Smoking & Weight Loss

Perhaps with a short introduction to this form of toning your body you will be inspired to do it yourself. It’s called pilates and is somewhat similar to yoga. If you reap the benefits as I have, you will wonder how you got along without it.

How Pilates Affects Your Body

Pilates takes a holistic approach to body, mind and spirit. Here I will describe the physical aspect of it for rank beginners. Hey, I was one too not long ago! Strengthening and stretching muscles with a focus on the important core muscles of the torso is what sets it apart. It is a method of body control and is not for building bulk or big muscles in limbs.

Generally, it does not cause much of a rise in body temperature or an increase in circulation. Back in the 1920’s a man named Joseph Pilates developed this system which originally consisted of 34 moves. No special equipment is needed for many of the moves. Only a towel or exercise mat, a scarf of stretchy exercise band and a small cushion for your head is what you need to assist you. If you’ve sustained any injuries, especially to your spine or neck, get medical advice first.

Benefits of Pilates

A rundown of ways pilates benefits your body is as follows:
1- Gain flexibility and balance.
2- Improve body awareness.
3- Reduce stress and fatigue and injuries.
4- Causes you to reexamine your current exercise and lifestyle habits.
5- Gives you excellent muscle control.
6- Lengthens and strengthen muscles.
7- Has proven body shaping results
8- Tests your current level of strength or weakness.

To receive real results form pilates you must concentrate, as all movement is carefully controlled. Always do slow, precise movements. Breathe appropriately so tension will not build up. The muscles being worked must be isolated from other muscles.

A Sampling of Movements

Finding Neutral means that you must maintain a neutral spine while in all positions of standing, sitting or lying down. This is how you gain from the precise execution of all the other movements. Standing in neutral is with your spine in alignment and weight evenly distributed over both feet. Feet are hip-width apart, knees directly over your ankles. Your head is directly on top of your spine.

Make sure it is not jutting forward. Drop shoulders downward. They should not be too far forward. Sitting in neutral is sitting on chair’s edge with feet hip-width apart flat on the floor.

Flatten out your back enough so that there is a slight natural curve to it. Lying in neutral is lying on your back with fee (yes, you guessed it) hip-width apart, knees pointing to the ceiling. Place your arms by your side palms down. Relax your back. As a beginner you’ll need to remain dedicated to doing it as a regular routine. A minimum is only 60 minutes per week, at least 2 sessions per week; which would be 30 minutes each. I suggest working at a progressive pilates program where you perform specified movements until you master them. Work at beginner level exercises and then switch to intermediate level and then switch to advanced.

This should give you some idea of the variety of moves available to work various parts of your body. An example of an easier movement is called The Hundred. It works your abdominal core. You begin lying in neutral and lift a leg so shin is parallel to the floor and hold it. Drop your shoulders and lengthen your arms. Lift and lower with a pulsing action to a count of 100. An intermediate movement is called The Saw. It is stretching that mobilizes your upper back. Sitting in an upright position with legs apart 45 degrees raise both arms and reach you left arm toward your right foot and take your right arm behind you.

Keep your hips relaxed as you are only working your upper body. Inhale and return to center. Repeat 10 times each side. Now to an advanced movement called The Leg Pull that is a demanding exercise to strengthen the abdominal core, buttocks, arms and shoulders. It involves sitting on the floor with legs extended. With your hands behind you lift your hips to straighten your body. Raise your right leg slowly up while keeping the rest of your body in a line. Inhale and slowly lower it back down. Repeat with your left leg. Do a sequence of 5 to 10 times.

Some movements use a stretchy band or scarf. One called Chest Stretch requires that you stand grasping the band out in front of you 18″ apart and stretching and releasing 30 times. Another movement called Swan Dive uses an exercise ball. This is an inflatable ball about 2 feet in diameter. Kneel down with your knees and ankles together.

Place your hands behind your ears and curve your body over the ball. Contract your abdominals and raise toward the ceiling. Lower and repeat 10 times. These are outlining some movements for you to give you the basic idea of what you do in pilates. Another method uses a pilates machine to provide a force to work against in various movements. This would be done at a pilates studio.

