Snacks That Curb Tobacco Cravings
There are
two beneficial approaches to reducing cravings for smoking: gratifying
sensual psychomotor needs and altering the body's metabolic needs. I would
posit that both are essential. Later I will tell you about another highly
successful factor.
Satisfying the Senses
Many, but not all, smokers do so because of the pleasure and ego-satisfying
results they receive from posturing with the cigarette and feeling it
between the lips and the fingers. Psychologists may attribute that need
to halted develoment of hand and mouth exploration of the child's environment
now fed by feelings of inadequacy. Earlier promotion of smoking "pleasures"
in the 40s through the 60s allowed society to give permission to smoke,
resulting now in older adults saddled with an addiction and consequential
diseases they did not bargain for. Breaking away from the dependency on
the practice of smoking and its addictive nature is very difficult, and
for some, impossible without strategic help.
For these individuals a healthy substitute is needed and a repatterning
of hands, mouth, and mind are necessary, like the following suggestions:
| 1. Prepare, or buy, ahead of time small pieces of raw vegetables to munch on when an urge to smoke emerges. Use a healthy, low-fat dip to stimulate the taste buds. Celery sticks stuffed with nut butter or cheese, carrot and cauliflowerettes, shelled almonds, and popcorn consume the time it takes for a craving to pass your mind. |
| 2. Prepare at the moment and eat a delicious smoothie (see recipes under the Features tab) |
| 3. Carry with you a packet of sunflower seeds, cashews, almonds, raisins, pistachios to munch on. |
| 4. See that your diet includes several servings/day of fresh fruit (citrus in sections, apples, kiwi fruit, cherries, berries especially because of their high Vitamin C and proflavanol content) because of their high antioxidant quality. |
| 5. See that your diet includes several servings/day of a variety of vegetables (refer to the Veg. Facts tab for qualities) in order to get the essential minerals needed to strengthen the natural neurotransmitters in your brain that communicate pleasure and satisfaction to your mind. |
| 6. Drink more than the recommended volume of water (pure, fresh water) per day--as much as 2 or 3 quarts--in order to flush out toxins from the waste products in your body deposited by the poisons in cigarette smoke you have inhaled and which have been picked up by your blood and circulated throughout your cells |
Repatterning
Your Mind
While preparing the items in the table above, your mind focuses on preventive
strategies as well. Because the communication (nerve) pathways in your
brain have been maintained and manicured for so many years, smoking probably
became a mindless activity and the pattern of insuring that you always
had access to smoking products (and also smokeless products of tobacco),
that you were in the right place when you knew you would need to smoke,
and that your daily schedule (work and pleasure) would allow time for
your smoking breaks was always a concern.
Now your strategy must be to BREAK this pattern and lay down new nerve
pathways in your brain that will go around that old pattern and never
venture on that that route again (one slip is a disaster in the experience
of most trying to quit).
| 1. What you eat and how you eat plays an important role in repatterning. |
| 2. Exercise on a regular and challenging basis is important to assist better nutrition in empowering your brain and attitude (mood) to change your behavior. |
| 3. Feeding the mind with positive, life-enhancing reading. |
| 4. Busying your hands with good deeds; taking on a "cause." |
| 5. Accessing social support from others who live without tobacco and other substances of dependency. |
Now, about
that highly successful factor to help you quit smoking . . .
You are special. And that is because you were created by God to do awesome
things for His kingdom. All you are or can be is possible only through
His love and grace. He is your Powersource for a life change. Make Him
your friend and recognize His role as benefactor and enabler. If you have
any questions, feel free to email Resources for Better Living.