How much is it truly costing you?

When you think about the costs involved in continuing to be a smoker, it is staggering. One of the most precious things in life is time and every cigarette is stealing time from you already short life. The financial costs are also enormous and that's only figuring the cost of the cigarettes alone, not to mention any medical costs in your near future from the health risks.

I finally decided that I was going to quit smoking and needed some help, some assistance, some tried and true program that would make the near impossible possible. There are many different stop smoking programs and many of them have common characteristics, but each has it's own unique approach or processes. I had to try a few of them and then kind of combined the efforts for maximum results AND the result has been that I now breath nothing but clean air... have tons of energy.... and I'll hopefully live much longer.

What have you got to lose? You're already spending TONS of money on cigarettes. Figure it out. How much do you spend each day, week, month, or year on cigarettes alone? So, wouldn't an investment of $30 or even $50 be worth it to save you the thousands of dollars you're now spending, not to mention the health benefits?

Here are three programs that I researched and found to be three of the best programs available AND with the highest success rate of ANY stop smoking programs out there. The best part is that they're all guaranteed to work or your money back.

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I'm just trying to make you aware of the help that is available to you and the programs that truly DO work. I highly recommend ALL of these programs. Read up on each of them and decided which one is best for you and then just DO IT!

Your body will thank you AND you can take a trip to the Bahamas on the money you'll save next year.

Making a list of the benefits of not smoking

The written materials in my "Stop Smoking Kit" gave this suggestion with some tips on how to create your list of benefits gained/received by becoming a non-smoker. I customized it AND as my non-smoking days increased I experienced even greater benefits I would have ever imagined. I was fortunate that my mood or edginess did not cause me to be someone to avoid at this time in my life. Maybe I was still young enough AND maybe my resolve and natural good natured qualities helped me remain even tempered throughout. While this is not true of many people in the throes of nicotine withdrawl, there are many other systems and methods that catter to those elements and provide the techniques and tools to prevent others from running away or avoiding your company during your first several days without your multiple daily doses of nicotine. I found myself feeling a bit light-headed and even a little giddy or silly, which I attested to the additional daily dosages of oxygen, which improves blood flow and the oxygen levels in your blood, which lead to many physical benefits including increased memory and cognitive abilities.

Here is the list of benefits I wrote down on small card that I kept in my wallet, so that I could pull it out diring those tough times when my subconcious was trying to convince me that it wouldn't hurt to have just ONE cigarette. WRONG! One cigarette wil take away all that you've gained and basically cause you to have to "begin again." It is said that it only takes from 5-7 days for a person to break the physical addiction symptoms and effects of nicotine, but it is the mental habit that will require constant vigil. Getting past the physical withdrawls can be tthe more painful and biggest accomplishment, but it's just like being an alcoholic AND that is ONE of the keys in the initial "stop smoking" mind-set or technique. Take it just ONE cigarette and/or one moment at a time. Don't concentrate on focus on the daunting long term process of NEVER, EVER smoking again. Just say to yourself, when those cravings attack your reasoning, that you choose to NOT have a cigarette "RIGHT NOW" and "AT THIS MOMENT." It is a far shorter and for more manageable to just concentrate and focus on this moment right now. It's kind of like the "one day at a tme" credo for AA. It's one cigarette at a time, so to speak, that you're avoiding.

Just a list of all the great benefits I listed, learned, felt, and experienced. Some are obvious and well known, but others maybe surprising.