If you want to look slimmer quickly, follow the tips given below:

Not only are vertical- and pin-stripes slimming, but asymmetrical stripes such as miter stripe blouses and tunics also work. They have a lengthening effect on your upper body.
Wear clothes which fits your body type – Don’t delude yourself and try and squeeze into a size smaller than you really are. The important point to remember is clothing needs to fit well in order to make you look slimmer.
Pulling your hair up and away from your shoulders will peel away pounds. Try sweeping your hair into a high ponytail and you’ll be surprised at how much slimmer your face looks.
If you worry about your waistline, try some jeans or pants that sit low on your hips, as they will slenderize your trouble spot. Slacks that have a waist that hit just below your navel will make your midriff seem longer and slimmer.
Colors to choose – Black is the most popular color and around 60% of the clothes sold in the UK are in this color. Dark grays, olives, browns, burgundies, in fact any autumnal colors will work well.
Patterns – Keep away from horizontal stripes. Keep away from patterns as much as possible the better the result in terms of creating a slim look.

Fabrics – Shiny fabrics should be avoided, as should thick fabrics.
Styles – Length is one of key ways of making you look slimmer. Long jackets should be single breasted as opposed to double breasted so to not emphasize width.
Accessories – Necklaces, bangles, and earrings should be coordinated with nail varnish and lipstick will divert eyes away from areas you don’t want people to notice.
A sheer blouse over a matching opaque tank skims the body so your entire silhouette looks slimmer.
Shoes – A pair of high heels is preferable to flat shoes, as will again give the overall impression of length and hence detract away from width.
Exercising too vigorously, too soon, can be damaging to health. This doesn’t mean you need to be sedentary – on the contrary, you should be able to start gentle exercise.

Why & How to monitor it?

Cholesterol, although, is an important building block of cellular components, steroidal hormones & a high energy cellular fuel but, an elevated level of cholesterol in various tissues & in the blood defines degree and asperity of a cascade of disorders like cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s, cancer, vascular dementia & pregnancy complications etc. These flagitious disorders can be cured if they are identified before they kick-in.

Nowadays, people have gone quite conscious about dietary cholesterol levels and recent New York trans-fat elimination move was an apt indicator of this common knowledge. However, a lesser known part is that the cholesterol is not just taken in with the daily diet. There are some hereditary factors too that jumble up things & make them merry-go-round! All these divisors make regular body-diet cholesterol monitoring all the more important.

There are several ways by which you can monitor and control the cholesterol levels in your diet and body. This not only helps in the early diagnosis of diseases but also helps to live longer and healthier. Some of these methods are:

• Laser-eye Cholesterol Testing: It is one of those non-invasive methods which measure cholesterol by delivering a beam of light to a patient’s eye. A correlation between the intensity of light scattered from the eye surface and the mobility of the scattered cellular protein is ascertained & is compared to a pre-defined control which helps in cholesterol level measurement.
• Digital Cholesterol testing systems: There are many portable Whole Blood Testing Systems with both single and panel testing capability for cholesterol screening. They are quite easy-to-use & provide accurate results in about a minute which can be stored & reviewed. They usually perform complete Lipid profiling including quantitative analysis of Total Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol, Triglycerides and LDL Cholesterol results.
• Thin-layer chromatography: Now, don’t let the name scare you off! This is a very simple & a surprisingly cheap method performed in casual undergrad biochemistry classes which can be easily used for cholesterol analysis of foods & oils that you consume every other day.

High Cholesterol can be very dangerous and thus it is important to monitor what you eat and your cholesterol level. It’s certainly better to consult your physician, chart out a cholesterol level target for a healthy body & monitor yourself periodically. Hence, the best thing to do is to combine better eating habits with the use of prescribed medication to decrease the cholesterol in your blood stream.

