Nicotine Dependence – It’ll Get You Back If It Can

Quit One Day, Smoking Again The Next?

nicotine dependence & addictionThe siren song of Nicotine, the chemical in cigarette smoke that makes your quit attempts more difficult, doesn’t just go away the day after you take your last puff.  As many a Quitting ex-smoker knows, it can take weeks for the cravings to subside, and then you still get the occasional pang from time to time, in places and situations where you used to smoke.  These cravings, considered by many doctors to be wholly caused by the absence of Nicotine in the subjects system, are now treated by NRT – or Nicotine Replacement Therapy, and other medicines that block the receptor sites that Nicotine attaches to in the brain.

But if NRT or other chemical treatments is all it takes, why are there still people who fail at a Quit Attempt?  Shouldn’t they all be successful, the first time they use these quit smoking aids?

Well it turns out that there is a lot more to it than just the chemical side of things, and that is an oft missed angle that our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series aims to cover.  In our product we cover NRT and other therapies – some of which may surprise you – to combat the chemical side of the equation, but we also cover the psychological dependence side as well.  This is something that many other products simply do not do.

The following is a taste of the sort of tips available in Book 2 – The Complete Quit Smoking Guide.

Being Ready For The Siren Call

So you’ve got your NRT or equivalent chemical substitute happening for you, you’ve passed your Quit Day, and you ARE doing it, you HAVE quit! But the itch is still there.  Why do you still feel like a smoke?  We cover this is great detail in our Guides Series, but it has to do with the way your mental ‘habit’ of smoking has effected your mind.  Here is one example:

It’s a pressure called the Situational Smoking Effect (SSE) – where you mind actually down-regulates your neurochemicals when you are in a situation or place where you regularly smoked in the past.  It works like this – when you first started smoking, you got a buzz out of it, but after a while, you had to smoke just to feel OK.  No more buzz, yeah?  Well that is your brain becoming ‘used’ to having a regular nicotine supply.  That is why you feel bad when you don’t smoke, and why it is not a simple thing to quit – until you train your brain to go back to the way it was originally.  But after you have ‘trained’ your brain to expect a nicotine hit in a certain place or situation, it gets ready for it by down-regulating your neurochemicals (it’s actually a throwback from a system to prevent a dose of a chemical from hurting you– nicotine is a poison in high does after all).  So there you are, having gone through the ‘tough times’ of nicotine withdrawal, and you’re feeling better, over the ‘worst of it,’ and on your way to healthy lungs.  And then you go to that place or are in that situation, and BANG, you get a pang, and it can sometimes be strong enough to break your resolve.  THAT is the SSE, and if you are not ready for it, it can beat you.

But Knowledge is Power, and our product contains effective tips to combat the SSE, and many other pitfalls of the Quit Journey.

2 More Days!

We are getting really close now to the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the fifth topic in the series; Life After Cigarettes – The Social Impacts Of Quitting.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Motivation – Your Best Friend, Full Stop.

What Motivates You To Undertake A Quit Program/Lung Detox?

motivation for quitting smokingDetermining your motivations, and nailing down exactly why you want to Quit Smoking and/or Detoxify Your Lungs is really important to keep you working towards these goals. The exact reasons vary for each and every one of us, so if you go to the trouble of really understanding your own reasons, and then feeling them – desiring them – you will have a much greater chance of staying smoke-free and cleaning up your lungs – fast!

There are many possibilities, and slight variations – but in some way or form these motivations can be summed up by this basic premise: giving up cigarettes forever, detoxing your lungs and be healthier, feel better and live longer for yourself and your family. Your smoking habit has caused this damage, and has the potential to continue to do so, for up to 10 years after your last cigarette. That is why a Lung Detox is an essential part of any Quit journey.

Reaching That Critical ‘Activation Energy’

Often in any great effort to change, the first hurdle is the toughest. This can be referred to as achieving Activation Energy – that is, making the start that will bring about the improvement in your health (presuming you stick with it – see next section). With most decisions to Quit Smoking and Detoxify Your Lungs, the primary motivation usually comes from a place of anger and fear. Fear of an early, wasting death, possible loss of quality of life for years beforehand, and missing out on seeing your grandchildren, and possibly even your children, grow up. These are all quite rational and sensible fears seeing the dangers of smoking are so well known and publicized these days.

