30 days to stop smoking. I’m sharing how I gave up smoking in 30 days. It’s not really a method, but rather a framework made up of the right mindset, a few tips, and a bit of a kick up the backside for anyone who might need it!
So to begin with, and to let you gauge the level of difficulty, I'm 50 years old, I started smoking at 14, stopped at 29, started again at 45 and stopped again towards the end of my 49th year. So I've smoked for 19 years of my life, although deep down I tend to think of myself as a non-smoker... In short, I'm a non-smoker who smokes. Or rather, who used to smoke.
I’ll spare you the details of why I started, why I stopped, why I started again and why I stopped once more. What you need to remember is that I stopped for 16 years... before starting again. Through this mistake, I have at least gained the legitimacy to talk about how one can stop and, above all, how one starts again, even when one believes oneself to be permanently out of danger.
To avoid any misunderstanding, you are not on a sales page, and while reading you will not find any «order my stop-smoking kit» buttons. I have no patches to offer, no “hypnotist-acupuncturist” friend, and I'm not even sure that what worked for me would work for other people. I just have a few thoughts to share with you regarding my state of mind.
The most important thing to start off right is not to lie to oneself:
- Smoking is enjoyable and I like it. I think I will always like it. So when you stop, you have to be aware that you are going to deprive yourself of something you like. You have to be aware that you are weak, and that you are going to fight against a strong addiction. Wanting to quit means engaging in a battle that many lose. You have to be determined to fight and eliminate this addiction.
- You do not stop with a miracle method, nor with a piggy bank in which you put the money saved, nor with natural nicotine substitutes, nor with an electronic cigarette or with a cigarette without nicotine and without tobacco. No. You stop smoking with willpower. To be convinced of this, one only has to see how some women are able to stop as soon as they become pregnant, and then start again just as quickly after giving birth, or after finishing the breastfeeding period. We therefore need to find the motivation, the trigger that will enable us to stop.
- Vaping is cheating. If you think that vaping is not dangerous, you run the risk of being mistaken. The harmful effects of daily vaping will only be seen in 20 years' time, but many health professionals are already issuing warnings. I don't see why human lungs would have been designed to inhale large quantities of water vapour, and personally I don't feel at the peak of my respiratory capacity when I stay in a steam room. So for those who might think to themselves "I'll vape to stop smoking and then I'll stop vaping", they are merely replacing one problem with another.
- We never truly stopped. The trap is there, always present. You don't light up, or re-light, your first cigarette telling yourself that you are making a massive mistake and that you are going to get hooked, that you are going to waste your money and your health on it... and that your breath is going to smell. You think you are stronger than the trap. That is precisely the trap.
- The good news is that’We can stop.
The second attempt to give up smoking was the right one
I'll quickly gloss over my first period as a smoker from 14 to 29. It was a different era. There were still camels on the packs of Camels, and it was cool. The first time I stopped, in 1999, it was following a painful jog, the day after a night heavy on alcohol and nicotine. It was a wake-up call and I lasted 16 years. And I started again in 2015. You never decide to start again. You let yourself be tempted one evening. Then a second. Then at lunchtime. Then you buy a pack because you can't sponge off others all the time.
So in this nicotinic era no. 2, I made a first attempt to quit in June 2018. I lasted 30 days. And on the 31st I lit up a fag. During this first attempt I just wanted to prove to myself that I could go a month without smoking. I also had it in mind that July with its drinks and outings was going to follow, and that I'd start smoking again. And that's what I did.
Second attempt this winter (2020). Attempted as a couple. We lasted, but our relationship didn't. Rest assured, there is no causal link. It's always easier to quit together, and it's especially very difficult to quit alone if you are with a partner who smokes. This time I haven't started again, even though I occasionally smoke a cigarette. Let's be honest, tobacco goes very well with alcohol. Poisons attract each other.
I think you need to find a good reason to quit. A personal reason. If you do it just because you tell yourself «I need to stop» that isn't enough. My motivation to stop smoking was to make my children happy. It is up to you to find your trigger: whether it is to improve your athletic performance, to save money, because you have had a health problem, to make someone you love happy... there are many good reasons. Find the one that is close to your heart and mentally plan the date on which you will begin your victorious battle against smoking. If you do not have this main element of motivation, to which you can cling when temptation is strong, you will engage in a difficult battle, without being armed to win.
The real reward is the pleasure of winning against oneself, the pride one gets from it, and perhaps even the envious admiration one will arouse in one's smoking friends.
For those worried about the weight gain related to stopping smoking, you are worrying about the wrong thing. It is true that cigarettes are an appetite suppressant and nicotine slows down fat storage, but you do not become obese by stopping smoking. Putting on a few extra kilos, which you can lose, and even avoiding putting on in the first place, is not a health issue, it is not even a problem, it is just an excuse.
My method for saying goodbye to the fags
I'm giving up smoking on a chosen date: a Monday for example, or at the beginning of the month. I mentally prepare myself a few weeks beforehand. The day before I stop I smoke a lot, to make myself sick of it. Then every day I write down how I feel, what times of day or circumstances made me want one. This helps me because there's one thing I don't want to have to write: “I gave in”.
Noting down the times when you feel like it allows you to realise that you are self-conditioned to smoke. I’ve finished my meal, I fancy a cigarette. I go out to walk my dog, I fancy a cigarette. I sit down at a café terrace, I fancy a cigarette. The urge to smoke is a habit conditioned in part by the external environment. Your mission to stop smoking is to break this habit.
If you enter this fight, hold out for at least 10 days. Because after 10 days you will notice that the urge starts to decrease. After 20 days you will spend almost entire days without thinking about it. After 30 days the hardest part is done, you are not completely safe, but you are weaned off it. You can then proudly reread your diary and take a deep breath with your brand-new lungs. And indeed, because when you stop smoking, the benefits for the body are very rapid:
https://www.doctissimo.fr/sante/arreter-de-fumer/mefaits-du-tabac/bienfaits-sante-arret-tabac
If you really want to quit, make up your mind and get ready to fight a battle against yourself for 10 days. After these first 10 days, you will feel the battle starting to turn in your favour, but this is not the time to let your guard down; on the contrary, you must deliver the final blow, and around the 20th day, you will start going whole days without the urge to smoke even crossing your mind. After that, all you will have to do is stay vigilant and enjoy your new life as a non-smoker!
Credit: Smoke photo created by wirestock – fr.freepik.com
To go further:
The method used by great champions to stop smoking (without cravings, weight gain, or stress)
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