Alternative Methods to Quit Smoking
Proven but Less Traditional Ways to Kick Nicotine Addiction for Good
Jun 14, 2009
You do not want to try dieting and quitting smoking at once. Depriving your body of two major needs at once is never a good idea, and almost guarantees a relapse in one of the forbidden fruits, most normally cigarettes, and often fatty foods directly after.
Eat Plenty of Fruits and Vegetables
However, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, as opposed to dairy, meat, and sweet food products will help you quit. A study at Duke University has shown that eating fruits and vegetables help flush nicotine from your body faster. They also make cigarettes taste much worse than normal. So in order to quit smoking, snack on carrots, celery, and apples. Incorporate more fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet, especially at the end of a meal and during key craving periods.
Plenty of Physical Activity
Raising your heart rate, breathing rate, and energy consumption through exercise and physical activity is a biological helper to curb nicotine cravings. Not only will your body be busy jogging, walking the dog, rollerblading, or just picking weeds in your yard, but the endorphins, as well as the myriad of other hormones and chemicals exercise releases help to directly curb nicotine cravings and lower the body’s dependence on chemicals.
After you finish a lot of aerobic exercise, you’ll have one more reason to be easy on your lung tissue. Physical activity and exercise is a great way to keep yourself busy not smoking during key craving times of the day as well as lower your nicotine dependence in general through a myriad of extra endorphins and hormones. Physical exercise can also minimize the sudden weight gain typical with people who quit smoking.
Take Away All Reminders and Connotations
Take out anything in your surroundings and life that reminds you of smoking. If you plan on taking nicotine out of your body, you need to take smoking out of your mind. Wash, dry clean, vacuum, and scrub anything that might smell like cigarettes. Be careful when watching TV shows with cigarettes in them. Attempt to take smoking out of your life as much as possible. The old saying “out of sight, out of mind” is particularly important to quit smoking. As soon as you see a cigarette, hear the sound of a lighter, smell tobacco smoke, taste something similar to smoking, or feel something similar to a cigarette in your mouth or hand, the numerous subconscious trained physical responses will kick in inside your brain and body. Any reminders of smoking trigger nicotine cravings from the way your body has been heavily trained and conditioned from many years of nicotine addiction. If you eliminate smoking from your life, you eliminate over half of the cravings you would have had from triggered responses to references in your brain.
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