tips to help you quit smoking

cigarettes will kill you-no butts about it

1. List all the specific personal reasons for why you want to stop smoking, including the gains of quitting, and then set a concrete day for quitting.

2. Speak with your provider about products and programs and that are designed to help you quit.

3. Get rid of all cigarettes, lighters, ash trays and matches (other than safety matches) right before your quit date.

4. Avoid places that you smoke in, people that you smoke with and places that you buy cigarettes.

5. Sit in non-smoking sections or go to smoking prohibited cafeterias and restaurants. Spend time in public buildings, museums, stores, theatres, hospitals, etc, where you can't smoke.

6. Get away from the table immediately after you eat and do something incompatible with smoking (e.g. walk, do dishes, wash hands, garden, hobbies, etc).

7. Keep handy a range of low calorie and non-edible smoking substitutes to use when you have an urge to smoke. Ice water, toothpicks, sugar-free candies and mints, worry beads, hand-held computer games work well. Have them available on your person, at home, work and car.