lungs and it even seemed that I needed to smoke another one to help me keep the stuff coughed up, It was really getting bad and having an effect on my life and I was even short of breath if I done much physical activities that required my heart rate to be elevated.

I needed to stop smoking and I needed to do it now but I just couldn’t bring myself to quit, I tried several times to stop smoking and I would make it a few hours here and there, I even started counting my cigarettes on a daily basis and keep track of them and tried to wait 15 minutes after I smoked one before I would light up another one, that did make a big difference but I did not quit.

So how did I quit smoking?

After making several attempts to quit smoking I had failed, I was determined that I could quit for good and I was planning to stop smoking in a couple of months, the company that I work for offered this stop smoking packet and I immediately decided to give it a try, I mean what do I have to lose but some time, I got all my information and the patches to stop smoking and the plan was that you stop immediately so I agreed to follow the plan.

I did just as I was instructed to do, I put on my first patch that was going to help me stop smoking, “At least that is what I though” after a couple of hours my skin was burning where I had placed the patch so I had to remove it, I tried another one in a different area of my body and it done the same thing so I figured that I may need to use a lower dosage patch to help me quit smoking.

I tried the smaller patch and it caused the same problem so after a couple more attempts I totally gave up on using a patch altogether, I made it 1 week and then I bummed a smoke from a guy at work right before starting time, that was a bad mistake as the cigarette made me really light headed and feel terrible and that was also that last time I smoked a cigarette.

Here Is How You Can Stop Smoking

First of all you should take a couple of steps before you stop smoking, If you really do want to quit smoking them you need to set a goal to quit, you need to put down the exact date that you are going to stop and stick to that day not matter what, One of the big things that helped me was chewing gum “Sugar Free”, I would chew a piece of gum when I wanted to smoke a cigarette.

Another thing that helped me was drinking water, I would keep a glass or bottle of water close by and I would drink instead of smoke, water is also good for your health so it was a great choice for me and will help you as well.

One thing that you should avoid is using food to replace your smoking habit, eating is good and can be a big help but you should maintain a health eating plan as to avoid gaining a lot of weight from you quitting smoking, we don’t want to trade one bad habit for another one and with a little guidance you can develop a healthy eating habit.

As a part of your new eating habit you should eat more meals and smaller portions, 6 to 8 small meals is much better than 3 big all you can eat meals as you body does not need all that food at once and will store what it does not need as fat deposits which over time can be a health problem in itself but you can easily control it.

If you really want to stop smoking then there is no better time than right now, YOU can do it if you set your mind to it so what are you waiting for set your stop smoking date and stick to it.