stop smoking please

Stop Smoking Please!

Stop Smoking.  Every year in the U.S. over 392,000 people die from tobacco-caused disease, making it the leading cause of preventable death.

Another 50,000 people die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Tragically, each day thousands of kids still pick up a cigarette for the first time. The cycle of addiction, illness and death continues. What can be done to stop smoking?

The American Lung Association is working to strengthen laws and policies that protect everyone from secondhand smoke and prevent young people from starting. We are also committed to helping smokers quit.

why do your fingers trn yellow when you smoke?

It is the nicotine in cigarettes that stains the fingers and teeth yellow. Nicotine is absorbed through the skin and the mucosal lining of the mouth and nose. It is also absorbed when you inhale smoke into your lungs.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/tobac-tabac/quit-cesser/fact-fait/index_e.html

Nightmare!

So I had this nightmare last night.  My friend and I were sitting and talking and she lit a cigarette.  She told me that she had been lying to me over the past few weeks and that she had not really been quitting smoking.  She said that she was not going to quit.  She said that she liked smoking and it would be too hard to quit so she didn't care about anything else. 
I started crying and I asked her why she lied. She said that smoking made her happy and feel good.  She shrugged her shoulders and said "so lets just leave it alone." I was quiet.  She said "sorry" as if it all meant very little and turned her head to look in another direction.
It was all very vivid and very real. Then I just looked at her and she began to cry. She looked in my eyes as tears rolled down her face. There were no words just absolute sadness and defeat.  She started getting smaller. The whites of her eyes turned yellowish gray as if she was 20...maybe 30 years years older.  We continued to look at one another as the smoke was coming out of her nose, mouth, ears, and eyes....her skin began to wrinkle and she struggled for breath yet sucked once again on the death stick.  As she blow out the smoke a few teeth fell into her lap...I tried to pick them up but I began to cry harder and could not find them.  I then tried to reached for her but she was wilting like and beautiful flower that had been poisoned.  She was too fragile to even touch.  As tears streamed down her face..she just looked at me and said "sorry".

More lovely photos !!!

Your parents did everything they could to keep you safe and free of harm your whole life and in adulthood you choose to do this to yourself.  If someone asked you if you want your lungs to look like this one day woudl you say ...sure!  make a choose for heavens sake!

How many more years do you want to live?

Why quit now?

People who stop smoking before age 50 cut their risk of dying in the next 15 years in half compared with those who keep smoking. IN HALF!

How old are you?   mmm....  

Lets see if you died within the next 15 years because you continue to smoke your daughters could and would be between the ages of 15 and 34 when they would lose their mother!

Ex-smokers enjoy a higher quality of life with fewer illnesses from cold and flu viruses, better self-reported health, and reduced rates of bronchitis and pneumonia. 

How do want to spend your time left living ? 

Benifits of smoking - Part II as spoken by a smoking cessation group!

The benefits of smoking cessation are truly unlimited. We all expect our health to improve, but that is just the beginning of this wonderful journey. The positive results of smoking cessation listed below were collected from About.com Smoking Cessation forum members. They quickly learned that the return on their efforts to quit smoking was well worth the work it took to achieve it -- and then some.

Settle in with a cup of tea and grab some inspiration from those who have made a success of smoking cessation.
Benefits of Smoking Cessation

* Every breath I take feels so clean and refreshing
* I'm not tired during the day...yet I sleep like a rock at night
* I have more stamina, endurance, and confidence
* More cash in my pocket
* My clothes don't stink
* I'm not ashamed of smoking anymore
* My anxiety level has gone way, way down
* I can breathe!
* I'm working out like a champ
* I am in control of ME
* No more coughing
* I'm eating better--I used to substitute cigarettes for food a lot
* I can smell again
* My complexion is much better
* My heart feels relaxed...like it can do more work with less effort now
* Less heartburn and indigestion
* More respect for myself
* No need to worry about attending events where I can't smoke
* My house smells good! My car smells good!
* No more fear of fire caused by smoking
* I spend money on my health now, like working out at a health club, instead of on cigs
* My sinus problems are gone!
* My allergies and asthma have improved
* I don't feel like a hypocrite
* I can sing again!
* No more time wasted smoking
* Whiter teeth
* Fresh breath
* Sharper thinking
* Pride in myself
* No more guilt about exposing family and friends to secondhand smoke
* Confidence in my ability to achieve whatever goal I set for myself!

