DKos Quit Smoking Day: The GUS Group

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW! he purpose of this diary is to announce a DKos quit smoking challenge. The day starts tomorrow (June 15th) and anyone is invited to join in the fun. For you current smokers, you now have an additional incentive to quit. This effort was inspired by a fellow Kossack (Rosebuddear) who has documented her recent efforts with the very difficult task of quitting smoking cigarettes. The effort can be followed here. Day 1, Day 2,Day 5. Let us now stop here for thunderous applause, screaming loud hoots and hollers in support of Rosebuddear.
A collection of people have decided to follow Rosebuddear's example, the GUS group (Gave Up Smoking). The initial announcement was made last night by bsmechanic here, bsmechanic's diary. Check it out, it's very good.
Anyway, here's the deal.

• bgblcklab1's diary :: ::
• 
  

Any current smokers are invited to join us in this attempt to give up this disgusting habit. A diary will be posted starting tomorrow and you are welcome to post your progress, your experiences, the tough times and the good times. The idea is we support each other and have some fun in the process. We will follow our progress on a daily basis, at least at first, and cheer our success at the end (when is the end ?). Former smokers and non-smokers are of course invited to chime in also.
This is short notice for sure. Let's just say someone is in the middle of some tough times...going through a divorce with the job layoff coming unless you work 96 hrs a week and your best dog is going down hill fast with your car breaking down and your house has a leaking roof with the septic system backing up and your hot water heater just blew up. Maybe it is not your best time for this. We hope to demonstrate by our success for anyone who can not join tomorrow, an example to repeat at a later date.
Here is a preview of what is to come.


Want to quit smoking and need some motivation? Cigarettes are now at around $ 7.00/pack depending on your your location. This is putting your drug habit in the range of having to hold up liquor stores to support your addiction. Both cigarette smoking and holding up liquor stores have the potential to have significant effects on your health as well as your social life. (snark warning for the sarcasm impaired) Let us list some more motives.
As a smoker:
You stink
Your house stinks
Your car stinks
Your clothes stink
Your breath stinks
You support big tobacco profits
bsmechanic referenced the beneficial effects of quiting smoking
*Within 20 minutes of the last cigarette, blood pressure drops to its baseline level. Pulse rate also drops, and the body temperature of the hands and feet increases to normal healthy levels.
*Within eight hours, carbon monoxide levels return to normal in your blood stream. Oxygen levels also increase back to normal.
*Within 24 hours, your chance of a heart attack decreases.
*Within 48 hours, nerve endings start regrowing, and your senses of taste and smell improve.
*Within 72 hours bronchial tubes relax, making breathing easier. Lung capacity increases a little, too.
*By two weeks to three months, circulation improves. Walking becomes easier, and lung function increases up to 30 percent.
*By one to nine months, coughing, sinus infections, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease markedly. Cilia regrow in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce the risk of infection. Your energy level will also increase.
From U.S. Army Medical Department - Office of the Surgeon General
Go ahead and list some more reasons to quit smoking in your comments. If you want to join in, go out and stock up on fresh fruit, get your preferred nicotine substitute and smoke up your current stash. We'll start to quit Monday morning.
Update [2009-6-14 11:52:44 by bgblcklab1]:
The rec list...HOLY SMOKES!!
Here are some of the links I promised. They were posted in the earlier diaries of Rosebuddear. Thanks to all of the readers who posted them.
whyquit.com
Quit Smoking Online
Become an Ex
Quitnet
The Quit Library
finding a quit line
This is a very good news for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.
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SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!

How I Quit Smoking | Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!

In my support for the GUS movement here at DKos, I’d like to share my story of how I quit smoking about two years – two and a half, now really – ago. I’m not saying this is how you can quit smoking. Everyone does it in their own way. Hopefully, however, some idea or other here might help someone else along their way.
There will be some personal history given here – I hope that doesn’t put anyone off. It seems necessary, however, for how this worked for me.
A disclaimer: all of the actual facts and events described here are true. I might get a bit... creative... now and then in how I describe them, but the narrative itself is accurate, to the best of my knowledge.

