3 Ways to Help You Quit Smoking Before the Start of the New Year

Sunday, December 30th, 2018

Whether you have been a tobacco user for your entire life or if it’s just a habit that you just picked up, there’s no denying that tobacco isn’t good for you. With Surgeon General warnings on every cigarette box and with commercials that are enough to severely scare you, the information is out there.  With the holidays in full swing and the new year just around the corner, you may have a few resolutions that you want to make. If you are a tobacco user or smoker, why not quit before the new year even starts? Here at The Center For Plastic Surgery, we encourage all of our patients to quit smoking,  and, in some cases, will not do a surgery if the patient is smoking, because nicotine use slows down your body’s natural ability to heal and, may severely jeopardize the success of some procedures. To help you quit, we have created a brief guide of a few things that you can do.

Change the Habit of Putting Something In Your Mouth

Whether It’s after work, on your lunch break, or after a drink on a Friday night, one of the things that keep people coming back for more cigarettes is their habit of having something to put in their mouth. This is a hard habit to break, so we recommend you just modify it to something other than a cigarette or tobacco, or nicotine containing product. Electronic cigarettes are in the latter category. Instead, consider using something like a toothpick or straw as a substitute for the cigarette.  

Break the Nicotine Habit

The hardest thing of all is breaking your nicotine habit. When trying to quit smoking, try doing something like making a chart of how many cigarettes that you smoke each day and when. Then, make a goal of smoking two fewer cigarettes each day for 10 days, deleting one from the morning and one from the evening. If you can, continue this until you are no longer smoking. If you find it problematic, then just delete one ever day or, even, if you have to, every other day until you are no longer smoking. Make sure that you physically log your cigarette use so that you can see just how well you are doing.

Picture Your Life Without Nicotine

Sometimes, one of the best ways for you to quit smoking is to think of just how much better your life will be without nicotine. For instance, you can:

• Daydream of all the wonderful aromas that you can smell once you quit smoking.
• Think of how GOOD food will smell and tastes when you quit.
• Think of your lungs thanking you for setting them free.
• Think of your body being able to get more oxygen again.
• Think of those facial wrinkles no longer forming at such a rapid rate.
• If all else fails, talk to Dr. Buchanan about other options

Here at The Center for Plastic Surgery, Dr. Buchanan wants all patients to live healthy, cigarette-free life. If you want to learn more about ways that you can quit, contact our Highlands office or call us at (828) 526-3783.