Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 5, Issue -2, 1 August 2020 | Page 5

Adjust if necessary and based on your intuition and experience. During your
preparing to quit period:
Write down all the reasons why it's so important for you to quit smoking.
The more emotional, the better. ("I don't want my kids to watch me die of lung
cancer" for example.) Write your reasons down on a few 3x5 cards and carry
them with you. Put them up where you will see them. Read them several
times a day.
Change your diet. Since nicotine acts as an appetite suppressant, you don't
want to gain a weight after you quit smoking. (Very common after people quit
smoking.) Start to eat three healthy meals a day with healthy snacks in
between. Increase protein and reduce refined carbs.
In your preparation period, start to scramble your smoking pattern. For
instance, if you smoke in
your left hand, start smoking in your right. If you like smoking on the front
porch, change your smoking spot to some uncomfortable place like out by the
trashcans. Stop buying cartons and buy one pack at a time, changing brands
each time you buy a pack. Start cutting cigarettes in half.
FIND REPLACEMENTS. In my opinion, this is the number one secret to
successfully quit smoking. There are many reasons people smoke: to ease
boredom, reduce stress, relax, as a reward, or simply because it's a habit. Of
course, there is the addiction component as well. Find things to replace
smoking with and have them ready on your quit day. Some examples:
1. Find ways to stay busy to keep from being bored. At work instead of a
smoke break, take a short walk.
2. Keep your mouth busy using sunflower seeds in the shell, gum, sugar
free suckers or hard candy, licorice, carrot sticks, celery sticks, pretzels,
flavoured toothpicks. Some people say that putting a Listerine slip in
their mouth takes away the urge. Drinking milk works too.