5 Steps to Quit Smoking and Reduce Your Risk for Heart Disease

Are you a smoker? I would like to kindly remind you that smoking contributes to shortening your life dramatically.  It’s a fact that heart disease is the number one killer disease in the United States and the number one risk factor of this illness is smoking.  It’s sad that many could have avoided the fatal disease if only people would quit smoking.


The best way to take care of your heart is to stop smoking right away. However, doing so is not an easy task.  Let me share a few tips that could help you to really quit smoking.

Step 1 – Make a Decision
You need to decide to quit smoking. It comes with a realization that it is not the best for your health. Either smoking goes or your physical body will suffer. You need to hate it or you will never take action to quit. It’s only after you have made the commitment to quit that you can move forward with setting a date to begin one of your biggest lifestyle change.

Step 2 – Purge your life
When you’re ready to quit smoking, your next step is to purge your life. Purge is a strong word that denotes a sense of urgency. It means that you have to remove from your home all things that have something to do with smoking. Things like ashtrays, lighters, and, of course, cigarette sticks.

Let your family and friends know of your decision to quit smoking so that they can support you. To avoid the temptation to smoke, you may need to tell them not to let you see them smoking. At work, if you must, spend your break time in a different area.

Step 3 – Find a new habit
The best way to do away with a bad habit is to find another habit to replace it. Do something else to veer your mind away from your smoking habit.

Try things like taking a walk, chewing gum, crocheting/knitting, and talking to a friend. Maybe you can try Pokemon Go. People are crazy about this right now.

Step 4 – Change your focus
It’s hard to quit if you can’t replace your usual cigarette routine. For example, if you’re smoking while walking on your way to work everyday, it might be hard for you to go on a car ride.  You might like to change your route to work so that you become focused on the road, and not think about smoking.

You may also vary your food and drink so that you can stop associating your usual meals with cigarettes. Don’t be concerned about weight gain though when you stop smoking and tend to eat more. It’s normal to do so during the early phases of withdrawal.  Whatever weight you gain, which is typically more or less 10 pounds, you can lose later by working out.  The risk of heart disease from smoking far outweighs the risk of 10 pounds of extra weight.

Step 5 – Take a break
Don’t forget to give yourself a break.  Smoking is highly addictive and it’s not that easy to cut out.

If you find yourself going back to smoking during the first few months, don’t give up easily. It’s quite normal to have a relapse, but you should never give up.  Start over again and keep going.