I am not a smoker. I admit I tried it when I was a teenager (peer pressure of course), but it wasn’t for me. My grandfather (who raised me) smoked cigars every day (blah!) and my father has been smoking since he was 15 years old. He just recently quit and he’s 64 years old.
As a mom I have been teaching my kids about the dangers of things like drinking (alcohol), drugs and smoking. Our school has a D.A.R.E program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) which helped to reinforce what we’ve taught our children. It’s an outstanding program which I wish more schools would participate in.
Every year our school’s D.A.R.E program has an essay contest. The winner gets a special award (medal) from D.A.R.E, a small gift and a certificate. When my daughter participated in the D.A.R.E program she wrote the winning essay. Incidentally she won another essay contest that same year and was interviewed on a local cable show for it (sorry… proud mommy moment. :-)).
We always tell our daughter if she’s ever caught smoking, drinking or doing drugs (aside from shipping her butt off to military school – ha ha) that the D.A.R.E people will come and take back her award. Oddly enough she still believes that to be true.
I think we may have stressed the point about how smoking is bad for not only you, but also the people around you, a little too much. Whenever my kids see someone smoking they say “That person is going to get Lung Cancer and die“, with a sad tone in their voice. True, you can get Lung Cancer from smoking, or being around second hand smoke, but that is not always the case.
My kids won’t walk anywhere near anyone smoking if they can avoid it (they don’t want to have second hand smoke). If they do have to walk past someone smoking they will make a loud, phony coughing noise expressing their disgust from having to breath in the nicotine and smoke.
I honestly don’t think my kids will smoke. Or do drugs. Drinking on the other hand might be a bit trickier, not so much for my son, but for my daughter. Hopefully we can make it to 21 before we have to deal with that.
Anyway…
I hear from my father all the time how hard it is to quit smoking and not “fall off the wagon”. Especially now that we’re dealing with a lot of stressful stuff with my dad’s estate. My dad is my biological grandfather who raised me since I was a toddler. My father is totally stressed out by everything going on and has been tempted more then once to have a smoke. I’m grateful that he hasn’t and hope that he doesn’t give in to taking up smoking again.
My father went “cold turkey” to quit smoking. He’s not using any products to aid him. Others I know that have successfully quit smoking have used non-smoking aids like essential oils to quit smoking and even support groups to assist them in giving up this unhealthy habit.
Did you now that 85% of attempts at quitting smoking (unaided, like what my father is doing) fail? I’m actually surprised the number is not higher. On average it takes a smoker until their 7th try (unaided) to finally kick the habit. I don’t know how many times my father has tried, but I know it’s been a lot.
It’s difficult to quit smoking. You have to deal with not only the physical addiction to nicotine, but also the psychological and emotional addiction too. Smoking is often the only way some people know how to deal with stress, just like how some people turn to alcohol or food.
For most people the need of a Pharmacotherapy or Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) is often the best course of action. Receiving behavior support and support from your family and friends can also ensure success.
If you are trying to quit smoking, or considering it, I thought you should know about special Walmart-exclusive program that Nicorette and Nicoderm have put together to help you quit smoking for good.
The program is called QuitNet. It offers those who are trying to quit smoking a behavioral support community, plus you can bundle it with 14 different Nicorette or Nicoderm products. You can also get a $10 mail-in rebate for online membership ($39.99 value).
In addition there is a Blueprint to Quit on Walmart.com that can help you purchase the products you need to help you on your road to a smoke-free life, and replenish them conveniently.
Here is a brief video about the program (just over a minute). You can also find other videos on the Blueprint to Quit page at Walmart.com.
There are actually several videos on the site you might want to check out.
It seems like a very good program. I especially like that you can be a part of an online community, a community filled with people just like you who are trying to quit smoking. It’s always nice to know that you are not alone and chances are whatever you are feeling, or whatever problems you are encountering, that someone else is experiencing (or has experienced) them too.
Don’t wait to quit smoking – do it TODAY! Don’t just do it for your loved ones but do it for yourself too.
For more information please visit Blueprint to Quit.
If you decide to quit smoking GOOD LUCK! I want to wish you much luck and of course success.
Kimberly
*I am being compensated for my participation, however all opinions expressed are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.