I am a 55 year old woman and have smoked almost continuously since I was 18. I managed to quit for five years in my thirties using Nicorette gum, but I made the mistake (while out drinking with friends) of thinking that I could smoke “a few”. Maybe some people can smoke socially, but I can’t and I know that now!
I tried to quit cold turkey a number of times. I tried hypnosis. I tried acupuncture. I tried to ration cigarettes, hoping that I could wean myself. But at the end of the day, when I normally smoke the most, if I had gone through my ration, I would just get more cigarettes. Pacing myself was not working. I was already overweight, so my fear of gaining more weight was real.
I also remembered that on previous attempts to quit cold turkey, my sleep was severely affected. I read that when you smoke, your body never quite allows you to fall into the most restful sleep cycle, and when you take away the nicotine, the body jolts you awake when it senses you dropping into that restful sleep.
Recently, I promised my fifteen year old daughter that I would quit smoking by her sixteenth birthday. She and my mother have been hounding me for YEARS to quit! I Googled “quit smoking” and came across a site that discussed Scheduled Reduction. I Googled that term, and found some compelling evidence that Scheduled Reduction JUST MIGHT WORK!
Scheduled Reduction is a plan that can be tailored to your smoking habits and your desired quit date. Each cigarette that you smoke can ONLY be smoked at the time on the schedule (give or take five minutes). What this does is separate the habit of smoking (e.g., when you get a cup of coffee you light a cigarette) with the actual cigarette. It also completely eliminates chain smoking, as I used to do on my front porch with a glass of wine in the evening.
You decide the date that you want to quit by (I gave myself about 3 months), and then I provide your schedule. I base the schedule on:
What time do you smoke your first cigarette of the day?
How many cigarettes do you smoke per day today?
What is your Start Date?
What is your Quit Date?
By entering that information into my program, I can schedule all of your remaining cigarettes from your Start Date until your Quit Date.
My own schedule allowed me four days at each level, to adjust my habits and reduce my nicotine dependency. It wasn’t always easy. Each time I increased the interval, it was a challenge. I did find that my house was getting cleaner, because I was always looking for a little job to do to fill those last 10-15 minutes! So I would clean out a drawer, or sweep the floor, or wash a window, to keep me busy until my appointed time! I slipped a couple of times, but in the end, I QUIT SMOKING! Well ahead of my daughter’s sixteenth birthday!
What you will receive is a schedule (either emailed or snail-mailed – up to you) with dates down the left, the total of your allotted cigarettes for that date, and then the exact times for you to smoke your allotted cigarettes. As you smoke each cigarette, you cross it out. If you miss a cigarette (due to a meeting or airplane flight, etc), you circle it. Just remember, YOU CANNOT MAKE UP MISSED CIGARETTES! That would change the whole dynamic of the Scheduled Reduction!
What I ask from you is to send me a dollar, and share this blog with everyone you know, smoker or non-smoker. What non-smoker doesn’t have at least one family member, friend or co-worker who would like to quit smoking? If we can get this thing to go “viral”, then we can help more people quit smoking and get healthy!
I hope that you are still interested in quitting smoking and improving your health! You can PayPal me $1.00 at the email address jannerb@gmail.com. I will email you the questionnaire, and when you send that back, I’ll email you your personalized Scheduled Reduction schedule!
Good luck! Here’s to breaking a nasty, expensive habit!
