With Christmas just around the corner, the air is getting colder and the call of mistletoe and presents is getting louder. However along with all the fun and merriment of the Yuletide period there is also an increased risk of falling back into old habits.
Today then we will be looking at the biggest risks from the holiday season and see if we can help you either get away or stay away from cigarettes.
REASONS FOR INCREASED URGE TO SMOKE DURING THE HOLIDAYS
The three keys to successfully giving up traditional cigarettes are, breaking old routines, establishing new routines and avoiding smoking triggers. However when Christmas comes around all three of these points are broken, which undermines what you have been trying to do the rest of the year!
BREAKING OLD ROUTINES
Quitting smoking is extremely difficult as not only is there a chemical addiction to nicotine, but a psychological one too. For example, if you used to have your 1st cup of coffee with your 1st cigarette, over time your brain will come to expect that hit of nicotine when you have your 1st coffee.
Even after the nicotine addiction is gone, your brain will still expect that hit, and will make you crave a cigarette. That’s why it is so important to break old routines that included cigarettes. If you try to keep your old habits, but just remove cigarettes, it can be extremely difficult to quit. This is actually why going cold turkey is so difficult, and why only 3 out of 100 smokers who try cold turkey manage to stop smoking.
ESTABLISHING NEW ROUTINES
One of the best ways to break old routines is to create news ones. Instead of just ignoring the part of your brain that wants a cigarette you essentially overwrite it with a new routine. To take the example we used above of the 1st coffee of the day, if you change that routine to be a tea or even just moved to a different place to sit when you have your coffee you can train your brain away from cigarette inclusive activities.
AVOIDING SMOKING TRIGGERS
This is the big one, and ties in to what was just said about old routines. Triggers can be anything, from situation like drinking at a pub to certain places and times.
Whatever makes you think of cigarettes can be classified as a trigger, and can create the urge to smoke. An extremely common trigger is alcohol, especially with friends.
The other main trigger that most ex-smokers have is stress. Even though at first nicotine improves your mood decreases stress and helps your mental health, smoking actually has the opposite effect on your mental health in the long run. After the effects of nicotine fade within 20 minutes, a smokers body starts to feel more stress than before.
For most smokers though that relief from stress is what we remember, so cigarettes become a way of getting rid of stress and one of the most common triggers for smoking.
But what has this all got to do with Christmas?
While Christmas is a magical time, it also breaks every single rule for quitting smoking. It puts you back into old routines from before you quit, it disrupts and stops all your new better routines and has a whole host of smoking triggers.
Even worse for quitting, Christmas is a time to let go and have fun, which if you aren’t careful can make many non-smokers fall off the wagon.
HOW TO OVERCOME THE URGE TO SMOKE DURING THE HOLIDAYS
The festive period is a unique time, which means that not all the advice that normally works will be as effective. However there are a few things to try and keep yourself in the right (non-smoking) frame of mind and stop that urge to smoke.
Exercise stresses the body and forces it to use all of your body. This means your focus becomes the exercise (instead of thinking about smoking) and exercise helps the body deal with stress in general.
It can be hard to find time around Christmas to exercise, but if you can find 20 minutes to do even light exercise can really help.
Another challenge around the festive season is eating healthy. However by maintaining a healthy diet, you are keeping your brain healthy. By having a simple snack like an apple, banana, yogurt etc, you can help your body to distinguish between the cravings for sugar and tobacco.
Lastly trying to keep your stress levels down is important. Meditation, exercise and eating well can really help with reducing your stress levels, and avoiding the most common triggers can boost your chances of staying smoke free.
While these are all good suggestions, the likelihood of being able to keep exercising, eating healthy and being stress free throughout Christmas is probably as much a fantasy as Father Christmas himself.
In that case most smokers will need a secret weapon, and that can be E-Cigarettes.
HOW VAPING CAN HELP QUIT SMOKING THIS FESTIVE SEASON
E-Cigarettes are one of the most effective methods to help smokers give up cigarettes. In fact by multiple studies they have been shown to be almost twice as effective as nicotine patches at increases your chances to stop smoking compared to other nicotine replacement therapy options.
This is because unlike patches gum or any other method, E-Cigarettes not only give the nicotine that a smoker craves and so stopping any nicotine withdrawal symptoms, but as e-cigarettes produce vapour with nicotine in, smokers get the same feeling as having a cigarette. That means that not only are the withdrawal symptoms gone but the psychological triggers are satisfied, making it much easier to kicking the habit.
This is especially true with cig-a-likes like our E-Cigarette Starter Kit, which we designed it to be as close to a cigarette as possible. That’s why it looks and feels as close to a cigarette as we could make it, and why the liquid inside (which is UK made) only produces the same amount of vapour as a cigarette would smoke when the liquid is heated up.
Our UK made liquid is also the reason why E-cigarettes are so much better than smoking, with Public Health England saying that electronic cigarettes are at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes. Another big difference then between vaping and smoking is that the vapour produced also doesn’t effect the people around you either, so you don’t have to worry about second-hand smoke either.
For Christmas time an E-Cigarette can be even more useful than usual though, as you will be put into situations where your smoking triggers will be constantly making you want to smoke.
Whether that is the stress of getting presents for that one uncle who doesn’t want anything, to going for a few drinks with friends you haven’t seen in years, there are a million triggers and old routines that will make you want to smoke cigarettes again. For those who have started vaping though they have the answer to these cravings.
HOW VAPING CAN HELP YOU RESIST THE URGE TO SMOKE OVER CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR CONCLUSION
Christmas is a magical time, and with E-Cigarettes that can replace cigarettes make sure that you don’t stop vaping and have a great Christmas, without the 4000+ chemicals and 50+ carcinogens in cigarettes!
To try an E-Cigarette today and see if you can have a great Christmas without cigarettes - check out our popular e-cigarette and vape starter kits designed to help you to quit smoking this holiday season!
