The BIG day is here!

You’ve now decided to quit, and for all the good reasons that you have either seen or heard in the media, or, maybe from your family themselves.

It is important for you to realize and other too that quitting is by no means an easy feat, but, if you are prepared for the challenge and the magnitude of self-will you will require to keep on the path to quitting, you will have a far greater success rate.

By following the START process, provided by the National Cancer Institute, will guide you through the hardest period of starting the process of quitting and staying away from the urge to succumb to lighting up a cigarette (or cigar).  The START process is simply this:

            S  =  Start date

            T  =  Tell family, friends, and co-workers that you plan to quit

            A  =  Anticipate and plan for the challenges you’ll face while quitting

            R  =  Remove cigarettes and other tobacco products from your home, car and work

            T  =  Talk to your doctor about getting help to quit

What is the most important step of this acronym is the start date.

Did you know that according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that not only is smoking hazardous to your health but that “your body gets more than nicotine when you smoke.”  To put it bluntly, there are more than 4,000 chemicals found in the cigarette smoke that your lungs take in.  These types of chemicals are the same that can be found in such hazardous consumer products such as: wood varnish, insect poison, DDT, arsenic, nail polish remover and rat poison.  Not exactly what nature had intended for you to put inside your body!

Another important side effect of smoking, which you probably never even realized happens, is that your skin will start to go from a nice healthy and normal complexion to developing a yellow tinge to it.  This comes from all the smoke that you surround yourself with that in turns attaches itself to your skin molecules.  Have you noticed that when you look at your smoking hand, the fingers that hold the cigarette itself have turned yellow?  Over time, the skin that covers your entire body will develop this colour.  You won’t necessarily notice it, but others will.  A tell-tale sign of a smoker.