Smoking cessation is hard work at times, especially early on, but dig your feet in and give it all you've got. Remind yourself daily about why you want to quit smoking, and picture yourself as a contented ex-smoker, free of the need to light up every hour on the hour.

Smoking cessation is not out of reach, it’s doable, and you have the ability to make it happen, right now. Believe it and believe in yourself.

Quit smoking now!

Benefits of quitting!

Benefits of quitting over time? And others! Most important benefits are at the END!

20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.

(Mahmud A, Feely J. Effect of Smoking on Arterial Stiffness and Pulse Pressure Amplification. Hypertension. 2003;41:183.)

12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1988, p. 202)

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1990, pp. 193, 194, 196, 285, 323)

1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1990, pp. 285-287, 304)

1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1990, p. vi)

5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1990, p. vi)

10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a person who continues smoking. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease, too.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1990, pp. vi, 131, 148, 152, 155, 164, 166)

15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a non-smoker's.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Report, 1990, p. vi)

Immediate rewards of quitting

Kicking the tobacco habit offers some benefits that you'll notice right away and some that will develop over time. These rewards can improve your day-to-day life a great deal:

• your breath smells better
• stained teeth get whiter
• bad smelling clothes and hair go away
• your yellow fingers and fingernails disappear
• food tastes better
• your sense of smell returns to normal
• everyday activities no longer leave you out of breath (such as climbing stairs or light housework)

Also:

Cost

Social Acceptance

Employment advantages

Residential Advantages

Friend’s happiness

Romantic advantages

Parenting benefits

Health of loved ones

#1 - CHILDREN"S HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!

FAMILY'S HAPPINESS! LIFE!  LIVING!  BEING HEALTHY!  IT MAKES YOUR FRIENDS VERY VERY VERY HAPPY TOO!

Bumps in the road

Everyone has them...bumps in the road!  Quitting smoking is tough and when life gets stressful it can be really easy to give in or forget about the efforts to quit.  It is easy to surrender yourself again to the nasty habit and not have to deal with the urges and positive efforts you are making to be healthy.

BUT hold on...do you really think being unhealthy or going backward will help?  And this temporary lapse will reduce the other stress? Does smoking help anything?  

No... ok but if you hit a bump in the road...it is OK just get back on track asap...you are still that much further along in the long process of quitting then you were before.

Keep up the good work! You know the rewards!

in one year?

if my friend smokes an average of a pack of cigs per day...she then smokes about 7300 cigarettes per year...

the lethal dose of nicotine per average adult is 60 mg...though the average cigarette only contains between 6-11 mg of nicotine it is still quite toxic.

given the bioavailability of nicotine and all the factors of how we process toxins etc., the average cigarette provides a nice dose of 1-3 mg per cigarette,...so daily that means a cumalative dose of between 20 - 60 mg can be absorbed each day..YUM

our bodies work so hard to process toxins... while nicotine can be sosoooo lethal, it is not lethal because of hard our bodies work to protect us... even at 20 cigs per day not lethal ( YET) but very toxic indeed....

think about over a year my friend absorbs between 7300- 21900 mg of nicotine per year! yuk...her poor body!

What happens when you smoke?!

One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age.
Just for starters...a little graphic but real.  One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit of smoking cigarettes.  Half of these deaths will occur in middle age!

please read the link.  People did a lot of work putting together the information in hopes that it will help educate and prevent unnecessary deaths.
   
http://anti-smoker.tripod.com/id1.html

The process...

 This whole process began because I experienced my friend's addiction first hand.  I realized not only did i find the use of cigarettes so disgusting but that my friend was at a point where if something major didn't happen she probably would continue procrastinating and delaying the day she would quit.

So I felt and decided as a friend I should do something.  The only thing I can do is chose to let her know how I felt about her smoking, how negatively it affects me and our relationship, and that I was no longer going to be able to be around her or behave in a way that ignored this unhealthy behavior any longer.

I was willing to do all I can to help her quit, but not willing to ignore this self destruction.  I set a date which was reasonable ( 30 days)  and told her if by that time she could not commit to a date to discuss a plan then I would not be able to talk or interact with her any longer until she was ready to set a date to plan how she would carry out her smoking cessation.