• theatre goon's diary :: ::
• 
  

A bit of background to begin with – some other background will appear as is necessary – I was a smoker for about two decades. At the end, two packs a day, sometimes a bit more. My wife and I moved out of the big city back to the country, and I had already decided that there was no way I was going to try and quit during a move, that’s just insane. We were first moving into a small rental property until we could get a house moved onto my family land – owned by my family since just after the Civil War. About eighty acres are still in family hands, so I now live near my parents. Often, too near.
My self-imposed deadline was that I would quit when we moved into our own house. Do deadlines ever really work...? That’s rhetorical. They hardly ever do.
Before we found a house, the state of Texas, in its infinite wisdom, put another two dollars a pack tax on smokes. I was unemployed at the time. So, I bought one last carton before the tax went into effect, and that was it. I haven’t smoked since I finished those.
But, I hear you asking, how did I actually quit? Cold turkey. No patches, no gums, none of the new pills (that work pretty well, so I hear, even if I can’t remember the name off-hand).
That, and the support of my wonderful, wonderful wife.
I’m not a huge fan of sweets, so I didn’t do gum or candy. I ate piles and piles of raw carrots and celery. For some reason, the crunch was extremely satisfying.
And here’s where you find out more about me than you might have wanted to know. I was a stagehand by trade for fifteen years (hence the nick, I just never got rid of it). I’m also a performer, a self-trained stage combat choreographer and combatant, and a historical re-enactor (mainly, that means I dress up as a pirate for fun and profit).
With no smoking to do, I wrote three full scripts for short stage shows – all of which included a lot of swordplay. I choreographed the swordplay, and my wife and I both fight and perform the shows now and then – to thunderous applause, of course.
I was a grumpy, grumpy bastard. I knew I was, and tried to control it as best I could. Rather than actually snapping at people, I told them that they were annoying the hell out of me, but it was not their fault, but to stop doing whatever they were doing anyway. They mostly didn’t, but said they understood where I was coming from. I became outraged over politics. Well, I was usually already outraged, but I became outraged-er.
I wanted a cigarette every minute of every day that I was awake, for a while. Cravings slowly went away. After a couple of weeks, I still wanted one, but not for the same reason. There was no need. It was just want. After enough time passed, I didn’t even really want one. I still, now and then, would like to have one, but it’s not compelling in the slightest. I’m not even sure exactly when that changed, I just know that it has.
The money I would have spent on cigarettes, I put away for several months. Well, I didn’t actually have it, but I kept a running tally. When I had the money to spare, I put it away. All along my quitting, I told myself that if I stayed quit for six months, I’d go buy myself something really, really cool with that money. If I had even one smoke, all that would go to... well, I dunno. Something else.
I bought that really cool thing. I won’t volunteer what it is here unless people really clamor for it, ‘cuz it could possibly start a side-argument that is unproductive here.
My wife helped. A lot. She put up with me. She... how to put this delicately... distracted me, sometimes, when I really needed a smoke. Take that how you like. We will have been married for thirteen years at the end of this month.
We’re in our own house now, for about two years. We got incredibly lucky and found a frighteningly cheap house that we had moved onto the family place. It needed lots and lots of work, which we’ve done – but you never really finish working on a place. I basically have three jobs, none of them really full-time, but they add up to one. More than one, but less than two. Usually.
I haven’t had a single cigarette since I quit. I still eat a lot of carrots and celery.
People tend to put on weight when they quit smoking. I did, I’ll admit it. I’m also turning forty this year, so that could be adding to it, also. I went from around 190 pounds to 210, and I’m in relatively good shape, so I can live with that. I thought of blaming my hair falling out to the quitting, but no, I have to blame that on my mother’s father. Or mother. Or however the genetics work out on that...
So, is this a self-indulgent diary? Probably. I like to talk about myself, from time to time. I hope, though, that some little bit or idea here might help someone quitting to do so. Or maybe it just distracted you from actually having a cigarette for a few minutes. If it annoyed you in any way, hopefully that annoyance distracted you from wanting a cigarette for a few minutes.
Happy to answer any questions, and I’ll try to monitor the comments as well as I can...
Source

This is a very great story for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!

Stop Smoking Tip | Effects Of Smoking

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW! So what if it is really that easy? What if all your beliefs about how hard it is going to be to quit are completely false? What if, after just one session of hypnotherapy or NLP you find it incredibly easy to become and remain a happy, confident non-smoker for life?