• Much more energy and stamina throughout the day (had to quit coffee, too, since it goes too well with a smoke AND I found I didn't need it)
• Much more restful and beneficial sleep. I never woke up as a smoker EVER feeling fully awake and refreshed.
• Cleaner sinuses, better breathing, loss of "shortness of breath" while engaged in most all physical activities, whether climbing a few or several flights of stairs, running with or after kids/grandkids.
• Improved immunity system that decreased and for me pretty much eliminated me from ever catching a cold OR the flu.
• A true sense of always "feeling good" and never feeling tired, worn out, or just plain "blah." Good health = Good Mood/Feelings.
• Heightened sense of both taste AND smell, due to improved and clearer nasal system and lessening of the deading effect on my taste buds. Of course the improved sense of smell has both it's rewards and downfalls, but wouldn't you rather be aware of that foul odor in the corner of the basement, so you can find and eliminate the source?
• Improved physical stregth and abilities to perform many demanding tasks, jobs, or activiies for increased duration and power. Energy levels continue to improve, both through the healh improvements and more restful sleep patterns.
• Dramatically improved memory and cognitive skills and abilities. I found that my brain was functioning with far greater recall and quicker thought processes, which I attributed to the improved blood flow quality and oxygen content in my blood feeing the brain AND the loss of the negative aspects of nicotine on the brain receptors and functions (suprisingly so AND has far reaching benefits in ALL areas of life improvement, whether with job, career, school, personal relationships AND in improved self-confidence, assertiveness, and reduced fear in many personal and professional situations and personal encounters. THIS ONE really surprised me VERY pleasantly and is reason eough and alone to strengthen your determination, resolve, and wil power to become a "non-smoker."
• And finally... I enjoy playing music with my acoustic guitar and voice. While I don't sing bad, my voice is NOT what it once was, so when I quit smoking I found my vocal range, tone, and quality improve greatly.

That's my own personal "short list" of ALL the benefits of becoming a non-smoker and I forgot one VERY important one, which is even more true today-- the huge sums of money I would save on this very costly habit. Figure out your daily intake os cigarettes (be honest) and the calculate price and project those costs over a year, then project them out further for 10 years, 20 years. Now imagine what you could have done or could be doing with all that extra money.

It's not easy to quit smoking and it has been said that it is easier to kick a heroin addiction then it is a nicotine addiction and we've all seen the "pictures" of the horrible withdrawl pains of a heroin addict.

Quitting smoking on your own without ANY techniques, programs, or support is pretty much impossible There are many highly successful programs available to help you "dramatically improve the quality AND quantity of your life. When you consider that in one single month of smoking that most of us will have spent close to $150 on cigarettes, so any quit smoking program costs that are less than $100 or even less than $50, will pay for itself in less that a week or two.

(Next: some tried, true, and guaranteed systems and programs with 90% or greater success rates)

How "quitting" has completely changed my life.

I started smoking at a very young age. I was probably 14 years old or younger when I tried my first cigarette, which I "borrowed" from my parents. I didn't enhale, so didn't get the full effects of the powerful and addicting substance, nicotine. Then one summer a "friend" taught me how to really smoke and enhale the smoke deep nto my lungs. Of course the first time you cough a bit, but then you get that "first time user" buzz from the serious does of nicotine. Once you've experienced the feeling and your body and lungs have made the adjustment to what is normally NOT a natural thing a "normal" person would do - intentially inhale poisonous smoke deep into their lungs.

The US Army didn't help, since a common "break time," especially during Basic Training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training - Advanced Basic for me as an infantryman) was announced by the drill sergeant by saying, "Alright, smoke 'em if you got 'em." Guys who never picked up a cigarette were borrowing them from us already adicted smokers, since it seemed like a rare treat and moment of pleasure, during a usual day of torture and humiliation at the hands of our ruthless Drill Instructors. A VERY large percentage of military personnel smoked at this time in the late 70's, so it was nothing like today's attitudes or society's laws and concerns for "second hand smoke" and smokers have now become the minority AND the outkasts forced to stand outside in the worst of weather, just to get "their fix." This also illustrates the powerful hold that smoking has on both the mind and body of the addict.

When I found myself turning 40 years old AND realizing at this point that I had been a smoker for more years of my life than I had been a non-smoker AND hoping to quit before too much damage had been done to my body to repair or reverse.

So, I began looking into Stop Smoking methods and information, which I found VERY useful in stregthening my resolve. At the age of 40, I quit smoking with the aid of some simple non-nicotine pills designed to reduce my cravvings. It was called "Cigarest" or something like that. In addition to the pills, it included some good techniques and tools to help me STAY a non-smoker and get past those "bad moments" when my mind and body begged and screamed to me inside - "JUST ONE CIGARETTE!"

(Next post: some tips and benefit lists