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10 strategies to quit smoking – reflecting on my 12-month journey

8:30pm Wednesday January 13, 2015. Standing alone in my backyard, my last cigarette ignited, crackling as I draw back with deep breathes and the sky around me shifting into twilight. I knew then I was making a choice by smoking my last cigarette – that this would be my final one or I would go out and buy a packet later in the evening. Which choice would I stick to?

This wasn’t the first time I have been here. Not literally, but in this position. I’ve use to smoke for 20 years and had attempted quitting 18 times prior to this attempt.

This time however, was different. This time, I took the learnings of ALL of my last attempts and knew that I needed to have a strong strategy in place to fight the toughest battle of my life – my one most powerful addiction.

The psychological fear installed in me (and others who have tried to quit and failed) that we ‘cannot live without cigarettes’ is one of the biggest hurdles I faced. After all, who would I turn to in times of stress; when I had a glass of wine in my hand; even when I was being creative – I needed my cigarettes more than anything. At the time I didn’t realise this was a false reliance that my brain had created by the powerful drug, Nicotine. Looking back, only now I realise how addiction works.

Where am I now? It’s been exactly 12 months and I am reflecting back on a full year without a single cigarette. More importantly, it has been 12 months of some major accomplishments for me – all of which I could not have completed without letting go of cigarettes.

So how did I do it?

As mentioned above, this was not my first attempt – so I had plenty of practice and knew all the triggers. I’m hoping my strategy below will allow others to attempt to try something similar and hopefully achieve what I achieved.

My first trick was to set myself a goal so big and physically demanding – that I would have to force myself to quit or waste valuable money. So I went up. Very up. I bought my plane tickets and my tour tickets to climb to Everest Base Camp by my birthday in May. This forced me into five months of having to quit or lose all that money I had just spent.

But that was the easy part – anyone can save the money or buy the tickets. The next objective for me was to also keep investing financially in my health, diverting funds away from cigarettes and into making me reach Base Camp. So I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer for two sessions per week. This proved to be extremely valuable as it meant that there was someone who would hold me accountable but also work me through the tough times.

Now, back to that night I quit. There is a reason I quit at 8:30pm. As this was my last cigarette, I had to time it to give me the biggest amount of time until my next potential cigarette – allowing my body to get rid of as much nicotine as it could. After the cigarette I had a glass of water, showered and went to bed. Alarm set for 6am. That’s 9 hours before I wake up; 10 hours before I can leave the house and 11 hours before my first chance to buy a new pack (if I faltered).

Before going to bed I had also printed the timeline of events of how my body would heal itself as soon as I had my last cigarette. Every time I felt like one, I simply had to refer to this printed paper and see how far I had come – at first it was 20 mins. Then 4 hours. Then 12 hours. Then 24 hours. Then 72 hours. Then five days. I still refer to this paper today and carry it with me everywhere. This is extremely motivating and reminded me as a smoker that if I could just get to the next timestamp / event – I would be ok.

I also downloaded the Quit App which gave me so much value – from keeping my hands busy; reminding me of the benefits of staying quit and counting in real-time my savings in dollars and milligrams of tar I had not induced. Once again – a powerful tool that helped me get through some of the toughest times.

In addition to these tools, I needed to make some major lifestyle changes. Back then I lived off junk food, I drank wine with dinner and then socially with friends on the weekend, I would use coffee and energy drinks to keep me energised and I would work late nights. These triggers all would stimulate the need for cigarettes and so I knew I needed to target these areas from day one if I was to succeed.

So I stopped drinking between Sunday through to Thursday. Not even with dinner at home. Instead I would slice lemons and limes and submerge them in mineral water as my drink of choice.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were no longer allowed to be junk food. Each meal had to consist of at least 60g of protein (in line with my gym program); and my rule was I needed to have 6 pieces of fruit and 5 pieces of vegetables per day. For snacks I used walnuts, pumpkin seeds, carrot and celery sticks to keep my hands busy during trigger moments.

Another big thing I had to do was give up caffeine. I cut out the morning coffee and afternoon can of Red Bull and replaced it with two litres of water per day.

In the first month and a half, my social life went down the drain. I had to cut out all alcohol. Thankfully, Netflix binging was in fashion so I just stayed in on weekends and consumed a lot of TV during the evening.

On my spare time on Saturdays and Sundays I scheduled to go for a hike or an adventure activity, somewhere local to my city. This ensured I would exhaust a lot of energy, keep fit in line with my gym programme, socialise with my friends and most importantly – give me insight as to my body’s improving health. And month by month the mountains become easier.

Then May came around and it was time to head to Everest Base Camp. Sure the trek was tough – but I didn’t feel as though I was any worse than all the non-smokers. In fact, I was usually at the front of the pack and one of few that went the additional 200m elevation to the summit of Kala Patthar, just above Base Camp.

Since then I have climbed Mount Kosciusko; Mount Wellington; Cradle Mountain; several peaks and treks across the Blue Mountains; trekked across Royal National Park and more. I can’t get enough and this year I am climbing Table Mountain and trekking the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro!

All of this, because I quit smoking exactly one year ago.

If you are a smoker, or someone who is trying to get someone else to quit – I hope this story gives you some help. I’ve created a quick checklist below of all the tools and strategies I put in place that made my quit attempt a success.

I don’t like to say the word ‘never’ but I truly feel – now that those shackles have been broken – that I will never go back to smoking. To think one year ago I could barely say these words. And if I can do it – then anyone can.

 Quit Smoking Strategy Checklist

 ·      Set yourself a demanding physical goal that you want to achieve that will force you to quit – invest money in this right away. If you don’t quite – you lose your money.

·      Book yourself into a gym and personal trainer

·      Print off the timeline of events of how your body heals. Carry this everywhere

·      Download the My QuitBuddy app and use this whenever you feel the urge to light up

·      Quit at a time of the day where you know you will have the longest break before next cigarette (9pm is a good time, on a week day not weekend)

·      Give up coffee and alcohol for at least three weeks, replace with mineral water and fresh cut lime / lemons. Also quit drinking all together between Sunday and Thursday – keep it for the weekends

·      Completely change your diet – use tools like MyFitnessPal to measure what you eat and reduce sugars, fats and other triggers. Tie this into your gym programme.

·      Go for a hike, bike ride, kayak or other adventure once per month – this will keep you motivated to stay healthy

·      If you don’t want to go cold turkey – then use assistance programs along with lozenges and patches to ease off the cigarettes. This is a gradual way to jump off whilst you increase your health / diet

·      When you have a strong craving follow the four D’s: Drink a glass of water; Deep breathes in and out; Distract yourself with something else and Delay your urge to smoke – most cravings last 3-5 minutes … all you need to do is beat this time