The reason why hypnotherapy & NLP are so successful is because both our beliefs about smoking and our habitual smoking behaviours reside within your unconscious mind. So whilst consciously we may wish to quit, all too often our all powerful unconscious mind simply would not let us.

You see when smokers first start; they buy into years of conditioning telling them that smoking made them feel somehow better, more confident and more relaxed. And as a result of lighting up those first few cigarettes, smokers permanently install these extremely unhelpful beliefs directly into their unconscious, beliefs that also included the concept that quitting was going to be really difficult.

At the same time, smokers make a conscious decision to choose those perceived benefits of feeling better, more relaxed and more confident, over the initial physical reactions of inhaling the poisonous fumes. So as time goes on and those uncomfortable physical reactions start to subside, as a result of their newly formed nicotine addiction, they started to mistake the relief of feeding that addiction with feelings of relaxation and confidence.

So many years later, after smoking tens of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of cigarettes, they have re-enforced those unhelpful beliefs about smoking and how hard it is to quit and, they have also trained their unconscious minds to wrongly associate the process of lighting and smoking a cigarette with feeling good, confident and relaxed.

Hypnotherapy and NLP allow us to retrain the unconscious mind of a smoker to disregard those false beliefs about smoking and how hard it is to quit, and to swap those unconscious benefits for something altogether more exciting and fulfilling - feeling absolutely great!

So as a result, the all too familiar withdrawal pangs of irritability, mood swings and cravings, the primary reasons why people fail to permanently quit smoking, will be replaced with feelings of relaxation, improved self confidence and overall happiness.

If you would like to Quit Smoking with the easiest most successful system then visit Quit Smoking Expert now!

Source

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GUS for smoking Kossacks. This time, it's personal (w/WGN update)

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!

This is a flare diary for Kossacks who are interested in quitting smoking. Within a comments thread in Rosebuddear's recent diary Not smoking, day 2 came the idea to form a Kos quit-smoking challenge, or support group. One commenter posted a pre-intention to quit on Monday, July 15. Another came up with the acronym GUS (Gave Up Smoking).

And, will you look at that? From the fledgling seeds of a comment thread comes GUS (Gave Up Smoking), and the target date for quitting smoking is this Monday, June 15. Contact information for those who are interested can be found at the tail end of this diary.

"This time... it's personal" is a phrase that is commonly associated with sequels to Hollywood blockbuster action flicks. GUS is not a sequel, though Gus is the name of a bark-happy beagle, the first family pet that I remember. This is an example of making it personal, with more to follow.

• bsmechanic's diary :: ::
• 
  

Why make quitting smoking a personal matter? For chrissakes, where have you been the last fifty years? Health risks? (coff-coff) Is it not enough for you to simply decide "I don't want to die," and just put the coffin nails down? Anecdotally, some doctors and psychologists view smoking as a form of "covert suicide."

I mean, it's not like we haven't been informed, unlike those poor souls who were subject to some really examples of advertising-as-high-absurdity through much of the 20th century.

Gone are the days when cigarette brands lured a relatively more diverse cross-section of endorsees:

Actors

Professional sports figures

... feminists?

... doctors?

... puppies?

... babies??

... Santa Claus???

Fast forward to the present day, and what have we got?

We've come a long way, baby. A cartoon character. I won't rant over the aspect of Joe Camel, phallic nose and all, as subliminal drug pusher to youth culture (this can include 43 year-old Peter Pans like myself, as well). So here we go, into the heart of my current motivation to quit smoking.

I hate being lied to. Or, more pointedly, my level of disdain over being lied to is inversely proportionate to the creative effort being used to bullshit me. Those ads of the previous century? Having been born after most of them found print, I can't offer an accurate reaction, had I come across one while flipping through the pages of Life magazine. Like many, I see these ads, chuckle, and shrug my shoulders in ironic reaction to this display of kitsch, while secretly admiring the guts of these former marketing efforts. Santa Claus???

Now the cat is out of the bag. Smoking kills. On the side of what will hopefully be my last pack of cigarettes going into GUS day comes the following Surgeon General's Warning:

Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.