Okay, before we start, let me explain the purpose of this article. I want you to get so healthy, you’ll never need to make a health insurance claim. You’ll save money by increased fitness. You’ll save money with a long no-claims insurance history. And you’ll look and feel much better.
There’s three sides to your maximum health and fitness. Diet, and Exercise. But that’s only two ! Let me split Exercise into Aerobic exercise and Aneorobic exercise.
Get all three right. Get the right balance. And you’ll get as fit and healthy as your body and genetics will allow.
Whole forests of paper have been filled with advice on each of these fitness factors. Just go into your local bookstore, and see shelves of diet advice. Shelves of exercise advice.
Funny how so much contradicts itself, especially for diet e.g right next to each other on the shelf, you’ll find a book advocating low carbs & low fat; another saying high fat is okay if you keep the carbs low. Yet another focuses on high protein, and says carbs don’t matter…
* Diet
Let me give you this simple diet advice. Stick to low fat, low carbs and high protein. Many medical and weight loss studies over the last 10-20 years prove this approach. Many other diet myths come from way back in time, and look just plain wrong when analyzed with modern methods.
* Aerobic Exercise
Couch potatoes don’t realize how easily they can start feeling fit and healthy. Just walk somewhere 3-4 times per week, for around 20 minutes each time.
Ideally, do some more demanding aerobic exercise. I do a lot of cycling, because it’s great low-impact exercise. And I get to see beautiful scenery while I ride.
Running provides even more intensive aerobic exercise, but careful of your joints. Maybe you prefer hiking, to see the local countryside ? Or take up a sport like rowing or tennis. You also get to meet new friends by taking up exercise as a sport.
* Anaerobic Exercise
Many people work on their diet. Many people take aerobic exercise. But many people ignore anaerobic exercise, or weight training.
What makes weight training so important ?
As you get older, muscle mass decreases. Muscle burns fat. So as you lose muscle, it gets harder to keep the fat off. Equally important, weight training can reshape your body.
No matter how much aerobic exercise you do, you’ll still be a pear shape (a smaller pear shape) if you started out a pear shape.
Using weights you can flatten your stomach, tone your thighs, bulk up your chest and shoulders, and reshape your body any way you want.
Weight training is incredibly beneficial to your general skeleton strength and conditioning. Older women can reduce the effects of osteoporosis, and older men can maintain their strength and agility.
This short article can do nothing more than provide an introduction to the three keys to your health. Follow these and you shouldn’t need to make a health insurance claim.
Slash your health insurance costs with a long no-claims bonus. Slash your health insurance costs with any insurer who rates your fitness.

