Make A Quit Plan

Find out what your smoking triggers are. What events or aspects of your life “feed” into past unsuccessful quit attempts? Smoke when you’re stressed? When you drive? When you feel uncomfortable? When you drink? With your morning cup of coffee? Worried about weight gain? Once you have identified what you associate smoking with, you will need to change your patterns.

Investigate medications. The most successful quits are a combination of a quit plan for behavior change and medication or Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Talk to your doctor about what he or she recommends for you.

Create a support team. Quitting smoking is not something you want to do alone. It is just too difficult of a change to accomplish by yourself. The good news is that you don’t have to do it by yourself; friends and family members are willing to help. Go to nh.quitlogix.org join a community of smokers who are quitting, just like you. Or join others who are trying to quit smokeless tobacco at www.MyLastDip.com or www.KillTheCan.org.

Pick a day to quit. Pick an actual date. Mark it on your calendar. Give yourself some time to prepare for this day. Choose a day that is not a day that you will have stressful things to deal with or need to be highly productive. Some people choose a summer or spring break as a quit date.

Getting ready for your quit day

  • See your physician for a prescription to decrease nicotine withdrawal.
  • Start using gum or lozenges between cigarettes.
  • About a week or two before your quit day, try to smoke differently. Change brands, switch hands, whenever you feel like a cigarette, wait 5 minutes. Only smoke half. Do whatever you can to start changing your behavior around the act of smoking.
  • Create a list of the reasons why you want to quit. Make a card and carry the list around with you or put it on your refrigerator. This list will help you stay focused.
  • Remove all the items in your house that have to do with smoking: no lighters or ashtrays. Wash your clothes. Make a dentist appointment.
  • Quit smoking the night before your quit day. This way you will put seven or eight hours behind you while you sleep.
  • Get rid of your cigarettes! Break them up. Get them wet. Don’t just throw them in the garbage, that makes it too easy to get them.

Ready to start your Quit Plan?

You have a choice:

Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) for free, confidential telephone counseling OR go to nh.quitlogix.org to start your plan online.
You CAN quit tobacco
The You CAN Quit Tobacco Booklet is for anyone who uses tobacco. It is a resource to assist you on your journey to quitting tobacco.

The Quit Plan can help you step by step on your journey to a tobacco-free lifestyle.

Chart and track your tobacco use with a tobacco record

Helpful Links

www.BecomeAnEX.com – EX is a free quit plan that will help you stop smoking. It’s not about why to quit. EX is all about HOW. The plan was created by medical experts and tested by real smokers. Or should we say, ex-smokers.

www.DrugFreeNH.org – A website designed to help individuals, families, and communities to get informed, get involved and get help! You will find information on prevention efforts, effects of alcohol and other drugs, guidance on recovery and treatment and links to programs in the Granite State . . . and more.

www.KillTheCan.org – A resource to quit Dip, Snuff, and Chewing Tobacco. An online community of people dedicated to quitting smokeless tobacco and to supporting each other’s struggles with a powerful and persistent addiction.

www.Smokefree.gov – Smokefree.gov is intended to help you or someone you care about quit smoking. Different people need different resources as they try to quit. The information and professional assistance available on this web site can help to support both your immediate and long-term needs as you become, and remain, a non-smoker. Smokefree.gov allows you to choose the help that best fits your needs. You can get immediate assistance in the form of:

  • An online step-by-step cessation guide,
  • Local and state telephone quitlines,
  • National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) national telephone quitline,
  • NCI’s instant messaging service,
  • Publications which may be downloaded, printed or ordered.

The web site was created by the Tobacco Control Research Branch of the National Cancer Institute.