We recognize that motivation through fear has its place. It is sad but true that we humans are far more motivated to flee from danger than we are to move toward things that are good for us. However fear motivation is strong, but short-lived. It can help you reach that critical Activation Energy to get started on your journey to better health, but once this is done it tends to peter out, and those old, short-term cravings seem to have the strong pull they always did. This is because people just can’t maintain a fear response for long periods; we are just not designed that way, and if we try it has considerable negative impacts on both our minds and bodies.

Seeing It Through

So if negative motivation can start us off, but won’t get us there, what do we do then? The answer is to swap to positive motivation! This simple but often overlooked change in motivational methodology can easily be the difference between a successful quit/detox attempt, and waking up one morning with a packet of cigarettes back in your top pocket or handbag. By knowing what your own personal, positive, long-term motivations are to get healthy, and using techniques like Visualization/Positive Forward Projection and Positive Mental Conditioning to keep you feeling those motivations strongly and permeating through all the levels of your mind, your chances of a successful quit/detox attempt will skyrocket!

In fact, we think this is so important, it is the topic of our newest Booklet in the ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series, Book 1 – The Complete Motivations For Lung Health Guide. Complied over several years, and drawing information from top authorities in the field, this newest addition to the Guide Series will help you stay the course, and reach your quit/detox goals.

3 More Days!

We are getting really close now to the release of the updated Guides for 2011! Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you. Check back tomorrow for the fourth topic in the series; Nicotine Dependence – It’ll Get You Back If It Can.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Stress – A Smoking Relapse Trigger That Does Not Physically Exist!

Negative Pressure

stress and smoking relapseFor most people, stress is a negative pressure that adversely affects our day to day health and happiness.  If it builds up to intolerable levels, it can even stop us doing what we most want to do, and can also bring on all sorts of other mental instabilities, and physical sicknesses to boot.  And when Quitting Cigarettes or undertaking a Lung Detox, it can be the one factor too many that leads you to fail in reaching the goals you set out to achieve.  But what if there was a way to understand stress more clearly, and stop it having such detrimental effects on your life?  It turns out there is…

Stress – It All Starts In Your Head

Stress doesn’t physically exist.  It’s not ‘out there,’ seeping into your life with the pressures put upon you at work, or in the home, or a hundred other places.  It’s all in your head.  Truly.  Stress is YOUR reaction to pressures other’s – and even you – put on you.  Plain and simple.  Sure, the pressure comes from ‘out there’ for the most part, but the stress is all yours.

So what does this little factoid actually do to help you, you may be wondering?  The pressure is still there.  But once you realize that stress is your reaction, it means you have options.  You can learn to control your reaction to external and internal pressures.  You can take your reaction back, and use it to your advantage.

Turning Stress Into Success

Do you know the difference between the stressed out person who burns out and slips back into the smoking habit, and a person who turns that corner, changes their life for the better, becoming healthier in the mind and body?  The relapsed smoker turns pressure into stress, and reaches for that pack, that’s what.  And the other?  Well they learn how to turn that pressure into challenge, what is for many of us a negative into a positive, and achieve their goals.  That is what we all want, after all, isn’t it?

And that’s what the ‘Stress Reduction’ section of our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series is aimed at helping you achieve, with many ways to reduce and avoid pressure laden situations, and more great advice on turning Stress into Success.

4 More Days!

We are closing in on the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the third topic in the series; Motivation – Your Best Friend, Full Stop.

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

Your Quit Date – Why It’s Important To Get It Right!

Jumping In, Boots And All

Most people wake up on the 1st of January, and once their hangovers clear, decide it’s a New Year and time to make a change.  This is a good thing.  It is a fine time to make this sort of decision.  However, it’s what they do next that decides if they will be successful or not.  Most smokers throw away their last pack and go cold turkey, or at best have nicotine patches to fall back on.  These can certainly help, in part, but they are NOT the be all and end all.  There is much more to know, and much more to do, before starting down the path of a successful quit attempt for the New Year; one that will become a new – and far healthier – lifestyle habit.

Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail

It’s that simple.  If you don’t have a good plan for your quit attempt, you’ll likely be lining up again next year to try it again. Now I’m not saying that you can’t just stop smoking and ‘tough it out,’ relying on pure willpower to not slip back.  I’m really impressed with people who can do this.  But let’s face it, that’s not most of us.  Most of us are fallible mortals, who need a good plan, and a fair bit of help, to make that life changing move to healthy lungs.  This is what our product, ‘The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide’ Series, is aimed at providing; a complete program to guide you to a successful Quit Attempt, and/or Lung Detoxification.

Our product will give you a tried and tested method to prepare and enact a well-planned Quit Day, utilizing the best methods and tips for your personal situation, including when to actually schedule your last cigarette.