I have tried many “diets” here in the USA and in England and to me they all felt like self inflicted torture. They were boring, tasteless, and restrictive. Like many of you I work hard, I don’t ask for much in the way of pleasures when I get home at night. The one thing that does give me enormous pleasure is eating, I love food and yes, I like the odd drink too.
I was not and never have been a very large person, 186lb at 5’8” tall. Not huge but always feeling bloated, I had the “carry on luggage” hanging over the belt and always felt tired and lethargic. Then one day my wife and I heard about the Atkins torture, I mean, diet. I thought what the heck; I might as well give it a go. Well, to my surprise I lost weight and I lost it quite quickly, I still lacked energy but nevertheless I was very impressed. It was like every man’s dream come true, meat, meat, and more meat, and losing weight. I was doing well but yes you probably guessed it, I got bored, bored, bored. The weight went back on far quicker than it came off. I have learned that most if not all diets will help you lose weight. The trick is being able to stick to it.
Like all the other diets I had tried, Atkins was restrictive, repetitive and after a while tasteless. To be fair to the other diets I had tried, including Atkins, there are recipes that can help to ease the pain but who wants to start experimenting with their culinary talents when they get in from a hard day at the office. I can tell you now, I do not. I know it sounds great having steak every day but we have all heard the saying “too much of a good thing” and very quickly that “good thing” can turn into a very bad thing. Atkins almost put me off steak for life!
Now I am losing weight again and I am down to 172lb, I know it’s only 14lb or a “stone” as we say in England but I am not bored, I feel great, and when I get in from work at night I eat what I want. How I hear you all cry, well I will tell you; I found a way of giving my body the nutrition it needs to stay healthy and I have been able to lose weight at the same time.
I started using and then marketing an all natural nutritional program that incorporates weight loss for those that need it, weight gain for those that want it and many other beneficial products for skin health, major organ health and male and female personal health solutions.
Many people get stuck in the boom and bust cycle. We have all tried many diets but most of us have failed. Ask yourselves a question and answer honestly. What caused you to fail? If you are being honest you must answer “will power” All of the diets I have tried have caused me to lose weight. I cannot say they were not effective at achieving this. I can say however that they were boring and restrictive and that the boredom probably did not help my chances of sticking to the diet. I am not without some will power but as they say “Variety is the spice of life”.
As I said earlier I love food and the thing I like most about it is the sheer variety of foods available. I do not want to have to pick and choose what I am and am not allowed to eat. Since myself and my family moved to the USA we have been able to eat out more times in the last five years than I was able to do in England in the previous thirty. The cost of eating out here is so much more affordable. I am like a kid in the candy store, I love it. Unfortunately that makes putting on weight very easy, and so the diet cycle begins.
Of course any sensible attempt at weight loss has to have an element of sacrifice, we have to eat a sensible amount of food while at the same time supplying our bodies with all of the vitamins and nutrients that it needs but the goals that we set ourselves must be attainable otherwise we doom ourselves to failure. Do we need to eat meat and nothing else? Do we have to eat salad and nothing else? Does anyone out there honestly think that microwave meals are satisfying?
Being overweight is now being linked with many health problems, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, the list goes on. It is also well documented that obesity is the fastest growing health problem on the planet. It is crucial that overweight people who wish to lose weight are encouraged and helped to break the vicious cycle of eating and dieting. Let me say this “you are not alone”.
I often see overweight people who are obviously desperate to lose weight forcing themselves to jog around the streets in a desperate attempt to burn calories. If they understood what harm they are doing to their joints and heart they probably would not attempt this form of exercise. I am not saying do not exercise but we must make sure we are fit enough for exercise. If you are carrying far too much excess weight then you will do yourself more harm than good. Start by getting the food and nutrient intake under control and incorporate some light exercise such as walking then as you begin to lose weight you can start to gradually increase the amount and intensity of the workout.
Most of the overweight people I have seen jogging are probably doomed to failure because they cannot possibly be enjoying the torture of forcing their bodies to do something that, lets face it, has been totally alien to it for years. Start slowly, that is the key. Do not expect instant results, the quick fix does not exist. It took time to get out of shape it will take time to get back in shape. Be patient.
If overweight people are ever to be able to lose weight and keep the weight off they must look for a more scientific way of maintaining healthy, nutritional eating patterns. Help is out there, there is an army of very dedicated people, who were all customers once, just like me, that are now helping thousands of people lose weight and become healthier, happier people.
These people understand that proper nutrition is the key to a healthier life. They understand that the never ending cycle of torturous dieting or joint busting exercise simply does not work for most of us and are nearly always doomed to failure. Some people are very strong willed and can stick to even the most demanding of diets to achieve their goals. I am afraid that like many people out their, I am not one of those people.
If you are like me and do not possess a will of iron, get help. It will change your life as it has changed mine.
Do yourself and your loved ones a huge service. Choose a nutritional program you can stick to without destroying your taste buds.
You won’t regret it. Oh and by the way, it definitely is not boring!

