Quitting smoking is not easy for many people. A smoking cessation calendar can help you break a habit that destroys your health.
The rehab calendar allows you to learn about all the upcoming changes in the body and prepare for them.
What is a rehab calendar?
Smoking cessation calendar by month and day is a powerful support on the path to getting rid of nicotine addiction. It allows you to understand how the body will react to nicotine withdrawal at different times, and mentally as well as physically prepare for possible difficulties.
Note!In addition to tracking changes in your body and psyche on a calendar, keeping a diary is recommended as it helps to better understand the reasons for your tobacco addiction.
Often the desire to smoke another cigarette is not related to the body's physiological need for the next dose of nicotine, but to certain psychological triggers. For example, a morning cup of coffee or a break from work are strongly associated with smoking. Noticing the need to smoke in such moments, you should switch to another, more useful routine. For example, you can make another entry in your diary or call your loved one.
What to expect from the organism
The daily calendar of smokers who have stopped smoking contains all the possible sensations and experiences that accompany the process of quitting cigarettes. People who quit smoking most often have the following symptoms:
- Nicotine drop. This is a rather painful condition, which especially irritates a person in the first days of smoking cessation.
- Psychological breakdown. The main reason why people continue to smoke is not physiological, but psychological. The smoker perceives cigarette smoking as a certain ritual, with the help of which he reacts, responds to various situations in his life. By rejecting the usual ritualized actions, a lot of empty space appears that the psyche often has nothing to fill. This often leads to feelings of anxiety and worry in a person who has recently stopped smoking, when suddenly there is nothing left to occupy his hands and mouth under normal circumstances.
- Worsening of chronic diseases, often hidden. It is the annual calendar of a heavy smoker who abruptly stopped smoking, which makes it possible to understand that unpleasant physiological symptoms in the first weeks and even months of smoking cessation are signs of cleansing the body and establishing normal functioning of its systems and organs.
More information.The intensity and duration of withdrawal symptoms are different for everyone. However, in most cases, after a few weeks, the body regains the ability to produce nicotinic acid in the right amount on its own, and the physiological desire to smoke disappears. It is much harder to get rid of psychological dependence.
Emotions and thoughts
A person who has given up cigarettes can experience completely different emotions in this regard: from self-pity to pride in the strength of will expressed. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to get rid of the idea that quitting smoking is a restriction, a difficult asceticism that requires enormous efforts and the strictest self-control.
Quitting smoking can be easy and fun. You just need to agree with your subconscious, convince your "inner child" that life without cigarettes is much more interesting, pleasant and "cold", 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 stop smoking and the famous dishes will shine with new shades. Why wouldn't the reason, the most hedonistic one, be to give up smoking?
It helps you adjust to the right wave of revision of global life goals. It is necessary to understand why all this is changing in the usual way of life. For example, a rare woman does not dream of one day becoming a mother. When it is realized that the pleasure of cigarettes is nothing compared to the health and well-being of an unborn child, it is much easier to give up a bad habit.
Preliminary preparation
Smoking cessation without serious preparation is not recommended. After all, it means exposing your body and psyche to a strong earthquake. It is better to give yourself a week, two, a month to mentally prepare for the upcoming events.
You should analyze in writing all the "pros" and "cons" of smoking and smoking cessation, and for yourself. If a loved one demands to quit smoking, you should not put a tick in front of the item "health". Here we are already talking about the value of relationships and comfort of a partner. Only finding real and positive motives will facilitate the process of changing your lifestyle.
Then you have to observe yourself and note which situations and emotions provoke the desire to smoke a cigarette and smoke. Then you need to come up with 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 turn into your hobby, a new, "healthy" addiction.
Throwing away all lighters, ashtrays and other things reminiscent of an old habit is not necessary at all. Sometimes a box of cigarettes hidden "for a rainy day" helps to endure the process of quitting nicotine more calmly. The absence of any emotions when looking at previously favorite smoking devices is a sign of the final liberation from nicotine addiction.
Smoking cessation calendar by months
After getting acquainted with detailed information about the upcoming changes in the body for the next year, smoking cessation will not be surprised by any of his reactions and will not lose confidence in the correctness of the decision.
The 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 days and weeks without cigarettes coincide with weekends or holidays. With the reduction of physical effort, stressful situations and the increase in the number of new positive impressions, it is much easier to survive the withdrawal syndrome.
In order to minimize the unpleasant consequences of nicotine hunger, it is recommended to introduce more green vegetables and fruits rich in pectin (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 lemon balm.
Restoring the sense of taste leads to an increase in appetite, which can negatively affect body weight. Therefore, do not abuse sweets and high-calorie foods.
The second and third month
The phase of active recovery begins in the lungs. Occasionally, dry mouth, cough, and sputum production may occur, especially with increased physical activity. But this is a good sign - it means that the body has the resources to cleanse.
The cardiovascular system is also undergoing changes. By the end of the third month, vascular tone returns to normal, and the former smoker stops suffering from dizziness and migraines.
Bitan!The end of the three-month quit period is a critical period when many return to smoking. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid temptations at this time. Any attempt to smoke, "remember" 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, the stool is normalized. The intestines regain the ability to fully absorb all the necessary nutrients, which improves the condition of the skin. Peeling, itching, which could upset a person in the initial phase of smoking cessation, no longer bother him.
Many ex-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 renewal of the broncho-pulmonary system. From this moment, it is recommended to start playing sports.
Cycling and swimming are the best options for physical activity for an even weakened body.
seventh to ninth month
Cough and sputum production at this stage are practically no longer a concern. It is allowed to introduce running and strength exercises into your training program.
At this point, many have forgotten about the difficulties of the first weeks of quitting smoking, but the strength of the habit is still great. It is important not to allow the cigarette to ignite "on the machine", mechanically.
the tenth to the twelfth month
The physiological dependence on nicotine is completely overcome. However, the risk of returning to the old habit is still high, because many still feel psychological discomfort due to the change of the usual daily routine, the loss of some elements of communication. Until a person learns to fill these mental "gaps", the desire to smoke a cigarette, to engage in "work", can continue to torment him from time to time.
Tips for people who quit smoking
An ex-smoker should not be criticized for any relapse. It is better to consolidate every one of his even the most insignificant successes with positive emotions: praise, sincere admiration for the shown strength of will, a gift. Also, another milestone on the path to getting rid of a bad habit can be celebrated by spending free time together in full accordance with the wishes of those who give up. Only positive emotions, manifestations of love from the closest people will give the cigarette addict the necessary mental strength for change.
Does a diary help?
As practice shows, the diary has proven to be a very effective tool for many in the fight against nicotine addiction. Here you can vent all your negative emotions and celebrate successes at every stage of the throw. Studying other people's public diaries and positive experiences of quitting smoking is as inspiring as anything else.