Picking The Right Time – For You

There are many factors that you should have working in your favor to make your next quit attempt your last, and your most successful.  If you spend the time preparing – reducing stress, understanding your short and long term motivations, keeping them in mind, and organizing the right help methods to get you on the path to healthy lungs *takes breath* then you will succeed.  And the important thing is, you might spend a month preparing, but that month is not nearly as much time to expend as you would use with multiple future quit attempts, is it?

Likewise, the actual day you set is important.  Choosing a day that is, for example, NOT during a busy time at work, or not during some other event that will distract you from your goal, is very important.  Your chances of success sky rocket when you have the time to focus on quit techniques and beginning healthy alternatives, like a new exercise program, diet, or the methods presented in our product.

Just 5 More Days!

We are closing in on the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the second topic in the series; Stress – A Smoking Relapse Trigger That Doesn’t Physically Exist!

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds

The New Year, Resolutions, And Lung Health

A New Year Is A Great Opportunity

I know it sounds a bit clichéd, but the New Year really is a great opportunity to start doing something positive to help YOU – and quite possibly your loved ones – live longer, better, and more comfortably.  Some people might turn their noses up at a New Year’s Resolution, especially one made in a drunken stupor at ten seconds to midnight on Dec 31, but… if you take it seriously, and understand that there are many others out there doing the same thing (striving to improve themselves), then you won’t feel so alone in this effort.  Also, we as humans often need some sort of point to know when to start things.  New Years is often a good opportunity for this; a New Year, a new calendar, and often time off work, giving you the opportunity to read, learn and start preparing for your healthy change from a clean slate!

I am certainly making some Resolutions and sticking to them.  What about you?

Resolve To Make A Change

Change is often considered quite hard, but the fact is that change is one of the few true constants in our lives.  We keep getting older, people come and go, we change jobs, roles, clothes, even cells in our bodies – every day.  Change is always there, so we might as well embrace it, and make it work FOR us for a change! Yes OK, that is a rather circular statement – but it’s very fitting.

Change comes in two main flavors, like most things; positive and negative.  Negative change tends to happen regardless after we hit our mid 20’s; we get older, our bodies tend to become less highly-tuned, and we have to work harder to maintain them.   We have to put the effort in to effect positive change. It is always hard to star these thingst; there is a theory floating around that every person has an ‘activation energy’ to start something – akin to reaching the motivation needed to start on a new activity or course in your life.  This is always the hardest part; actually starting.  However once you get started, it gets easier.  You still need to focus on it, but it does come more readily as you go along.  Look back at all the skills you have mastered during your life so far, a common example is driving.  It was hard at first to learn, but eventually you did, and as you got better at it, it got easier.  Making a Resolution and following it is much the same.  Get past the start, and you’ll be well on your way, but that’s not all there is to know.

Knowledge Is Power

There is no truer statement.  Know what you are doing and prepare well before you start, and your chances of success skyrocket.  That is what our flagship product, The Complete Lung Detoxification Guide Series is all about; giving you the knowledge you need, and the preparation tips to maximize your chances of success with a straightforward lung detox, or a quit program and lung detox.  It’s all included.

Now the Guides themselves contain a wealth of information for you to utilize to make your Lung Detox quick and highly successful (several months rather than up to 10 years), as well as a mass of Quitting smoking help, Stress Reduction tips, and Motivation methods that should hold you in good stead as you make a grand, positive change in your life.  However, there are two new angles we are covering with our updates based on user feedback:

  1. We have added in a raft of worksheets, designed to help tailor your Lung Detox to your own situation.  We have included a ton of information in the Guides, not all of which will be relevant to your specific situation.  The worksheets will help you discover which ones will work best for you, and guide you on your personalized path to Lung Health.
  2. Some users have said there is so much good stuff in the Guide they were not sure where to begin!  Fair comment, so in the update we’re including a Step-by-step Success Guide/Wall Planner, that will help you draw the information from the four Guides together and make it work for you, with a minimum of fuss.

These are really exciting editions, and we know you’ll get a lot out of them.

6 More Days!

We are closing in on the release of the updated Guides for 2011!  Over the first six days of the New Year, we’ll have a series of New Year’s Resolution Lung Detox posts, all related to the new release and to starting the adventure to a healthier new you.  Check back tomorrow for the first topic in the series; Your Quit Date – Why It’s Important To Get It Right!

Until tomorrow,

Happy New Year, stay well, stay quit, and lung-toxin free.

William Renolds