So while Mickey Mantle, Ronald Reagan, and the Super Feminist may have been served some cloudy data as regards cigarette smoking, well... in the current day, we're now crystal clear on this information. That any such advertising exists for a known killer of 440,000 Americans per year, much less a goddamned cartoon character, is an insult to my intelligence.

Isn't this screwed up... on my part? To repeat: the logical consequences of smoking do not factor into my decision to quit as much as a vain perception that Big Tobacco is out to hump me. But then again, and I think I speak for many smokers, if common sense applied to this life style, then most of us would have given this shit up years ago.

Jacquelyn Rogers is the author of the book You Can Stop Smoking (Powell's Books link here), and the founder of the Smokenders program. In this book, she emphasizes the importance of coming up with highly personal, even selfish reasons to quit smoking, as a means of postive motivation:

Establish a positive attitude for your reasons to quit--not as a form of self-denial or sacrifice, but as an exchange for something that is of greater value. That's an interesting twist, particularly when most smokers are used to thinking of quitting as giving up something they consider worthwhile. (p.160)

Here is my own list of very personal reasons to quit smoking.

Physical benefits (it's not just lung cancer...)

*Eyes are bright and clear; no longer blood-shot or puffy.
*It's easy to ride my bike now--even up hills.
*No longer have to accommodate pocket space for a pack of smokes.
*No more late afternoon headaches.
*Better sex!
*My apartment is cleaner, and smells better.

Social benefits (where being shamed fails, these ideas win!)

*Sat through a two-hour film without squirming past my friends to have a smoke.
*The act of smoking is aesthetically silly.
*I can concentrate on your side of a conversation without being distracted by my cigarette.
*Doing my part to be a complete human being, and not some meaningless statistic on the data sheet of some Big Tobacco Exec.

Emotional benefits (... but what about the good feelings that I'll have when I quit?)

*I am able to get things done, without being stalled by a cigarette.
*No more "where did I leave my smokes?"
*I love the support from family and friends.
*Feeling more emotionally connected helps to greater facilitate my art work.
*I feel good about giving myself an annual $2400 raise.

In wrapping this up: my big flip-off at the tobacco companies is the booster fuel I am using as motivation. But to sustain my recovery from nicotine, I invite more postive and highly-personal things I stand to gain, once the tar starts to clear my system.

SallyCat will be heading up Monday's launching of GUS. Through this week, there will be diaries from fellow Kossacks (GUSsacks?) who will be documenting their attempts to quit smoking journeys into smoke-free living. Also, bgblcklab1 is in the GUS on-deck circle, slated to post a diary tomorrow. Your encouragement and participation is much appreciated.

Also, I couldn't resist this:

Airplane: The Movie!

***** ***** *****

UPDATE X1: While manning the comments section of this diary, I had been listening to the Nick Digilio show on WGN radio (AM 720, Chicago). At the top of the hour (9PM CST), Nick broached the subject of recent cigarette taxes that have driven the cost of a pack to $8 a pack, in these parts. I phoned in, and actually got on the air! While Nick focused on the sub-topic of taxes and the cost of smoking, I gracefully managed to ease into the conversation a mention of the Daily Kos smoke-out this Monday. I will update this diary with a podcast, as soon as it is available (if you're still here at that point, I am listener "Chris from Ukranian Village").

The downside of all this: while I've been geeking out on my laptop tonight, Nick gave mention to the World Naked Bike Ride, currently happening. In Chicago. This very moment. Folks... time for me to go out and get some fresh air!

***** ***** *****

UPDATE X2: Within some comments, the issue of physical discomfort from nicotine withdrawal is mentioned. I concede to having neglected this issue in my initial post.

As happens with alcohol and heroin withdrawal, be prepared for varying levels of discomfort when you put down the smokes. There are many products available to help you do this, nicotine substitute products (gums, patches) being the most popular.

This update is not an endorsement of any particular method. I do endorse checking with your doctor. If you do not have a doctor, then by all means, give it your best shot, but be easy on yourself if is too much for you to handle at this time. As a friend of mine, a ten-year recovered smoker, told me after one of my relapses: "Every failure brings you one step closer to success, if you keep trying."

Poll

GUS! Are you ready to quit on Monday, June 15?

