Staying Quit. Notice the Changes that Occur Over Time

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Gladys Robertson
5 years ago
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1 Staying Quit Session 5 includes resources and reminders of the changes over time that will help you maintain your action plan and stay smoke free! Notice the Changes that Occur Over Time Within 20 minutes: Blood pressure, body temperature and pulse rate will drop to normal, while temperature of hands and feet increase to normal. Within 8 hours: Smoker s breath disappears. The carbon monoxide level in blood drops, and the oxygen level rises to normal. Within 24 hours: Chance of heart attack decreases. Within 48 hours: Nerve endings start to regroup. Ability to taste and smell improves. Within 3 days: Breathing is easier. Within 2-3 months: Circulation improves. Walking becomes easier. Lung capacity increases up to 30%. Within 1-9 months: Sinus congestion and shortness of breath decrease. Cilia that sweep debris from your lungs grow back. Energy increases. Within 1 year: Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a person who currently smokes. Within 2 years: Heart attack risk drops to near normal. Within 5 years: Lung cancer death rate for average former a pack a day smoker decreases by almost half. Stroke risk is reduced. Risk of mouth, throat and esophageal cancer is half that of a smoker. Between 5 and 15 years after quitting: Your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a nonsmoker. Within 15 years: Your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is similar to that of people who have never smoked. The risk of death returns to nearly the level of a non-smoker.

2 Stay Smoke-free Avoid a Return to Smoking After all the hard work, time and energy you have put into quitting, the last thing you want to do is return to smoking! Here, planning ahead is the key. There are certain predictable times when a former smoker, even one who has been tobacco-free for many years, may return to smoking. Examples may include: Times of Crisis serious illness or death of a loved one, loss of a job, break up of a marriage or serious relationship, natural disaster. Times of happiness Times of loneliness or boredom While consuming alcohol Long-term cravings Personal risky times (times you associate with smoking or your own personal times of vulnerability) Especially Risky Times for Me Plans to Deal with Them Additional Tips to Help You Stay Off Cigarettes Review your material regularly. Make a list of the quit tips and messages that were most helpful to you. Carry the list with you and review it often during your first few months after quitting. Increase your time in places where smoking is not permitted. Each week, deposit the money you would have spent on cigarettes in a special bank. Write a short list of the things you might like to purchase for yourself or for a loved one. Buy them with the cigarette bank money.

3 Have your dentist clean your teeth after you quit so that you begin your new life with bright, white teeth. Use lemon juice to remove tobacco stains from your fingers. Make some new non-smoking friends If you are a spiritual person, use your spiritual resources to help your quitting process. Find a friend who smokes but would like to quit. Offer that person the benefit of your experiences and your support in their quitting process. Share with others the sense of pride and well-being you feel now that you are a nonsmoker. Do something new and different! Learn a sport, take up dancing, join a singing group, or get out the guitar you played as a kid. Be sure to talk to your physician or health care provider before making any major changes in your level of physical activity, and work up gradually in terms of time and intensity of activity. Be sure to remove all cigarettes from your home, your workplace, car, clothes, etc. Clean your home and car thoroughly to remove that cigarette smell. Plan to celebrate your six-month anniversary of being a nonsmoker. You deserve it! Seven Points to Remember About Active Alternatives 1.) For the really powerful triggers you need many active alternatives. An alternative that works at home might not work in a restaurant or at your job. Find alternatives that make sense in many situations. Write them in the margins of this workbook if you desire. Fill up these pages with effective alternatives to smoking. 2.) You will discover new triggers every day, but you can also discover new alternatives. You can learn alternatives from other people who are getting ready to quit smoking. The benefits of working this program with a group become clearer at a time like this. You may have a trigger for smoking in which you have no active alternatives. Chances are, someone else in the group has had the same problem and just might have an answer or solution. 3.) Be careful about some alternatives. Some experts advise you should avoid sugar, chocolate, and coffee while you are quitting. If any of these trigger the desire to smoke, avoid them. Research shows mint and cinnamon flavored items help to curb cravings more effectively. 4.) Start using alternatives right away. Each morning, make a plan for the day. Choose one trigger you will resist. Also choose three or four alternatives to use when that trigger appears. At first, take it just one cigarette at a time. If your active alternatives can help you avoid smoking for five minutes, the trigger may pass. SUCCESS! Put many such small victories together and you will stay clean and free!

4 5.) Do whatever it takes to win the first round. Take it one day at a time, one hour at a time, even five minutes at a time if necessary. Each time the trigger appears and you don t smoke, pat yourself on the back for doing a great job! Accept some praise for doing now what you were unable to do in the past. Be proud of each small success. From them will grow the greater success of staying smoke-free. 6.) Keep looking for new alternatives and keep writing them down. Which of your active alternatives are working? Which ones are not working? Be creative and original! The more personal your active alternatives are, the more likely you are to use them and the more effective they will be. 7.) If you are working with a group, be sure to let the other members of the group share your victories and help you with your problems. This will help you and it will also help them. Our ideas may help guide someone who is not as far along as you are. And you will also be there to share in the happiness when someone else relays a story of success.

5 Smoking Cessation Resources Organization Web Address Phone Number SmokeFree.gov (800)QUIT NOW (800) American Cancer Society (800)ACS-2345 American Lung Association CDC s Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS) (800) (800) AHA-USAL (800) (800)CDC-1311 (800) Clean Break (800) National Cancer Institute (800) The QuitNet Internet Only Resource Nicotine Anonymous (415) We can reverse years of damage to our bodies by deciding to raise our standards of ourselves, then living differently. Old wounds heal, injuries repair, and the whole system improves with just a few changes in what we put into our bodies and how we move them. -Author Unknown

WE QUIT! Between percent of people living with HIV smoke cigarettes. Quitting is one of the biggest steps you can take to stay healthy.

WE QUIT! Between percent of people living with HIV smoke cigarettes. Quitting is one of the biggest steps you can take to stay healthy. WE QUIT! Between 60-70 percent of people living with HIV smoke cigarettes. Quitting is one of the biggest steps you can take to stay healthy. People living with HIV/ AIDS who smoke tobacco now lose more