Don’t be surprised if you’re not completely sure that you’re ready to break your habit at this stage. It’s not about quitting cold turkey; no one is asking you to do it today. Forcing yourself to quit before you’re mentally and emotionally prepared to change usually backfires. Quitting cold turkey usually doesn’t work at this stage. In this stage, you’re getting ready to quit.
The best way to free yourself from any bad habit is to replace your old behavior with a more active lifestyle. Your commitment to an exercise program is one of the keys to breaking a bad habit.
I started smoking when I was 22 years old. I had never taken a single puff on a cigarette before then. When my smoking turned into a two- pack- a-day habit, I started to worry about my health.
Like many smokers, I spent five years smoking and another five years trying to quit. I switched to a pipe for a while in the hope that the trouble it takes to prepare a pipe and clean it would curb my smoking, but it didn’t slow me down enough to make a difference. Eventually I went back to smoking cigarettes.
I realized that I was going to need a plan. I had noticed that many ex-smokers substituted snacking on junk food for their former cigarette habit. Their rapid weight gain made me wonder if the remedy wasn’t worse than the disease. I didn’t want to fall into the same trap, so I planned to use sugarless gum to satisfy my craving to put something in my mouth.
I was teaching at the time, and back then I was still using a chalkboard in the classroom. When I was trying to quit smoking, I would sometimes catch myself holding a stick of chalk between my fingers as if it were a cigarette. I almost put a stick of chalk in my mouth once. I’m sure it looked funny to the student s, but I didn’t worry about it. They knew I was trying to quit, and their encouragement and suppor t played an important role in my success.
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