	Yes, this was already in my scheduler.
7%	4 votes
	Yes, as a latecomer who is fired up!
8%	5 votes
	Yes, with some reservations.
7%	4 votes
	No, but I will stop by to enourage and learn (smoker).
28%	16 votes
	No, but I will stop by to encourage and learn (non-smoker).
14%	8 votes
	No, I have no intentions of quitting.
28%	16 votes
	Pie! Endorsed by babies, Mickey Mantle, and 4 out of 5 doctors.
5%	3 votes

| 56 votes | Vote | Results

This is a very great article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

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SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!

More people opting for hypnosis to try to quit smoking

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW! SINGAPORE: More people are giving hypnosis a shot in their efforts to quit smoking. While this form of treatment has been available here for at least ten years now, more hospital professionals are being trained in it.

Some 30 health care professionals will complete a clinical hypnosis course conducted by London College of Clinical Hypnosis in collaboration with Tan Tock Seng Hospital in October.

The whole session will take about 1.5 hours and according to therapist Mdm Karen Ong from the London College of Clinical Hypnosis, the therapy is very safe.

Sheila Menon, principal, London College of Clinical Hypnosis, said: "What happens is when a smoker decides to quit smoking, they can go into a relaxed state and focus acutely on what it is they want to achieve and they can break the habit. In addition to that, they can also imagine themselves as a non-smoker in the future."

But does this method work for teenagers who do not want to quit smoking?

Ms Menon said: "When a parent brings a teenager who really doesn't want to quit, we quite often say, 'Why not give it a shot? Try out being a non-smoker and you can choose to remain a non-smoker, or go back to smoking.'"

The hope is that they will benefit from the attempt. - CNA/vm/ls

This is a very great article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

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SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!

Stop Smoking with Hypnotherapy

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW! (NaturalNews) We have all heard how bad tobacco products are for our health. Smoking is an addiction that is very difficult to quit, but there are proven techniques that help increase your chances of not only quitting smoking, but never smoking a cigarette again. One of the most effective treatments in helping people to finally stop smoking is the alternative method of hypnotherapy.

According to the American Heart Association, 47.1 million people smoke in the United States. Of men in the United States, 23.5% smoke and out of women in the United States, 18.1% smoke. The statistics are even higher when looking at the worldwide statistics of cigarette smokers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, 50 of which are known to cause cancer. According to WHO, half of the world's population of children (700 million children) are exposed to tobacco smoke. The International Labour Organization estimates that 200,000 people around the world die from second-hand smoke at work. These statistics show that not only is it important for an individual to quit smoking, but it is also important that they quit for the health of those around them as well.

Smoking is a physical and mental addiction. People become used to the feeling they get from a cigarette. They get used to having a cigarette in their hand and it occupies a great deal of time throughout their day; smokers become used to having an oral fixation with cigarettes. These are all physical aspects of their habit. The mental addiction can be more difficult to overcome. The actual addiction is mental and there is very little someone can do physically to help overcome the mental addiction to cigarettes.

Moses (1987) performed research on treating smoking with hypnotherapy. The researcher points out that smoking deals with habit, addiction, and willpower. All three of these aspects are difficult to treat alone, let alone all together, but hypnosis has shown to be effective in treating the habit, addiction, and one's willpower to quit. The suggestions used in this study were to get smokers to change the way they viewed smoking and also to become more aware of the negative health effects smoking was doing to their body and overall health. Hypnosis was used to target the smokers' habit, addiction, and willpower to effectively help them quit smoking. Results of the study showed that using hypnosis suggestions was very beneficial in helping people abstain from smoking tobacco.

Smoking has many negative effects on ones physical and mental health as well as the health of those around smokers. Quitting smoking has so many positive influences on one's health and a positive economic impact. It is important for people to look into alternative methods of quitting smoking. Hypnosis generally requires only a few sessions to help people quit smoking in the long-term having a huge positive impact on a person's life.

Sources

Moses, F. (1987). Treating smoking behavior by discussion and hypnosis: Destroying the myths of habit, addiction, and willpower. Psychology: A Quarterly Journal of Human Behavior, 24(1-2), 1-9.

"smoking statistics." American Heart Association. Retrieved June 1, 2009:
http://www.americanheart.org/presen...

World Health Organization. Retrieved June 1, 2009: http://www.who.int/features/qa/60/e...

This is a very great survey for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists.

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!