Home / Counseling, Health Promotion & CSB Health Services / Smoking and Tobacco / Tobacco: Staying Quit

Tobacco: Staying Quit

Staying quit is the final step in the process, and you can use the same methods to stay quit as those that helped you through the initial withdrawal. Think ahead to the times where you think you are going to smoke and plan on how you will use alternatives and activities to cope with these difficult situations.

  • Remember to use the 5 D’s when you get the urge to smoke (Delay, Drink water, Do something else, Deep breathe, Discuss with a friend)
  • Never forget why you stopped smoking!
  • Never take even a puff of another cigarette.
  • Avoid high risk situations like boredom, stress, alcohol, etc., that are often associated with smoking.
  • Don’t rationalize and think you can have just one cigarette.
  • Reward yourself!
  • Be proud of trying to stop smoking
  • Begin to think of yourself as a nonsmoker
  • Make some specific plans for handling difficult situations.
  • Remember that many people do sleep and have a cigarette, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
  • If you need to, get yourself “back on track” and use it as a learning experience.

There are several specific concerns that arise after your stop smoking that make staying quit more difficult. However, you can prepare yourself for each of these before your initial “quit date” by educating yourself on the proper techniques to deal with them.

Another Smoker in the Household
Seeing a person in your home light a cigarette will more often than not trigger the impulse to smoke, even if you had not been thinking of smoking until then. It is important that you plan for these situations.

  • Ask for cooperation from the smokers in your home.
  • Ask family and friends to respect your decision to stop smoking.
  • Ask if they will agree to stop smoking around you.
  • Ask others to be mindful of their cigarettes by not leaving open packs lying around, emptying ashtrays regularly, and taking their cigarettes with them when they leave.
  • Suggest they contain their smoking to the outside or, at least, to a designated area in the home.
  • Be aware: it may take a significant degree of assertiveness to gain complete cooperation, but it is worth it.

Social Situations
In a social situation where cigarettes are readily available, a person in the quit process needs to approach all temptations in a confident manner. Below are some tips to help you stay a nonsmoker in social situations.

  • Remember your reasons for stopping smoking; those reasons remain valid, even though you will be in this situation.
  • Visualize yourself as a nonsmoker before you are in the situation.
  • Decide what to say if offered a cigarette. “No thanks.  I’ve stopped smoking,” is usually effective.
  • Limit yourself in regards to the smoking of others. This is particularly important when the social occasion is happening in your own living space. Think about how you can tell others your limits; practice by saying it out loud into a mirror until you believe yourself.
  • Take note of what other nonsmokers are doing in the same situation.
  • Avoid alcohol as much as possible. The effect of alcohol will make you more likely to rationalize smoking, or even forget your reasons for quitting smoking in the first place.
  • Bring a “prop” or something to keep your mouth and/or hands occupied.
  • Try to have a support person with you at the party that can keep you on track when the times get tough.

Weight Gain
Studies have shown that 75% of people who stop smoking do not gain weight, and those that do gain weight gain between five and seven pounds. Most weight gain occurs in the first few weeks after stopping smoking. Some people actually lose weight when they stop smoking. You may begin to feel more energetic, especially if you are exercising during the stop smoking process. People gain weight after stopping smoking because of the loss of nicotine in their body. Nicotine is a stimulant that speeds up the basal metabolic rate in the human body. When a person stops smoking, their basal metabolic rate slows down, and if their activity rate does not increase and/or their food intake does increase, some weight gain may occur. Sometimes the craving for a cigarette is confused with a hunger pain, so people trying to stop may eat to satisfy this craving for a cigarette. Gaining a few pounds is not nearly as dangerous as smoking. To be at the same risk of early death associated with smoking one pack of cigarettes a day, a person would need to be about 100 pounds above their ideal weight.