UH Smoking Cessation Program incorporates the most current guidelines for tobacco cessation support into an online format, allowing participants to go through material at their own speed. Choose a combination of techniques and cessation treatments you will use in your quit attempt.
You also have the ability to participate in online communication with the smoking cessation counselors and other participants. As you begin this journey here our some initial tips to get you started.
1. Make a Quit Date
a. Pick a Date within the next 2 weeks
b. Write Down and Verbalize the upcoming Date, preparing yourself, co-workers, family and friends. They will be your support in the upcoming weeks
2. Write Down your Reasons to Quit
a. Make a list of reasons YOU want to quit
b. Keep the list on a note card in your wallet, car, or office to remind yourself why quitting is worth it
3. Change Your Routine
a. Changing your routine will help break the smoking habit
b. Take a different route to work
c. Lock your tobacco in the trunk
d. Eat different foods or in a different location
4. Prepare Yourself
a. Make an Emergency Kit: include healthy snacks, letters from family, support from ex-smokers, pictures of loved ones, picture of someone you have lost from COPD
b. Pick up a new activity
c. Have healthy snacks ready
d. Do something else with your hands
5. Break the Connection Between Eating and Smoking
a. Get up from the table as soon as you eat
b. Brush your teeth as soon as your down eating
c. Go for a walk
6. Deal with Stress
a. Give yourself a break at work. The same amount of time you would have taken as a smoker. Take your break in a non-smoking environment or with an ex-smoker
b. Deep Breath
7. Stick With It
a. You can do it!
b. Don't give up!
c. It takes time to recover from an addiction
8. Learn from the Past
a. The average nicotine user takes multiple attempts to become a non-smoker
b. Plan ahead most relapse happens in the first three months
c. If you slip up it doesn't mean you should smoke the whole pack. Remember how far you have come and what you have gone through to get this far. Through the tobacco away!