Laurence Goff 14 January A former heavy smoker says the secret to successfully quitting is research and then resetting the mind. Mr Mike Kempster, 48, of Manor House Lane, Dry Doddington, smoked an average of 15 cigarettes per day for around 25 years before beating the habit. He believes elements of the mind must be reset for a smoker to give up the habit and has written a blog based on his own experience of trying to stop. Mr Kempster said: “I do quite a lot of running and cycling. I found myself being slower than the others because of smoking. “I had tried to stop a few times before, but never managed more than one or two weeks without a cigarette before gradually getting back into the habit of smoking every day. “What I finally did was to research as much as I could find online about quitting smoking. I then picked out what I thought were the best options for me. “I would allow myself anything except a cigarette. So if I wanted to go to McDonald’s and eat at 10pm I would do that. Or if I wanted one more lager in the pub I would have it. “I would treat myself to those things, but I would not have a cigarette. At the start it was hard.” Mr Kempster said the key issue was to ignore his mind when small day-to-day incidents left him craving cigarettes. “Something might happen after when I would always smoke, for example having a bad day or going out with friends,” he said. “But after a few weeks of not smoking, when those things happened my mindset changed. Suddenly I didn’t think so much about smoking any more. “I went from thinking a lot about smoking every day to not thinking much about it at all.” Mr Kempster said something would occasionally trigger a craving for a cigarette, but he had the urge under control and was confident he would not smoke again. “I also joined an internet forum for smokers trying to quit. Sometimes it would be quite motivating to read about their failures because it made me think I didn’t want to be like that,” Mr Kempster said. “I don’t think patches and things like that would have worked for me because I would have still been getting my nicotine; stopping completely worked for me. “Now that I’ve stopped, I do the same things I used to but I don’t feel like I’m getting clogged up, which is the difference.” Find out more on Mr Kempster’s blog. For more information on giving up smoking, go to the Smoke Free section on the NHS website. newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/The-key-to-giving-up-smoking-Blogger-Mike-th The key to giving up smoking? Blogger Mike thanks he has the answer newarkadvertiser.co.uk A former heavy smoker says the secret to successfully quitting is research and then resetting the mind.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 17:22:52 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015