Top Tips on Stopping Smoking

1. Be Sure You Really Want to Stop

Want to know how to quit smoking cigarettes and have long term success (i.e. to stop and stay stopped)?
There is only one price to pay:
You have to want to do it! Really want to! Stop, stay stopped - QUIT - completely.
Why? Well, just for the moment, forget about willpower, products, aids and programs. If you attempt to do anything half heartedly, the most likely outcome is failure...

2. Find Real Reasons to Give Up

Don't underestimate the value of this important step.
If you can find real reasons to give up smoking that mean something to you and you will be well on your way.
This is so important, because knowing why you are quitting will serve as motivation to help you through withdrawal symptoms and help you develop practical solutions to the issues you will face while quitting such as coping with stress and withdrawal symptoms.

3. Prepare by Planning

Understanding why and when you smoke will help you to identify practical ways to combat many of the issues you will face while quitting such as coping with stress and withdrawal symptoms, social situations and peer pressure.
Following the steps outlined in planning to quit smoking will help you gather an arsenal of tools and information to develop an effective and highly personalised quit smoking action plan.

4. Stress Relief

Many smokers find that as well as through habit, they tend to want to smoke when faced with stressful situations.
Effective stress relief strategies can help you avoid relapse so finding alternatives is a real NEED to do activity and another one really of those really important quit smoking tips.

5. Avoiding Weight Gain

Quit smoking is challenge enough but some smokers dread the idea of gaining weight. If you fall into the latter camp quitting smoking and weight gain will allay some fears and put the situation firmly into perspective.
For example, a little known fact is that many smokers are in fact underweight, due to prolonged appetite suppression and of those who do put on weight, about half increase their weight by less than two kilos.

6. Beating Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms

The first few days and weeks after you quit can be the hardest.
Cravings tend to be the most problematic nicotine withdrawal symptoms although not every smoker is affected to the same degree.
That said, few smokers seem to be able to stop without getting them. It is the way your body reacts when it stops getting nicotine and all the other chemicals in tobacco smoke.
If you want to succeed you must decide how you plan to get through them. This is probably one our most sought after quit smoking tips.
See: Quitting Smoking Tips for Cravings.

7. Develop Your Action Plan

If you have followed the tips above to this point you are ready to put together your quit smoking action plan.
You should now have five statements, numbered 1 to 5, which form the backbone of the personal action plan you will follow to quit.
You did make notes, didn't you? If not, see the summaries and links above.

8. After You Quit Smoking

Some ex-smokers find quitting smoking relatively easy but many will find that staying stopped is the greater challenge.
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