Stop Smoking Tips

If you just recently quit smoking and are starting to gain weight, take heart. You have two challenges ahead of you: staying away from cigarettes and managing your weight.

Take it slowly and one step at a time to keep both problems in check. If you’ve just quit, it’s likely that you’re still fighting the urge to resume smoking, so this is going to remain your first priority for at least the time being.

Your first priority in regard to your weight should be simply to stop gaining weight. After that, of course, your focus needs to remain on staying away from cigarettes.

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You initially become addicted to cigarettes because of the fast action of nicotine on the pleasure centers of your brain. When you puff on a cigarette, the nicotine in your lungs enters your blood stream and within 15 to 20 seconds begins to work on your brain.

Once in your brain, nicotine binds to receptors that are intended for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This binding causes a change in the cell walls that allow calcium or sodium ions to enter the cell. After that, a number of additional brain neurotransmitters are released.

These neurotransmitters affect your mood and behavior. The neurotransmitter dopamine affects the reward center that causes feelings of pleasure and enjoyment. Serotonin helps moderate your mood and controls your appetite. GABA produces a calming effect that reduces anxiety.

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Does anyone have a kind word anymore for smokers? If you smoke, you are maligned by strangers, ostracized from public places and taxed beyond belief by local and state governments. Social workers accuse you of child abuse.

Environmentalists blame you for pollution. Doctors harp about your health. And the simple act of buying a pack of cigarettes can consign you to the poorhouse.

In the United States, an estimated 24 percent of men and 19 percent of women are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Smoking is a ball and chain, imprisoning you as surely as though you were behind bars. You are inexorably tied to your cigarette pack and lighter. You can never leave the house, the office, the car without checking to make sure your ball and chain are with you.

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