If You Smoke, Get Off Your Butts!
Today's message is simple: if you're a smoker, quit. Smoking is second only to obesity as the biggest cause of disease and death. The good news? It's a controllable risk factor. Here's some good advice from a former three-pack-a-day smoker. --- Dr. Myatt
Quit The Excuses and Quit Smoking!
By Donna Yedziniak, 7/14/2004
One of the first obstacles we have when we want to quit smoking is our excuses for not quitting. I know I had a ton of them and I'm sure you have some, also. Once these excuses are in control, they really sound silly once you quit and look back on them. Don't let the excuses hold you back. Quitting smoking is the single best thing you can do for your health right now.
In a recent 50 year study that was completed by Britsh Researchers, Richard Doll and Bradford Hill found that, on average, smokers die 10 years younger than nonsmokers. They also found about 25 diseases that smoking seemed to cause.
The greatest finding from this study was that it mattered when you quit smoking. If you quit at the age of 60, you gained three years of your life. Quitting at 50 got you an additional six years. Those who quit at 40 gained nearly nine years of life. For those of you who quit at 30, well you hit the jackpot....your risk was avoided almost entirely.
The study also concluded, after 50 years of following their subjects that about two-thirds of them died from their smoking habit.
There will never be a better time than right now to stop smoking.
Each day you smoke, you shorten your life. So start dealing with your excuses that are holding you back.
I was a 3-pack a day smoker so I definitely had a few. Here is one of my favorites:
"Every time I try to quit smoking, something terrible happens and I need to smoke!"
Boy, this is my favorite! I can't count how many times I used it. Remember Rosanne Rosanadana, the character Gilda Radner played on "Saturday Night Live?" Her line was, "It's always something." That was definitely true for me.
Odds are something is going to happen when you start to quit smoking. Life throws everybody curve balls - loved ones die, we lose jobs, we get married, we get divorced, our kids get into trouble. But what really matters in life is not how many challenges we receive, but how we handle them. When I smoked, cigarettes were what I used to cope. I could get away from everyone and everything to go have a cigarette. To stop using cigarettes as a crutch, I needed to learn different coping skills.
At the beginning of my book, I suggest you start observing how non-smokers handle life. Have you ever tried this? If so, you've probably seen people dealing with big life issues without having to inhale smoke in their lungs. What did they do? My friends and I do things like exercise, take yoga, get involved with spirituality or go to therapy. Some of them do all four! Whatever it takes to help us though a rough patch, we do it without smoking.
There's something else to watch for as well - sometimes we create a crisis as an excuse to revert to old behavior. Just because you had a fight with your spouse or partner, your boyfriend or girlfriend didn't call or you got a bad job review does not have to be a crisis. It's all in the way you look at it. All those events are an opportunity to learn - how to more effectively discuss problems with your spouse or partner, that your boyfriend or girlfriend can't be available to you 24/7 and that there are things you can do to improve your job performance.
Very few things are the end of the world. And even if one is, don't smoke! There is absolutely nothing that can happen in your life that could be made better by smoking a cigarette! So stick with the plan learn some healthy ways to cope.
I'm right behind you all the way. Email me with your successes or if you just need someone to help you make your way.
Your friend in staying quit,
Donna
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Copyright (c) 2004 Donna Yedziniak
A former 3-pack a day smoker with a 13-step
Quit Smoking program that will walk you
through quitting smoking forever!
Visit: http://www.quitsmoking4good.com
Get the first 4 chapters free!
Subscribe at quitsmoking@directweb.par32.com
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That's my advice for today. If you're a smoker, get off your butts!
In Health,
Dr. Myatt
10:40:13 AM 
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