Any time is a good time to stop smoking. Only, if you want to quit and stay quit, most experts agree that you should take a more organized and meticulous approach.
Establishing a “quit day” – the day when you start not smoking – is the first step you should take, but it’s not as easy as marking a day at random on your calendar. Choosing a day to stop smoking involves creating a quit plan, having a support system in place, or getting a prescription from your doctor for some form of nicotine replacement therapy.
But, instead of a quit day, let’s rework it and establish 2018 as a quit year, which gives you plenty of time to shore up your plans for quitting, and explore all the best possible options to make you a successful quitter.
Consider vape pen selection at vapingdaily.com as the smoking alternative. Only a few years ago making the claim that vaporizer pen was not only safer than smoking cigarettes, but could also help quit tobacco entirely would’ve been playing with fire. Scientists, politicians, and anti-smoking activists all came out against vape pens as a quit smoking aid.
But now, the evidence is in. Public Health England recently released a report that found vapes to be 95% safer than cigarettes and that e-cigarettes have helped over 20,000 Britons quit smoking for good.
Why is 2018 the year that you finally decide to quit smoking? Here are ten reasons why it’s the right time.
#10 Taking back your life
Aren’t you tired of being a slave to your addiction? Don’t you wish that you could go at least one hour without feeling a desperate need to smoke? Or do you not even recognize the hold tobacco has over you?
The control you’ll restore to your life when you quit is not something you’ll notice right away, on the contrary, you’ll probably feel even more beholden to cigarettes once you stem the flow of nicotine to your brain.
But after that initial phase, you’ll feel like you are finally back in the driver’s seat, especially after you’ve beaten your addiction to the most addictive substance on Earth.
#9 Save money
Smoking is not a cheap habit. You know who knows that better than anyone? Tobacco companies. Despite the rumors of their impending decline, despite the public health campaigns, the ban on marketing, and all the class-action lawsuits, the big five tobacco companies reap billions of dollars of profits each year.
In 2016 alone, the big tobacco companies reported combined profits of over $150 billion. That was your money. This is not to say that quitting will make you into a billionaire, but if you do quit, you’ll not only be lining your own pockets with more disposable income, you won’t be making anyone else richer.
#8 You won’t stink so much
Unless you enjoy smelling like an ashtray, quitting smoking releases you from that offensive smell that you carry around with you and offends all those delicate nostrils that surround you.
But quitting not only makes it easier to breathe around you, but you’ll also notice that your sense of smell will become much sharper. So, if you do quit and stay quit, whenever you are around someone who smokes, you’ll be reminded of the awful smell you used to put out, and you’ll be grateful that you’re not the one people are turning up their noses too.
#7 Setting an example
It doesn’t matter whether you have children or not, quitting tobacco is still something to be admired. If you do have kids, quitting tobacco will not only set an example for them about how to achieve challenging goals, it’ll also ensure that you’ll be around to see them grow.
And if you don’t have kids, the praise and support you’ll receive from family, friends, co-workers will be enough to justify making the hardest decision of your life: to quit smoking. A person with the strength, willpower, and focus to make cigarettes history is undoubtedly someone to be admired, right?
#6 No more sweet dreams
Aside from the more well-known health problems associated with smoking, the cigs also play havoc with your sleepy time. Studies have shown that since nicotine is a well-known stimulant, it naturally makes it more difficult to sleep.
But, not only that, it seems that since the body is not receiving nicotine when it’s asleep, it goes into nicotine withdrawal which is also another sure way to make sure you’re not getting any shut-eye. As a result, smokers don’t get as much sleep as non-smokers, and a lack of sleep can also lead to more health complications, on top of all the other health complications cigarettes causes.
#5 Tobacco’s mind games
Nicotine not only rewires the brain to make it addicted to nicotine, but a regular smoking habit also affects your cognitive abilities, especially later on in life. A 2012 study found that middle-aged smokers were more at risk of developing earlier signs of impaired cognitive function than never-smokers.
The 2012 study served to reinforce and build upon earlier studies that also showed a link between a faster cognitive decline in elderly smokers than those people who never smoked. If you want to retain your memories, your knowledge and all your wisdom in your old age, then quitting smoking now is your best option.
#4 Tobacco-free=Stress-free
Many smokers rely on cigarettes to calm jittery nerves, and they’re not wrong to do so. Nicotine has been shown to have stimulating effects on the brain’s chemistry. But the only thing cigarettes stimulate are the withdrawal symptoms caused by … what else, tobacco.
Since your body has come to rely on a dose of nicotine regularly entering your body, whenever it doesn’t receive nicotine withdrawal symptoms begin to flare up again, which then leads to anxiety and those jittery nerves we were talking about.
Take nicotine, or at least cigarettes, out of the equation and you have no more addiction, no more withdrawal symptoms, no more anxiety and restlessness and stress from not having your cigarette.
#3 Love
Love is a pretty big category, and it can be broken down into many sub-categories like the emotional aspect, as well as the physical aspect, but let’s start with the former. Maybe your partner or significant other is not a smoker, and they want you to quit, are you going to give up your relationship with someone special to continue your toxic relationship with tobacco? But apart from the emotional aspect, there’s also the physical damage smoking can cause to your sex life and not just for men.
Tobacco and smoking have long been associated with the early onset of erectile dysfunction in men since nicotine restricts the blood flow to all parts of your body, including your sexual organs. This is, of course, something that can also happen to women since restricted blood flow to sexual organs can dull their sensitivity and the overall pleasurable sensation of sex.
Higher rates of infertility and the early onset of menopause have also been found to occur in women who smoke regularly. Quitting smoking can also prevent your teeth from being stained yellow, the early onset of unsightly wrinkles and restoring the health and appearance of your skin, which are all the things that’ll make you a much more attractive mate to the opposite sex.
#2 Your health
You don’t need to hear any more lectures about the dangers of smoking. You know them already. An entire industry has been built up around the goal of making sure you know that cigarettes are harmful to you.
Cigarette companies have spent billions to keep you from learning the truth about cigarettes links to various forms of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, emphysema.
The positive health effects from quitting smoking start to come into effect only minutes after you stop taking your last puff and that’s a fact.
#1 Longer life
Doesn’t everyone want to live longer? Or at least live for as long as possible to get the most out of life? Well, smoking stands in the way of all that. One study found that smokers who quit before the age of 40 had a 90% chance of avoiding smoking-related illnesses.
Your life expectancy begins to increase the minute you stop smoking, and only begins to decrease with every cigarette you smoke. So start adding years to your life and quit, while you’re ahead.