The Experts Speak
“This book provides smokers with an uncommon resource — science-based recommendations presented in a personal, accessible way. Quitting smoking is rarely easy, but Quit Smoking for Life helps make it doable. I recommend it highly.”
— Michael C. Fiore, MD, MPH, MBA, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
“Thirty million Americans want to quit smoking, and Quit Smoking for Life is just what they need to make and maintain the life-changing decision to end their tobacco dependence, put money back in their pockets, and enjoy good health.”
— Thomas J. Glynn, PhD, Director of Cancer Science and Trends, American Cancer Society
“Quit Smoking for Life is essential for anyone addicted to cigarettes — even if you don’t feel ready to quit or have tried before. It will give you a fresh perspective on quitting and a realistic plan.”
— Daniel Eisenberg, MD, FACC, Medical Director of Cardiology, Saint Joseph Medical Center; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Keck USC School of Medicine
“Quit Smoking for Life translates the science of tobacco use and quitting into a step-by-step plan that has helped more than two million smokers quit. Its positive, down-to-earth style is based on the real-world experience of the nation’s leading quit-smoking coaches and thousands of ex-smokers.”
— C. Tracy Orleans, PhD, former smoker and co-author of the 2008 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Clinical Practice Guideline for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence
To all smokers who are trying to quit.
You can do it!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Why Quitting Can Be So Hard
Chapter 2: Overcoming Your Fears About Quitting
Chapter 4: Shifting from I Have to Quit to I Get to Quit
Chapter 5: Preparing to Quit
PART II: Quitting in Five Steps
Chapter 6: Setting Your Quit Date
Chapter 7: Choosing a Medication
Chapter 8: Overcoming Your Urges to Smoke
Chapter 9: Controlling Your Environment
Chapter 10: Enlisting Support from Family, Friends & Coworkers
PART III: You’ve Quit — Now What?
Chapter 11: Coping With Stress
Chapter 12: Managing Weight Concerns
Chapter 13: Staying Tobacco-free
Chapter 14: Sharing Your Story
Acknowledgements
Index
Workbook: Your Quitting Roadmap
Let’s get right to it — because just by reading this sentence you’ve already taken a step toward quitting smoking.
How does that make you feel? At least a little excited, we hope. But chances are, your excitement is mixed with fear. Surely you must be wondering, how can I cope with stress without cigarettes? How can I imagine a life without cigarettes? How can I give up something I still enjoy? What if I fail and disappoint myself and my family?
Yes, those questions are daunting, but they’re also normal. They’ve been asked — and answered — by the thousands of smokers we have helped to achieve a cigarette-free life. These nonsmokers have discovered, as you will, that you don’t need a cigarette to cope with life’s anxieties. That you can reimagine your life without a cigarette in your hand. That you really can give up something that gives you pleasure. As for failure, it’s a word that won’t be in your vocabulary, because every attempt you make is one step closer to permanent success.
The distance between smoker and nonsmoker may seem an uncharted and fearsome wilderness to you right now, but this book is your roadmap to the other side. You won’t find any lectures or judgment here. What you will find is guidance, support, and encouragement and a toolbox chock full of proven strategies that can transform any smoker into a nonsmoker.
Yes, any smoker. On these pages, you’ll meet a full range of former smokers, including half-pack-a-day folks who were mystified that they couldn’t quit and others who smoked two or even three packs a day for 40 years or more and were certain they could never quit. They are college students and retirees, nurses and artists and sales managers, single people and wives and husbands with busy families. Almost all of them tried to quit on their own and experienced crushing disappointment. Then they used the strategies we recommend and finally quit for life. They don’t claim quitting was easy, but they’ll tell you it was easier than they expected and that quitting changed them in ways that made them never want to go back.
Freedom From Cigarettes
The people who share their stories here are all reaping the rewards that probably motivated you to pick up this book in the first place. They no longer have to endure rude stares or being treated like outcasts. Their friends and families aren’t harping at them, “Why can’t you quit smoking?” But best of all, they’re breathing easier, living healthier, and treasuring the five, ten, even twenty years that have been added back to their lives. Since they’ve become nonsmokers, they’ve also realized they are capable of making other positive life changes that they once had only dreamed about.
Note that we said “nonsmokers,” not “ex-smokers.” What’s the difference? Ex-smokers may not smoke, but they still long to. They teeter on the edge of being a smoker again and identify more with smoking than feeling healthy. Nonsmokers don’t smoke, aren’t going to smoke, and aren’t interested in smoking. Nonsmokers watch someone light up and think: I can’t believe that used to be me.
What’s In This Book
For far too long, many smokers have subscribed to the mistaken idea that the white-knuckle approach is the only way to quit: Toss those cigarettes and proceed to pull your hair out from the roots. What needs to be tossed is that stereotype. Yes, quitting is hard, but it doesn’t have to be unbearable. That’s perhaps one surprise you’ll find in our common-sense approach to quitting. Among the other discoveries you’ll make:
• How tobacco companies secretly pack an astonishing amount of engineering into what looks like a simple product—all with the objective of keeping you addicted
• How cigarettes are actually causing you stress, not offering you relief from it
•