Yes this is extreme, but she has always said she wanted to quit and I know it would have only gotten harder with each day so why not now!?

I was prepared to follow through with my word and I did.  It worked ...there were and are many reasons to quit but for her to know I cared that much and was willing to do a lot of work with her in order to help gave her the immediate and added incentive to put the plan in motion.  YEAH!!!!

Lets clean them up!

Planning Night!

So in the future I will tell more about how the entire idea got started but for today I want to talk a bit about the family and the planning night.

So since my friend decided she needed to commit to stop smoking we agreed on a night and that night was March 4, 2010.

I was pleased to find that her husband of 26+ years, a wonderful man was there to join us. Not only was he there to support her and involve himself in all the learning, brainstorming, motivating, understanding, etc but he decided to join in the battle of the cancer sticks!

Yes he decided that it would be advantageous and increase the likelihood of her success tremendously if he too quit smoking. What a way to demonstrate his love for her!

How wonderful.... 2 for the price of 1. I am thrilled.

He loves her so much and cares so much for her that he is willing to do this great thing for her and of course also for himself!!!!

It gets better! Not only was he there to join us but there was another person there.

They are blessed with two beautiful daughters. The younger daughter is about to turn 16 and was there also. In fact texts between she and I previously indicated that she was as devoted as a daughter could be to do whatever she can to help her mom quit moking.

Now I am certain this fantastic young woman had a zillion other things she would have rather been doing but there she sat...interested, engulfed in the information, for two plus solid hours of talk. She was pleasant, polite, and scared at times. She would smile or grin and say that is disgusting...but these facts were disturbing...reality is not so pleasant regarding this topic but there she sat taking it all in. She is smart she will lose this information not only for her own benefit but I can tell she will share it with others and save them as well....

What a family what a wonderful event and challenge for them all...how exciting and positive!
They can do this because they have one another!

Decision to quit!!!!

So my friend has made the decision to quit smoking. I have spent an enormous amount of time researching, gathering information, reading, and writing in order to put together the best plan filled with as much helpful information as I can inorder to best support her effort.

I challenge anyone who says they love someone who smokes and wants them to stop to do the same!

Yes I will only help those who make at least close to equal effort to help themselves but I assure you if anything can help motivate a person you love to quit being self destructive it is them seeing you make so much effort to help!

Friends help friends, friends don't let friends drive drunk, because there is potential harm.
Friends should help friends live safe, healthy, and happy lives in all regards!

We all have a responsibility first to ourselves, then our children and other vulnerable individuals, but then to our family and friends !

Really...what is life without them?

Robert Ebert loses voice

One common problem with smoking is that people lose their voices as a result of throat cancer. For some people this is much more of a problem than others...

worse yet Robert lost his partner to cancer in 1999.

http://entertainment.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978074281&nav=Groupspace

I skipped a few day posting...Why?

I skipped a few days for several reasons. One is I am always doing to many things to squeeze in a limited amount of time, but I wanted to be sure whoever ends up reading these blogs knows that it is not for lack of interest or loss of determination and devotion to my cause.

This friend who has motivated me to write this blog and work diligently to learn and find all possible tools to help her quit smoking has proven to me to be one of the most kind and wonderful human beings. She works hard and plays hard, she is always trying to improve herself and learn. She knows that she want s to live a full and meaningful life. There is too much good that I can say about this woman but bottom line is I want her around. I want her to succeed in this battle to quit smoking. I know she is afraid of what it will be like to not smoke. I know she is afraid of the withdrawal symptoms and the unknown side affects of medications ( if she decides to take them).

So I have skipped a few days because I lay in bed at night and thoughts pass threw my mind that say " don't screw up!" " be sure every word you say and all that you offer MUST be helpful and right" " whatever you talk about must help her become more motivated" Then I realize again as alwasy as a professional, that I can only do my best. I will be genuine, honest , forthcoming, and do my homework, I will not give up, I will not stop learning all I can, I will not allow anyone or anything to interfere with her efforts, I will be strong and she will succeed!

So I needed a few days to give that a little more thought!

With all my love I will help!

The gruesome

And there is nothing any doctor or meds can do at this point of no return..
There is nothing to say !