Most diet plans, including low carb diet plans are best taken with a grain of salt, because although one may work for your best friend, it may not work for you. For those with serious weight problems and have co-existing issues such as hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar levels) or like some of us hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar levels) etc., the popular diet plans usually will not be able to cater to individual needs. We are all individuals and as such we need to feed ourselves as individuals, having said this some diet plans will be more beneficial for the general population that others.
To assess which particular diet plan will be beneficial, you can follow these guidelines. They are very much common sense points, and provide a good framework which many nutrition professionals would broadly follow, and within which you can divide the scammy diet plans from those that can offer you safe and healthy diet ideas.
Diet offers sufficient balance and a variety of carbohydrates, protein and fats.
Diet does not exclude one particular food group, and encourage excessive consumption of another.
Diet encourages exercise to complement sensible eating habits.
Diet encourages awareness of portion sizes.
Diet does not encourage unrealistic quick weight loss.
Diet is backed up with medical research data.
In addition to these points, I’ve broadly outlined the low carb diet plans, which seem to be occupying the minds of dieters and researchers alike, as well as the research for and against pertinent to the low carb diet plans.
Low Carb Diets
A lot of the diet plans these days center around the low carb diet plans. These low carb diet plans are considered by some diet fads, others consider it the new wave in healthy eating. Diets such as The New Atkins Diet Revolution maintain that obese people are insulin sensitive and carbohydrates make them gain weight. Low carb diet plans such as The Zone lay down specific proportion of carbohydrates, protein and fats that should be consumed in order to lose weight and while fats are reduced, the main source of energy comes from the consumption of protein.
Low carb diet plans such as Sugar Busters, believe that sugar is your body’s most heinous weight loss enemy and since carbohydrates are the foods that are processed into sugars – carbohydrates should be limited. The Scarsdale Diet also is a low carb, high protein diet and offers a 2 week crash dieting plan.
Popular diets such as the South Beach Diet and the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet are also low carb diet plans that have become popular with dieters who have tried and failed at the Atkins diet. All these diets see themselves as the worlds answer to the obesity problem.
To be fair, there are significant and many research papers that support and argue against the low carb revolution, as yet the wider medical community has not fully made it’s mind up as to whether the diets are something that is favourable in the long term.
Recent research by Layman et. al., and Saris have found that the low carb and high protein diets provide little benefit to dieters.  Researchers found that when protein was moderately increased and carbohydrates proportionately decreased, insulin levels stabilised but no significant weight was lost.  Saris in his review concluded that it is probable that a low carb, high fat diet will increase the likelihood of weight gain.
While there is a lot of evidence against the low carb philosophy, there is also a lot of evidence to support it.  Research published in May, 2004, found that when patients on a low carb diet were compared with patients on a low fat diet, those patients who had consumed a low carb diet had a greater weight loss, decreased triglyceride levels and increased levels of HDL’s – in other words their cholesterol levels had improved.  To put the icing on the cake research has just been published to support the long term efficacy of eating a low carb diet.Despite the evidence to support low carb diet plans, mainstream medicine still does not recommend them.  The main points of contention with the low carb, high protein diets is that they don’t offer balance and variety and could prove dangerous for people at risk of heart disease. Particularly with low carb diet plans such as the scarsdale diet, they are not realistic and cannot be maintained in the long term causing yo-yo dieting and no one wants that !

“Goals…
…and resolutions.”
Yes, it’s that time of the year again.
Why is it that every time Jan 1st comes around, everyone starts to think about their new resolutions for the year? Or perhaps “new” isn’t the correct word — perhaps “recycled” is more apt?  After all, isn’t it true that for most people, “resolutions are made to be broken?”
Goals are a wonderful way to inspire us towards getting the things in life that we want, but more often than not, they simply end up unattained and we get frustrated (again) at the end of the year.
But it doesn’t have to be so.
Really.
You can attain your goals or resolutions, but only IF you know how to go about setting them up correctly in the first place.  And I’ll give you a few useful pointers to help you get started on the right track…
- Begin with the end in mind.  What’s the end result you want to achieve?  Do you want to lose weight?  Or do you want to drop 1 dress size instead?
- Get specific and be realistic.  It’s not enough to just say “I want to lose weight.”  How much do you want to lose _exactly_?  By when?  A better goal is to say “I want to lose 11 pounds in 3 months.”  And make sure your goal is realistic.  If you want to drop 27 pounds, it’s not realistic to say you want to do that within the next 7 days, not to mention that it’s not healthy to do that!  Or if you’ve been putting on the weight slowly over the last 10 years, it’s not quite realistic to say you want to go back to your weight 10 years ago within a month.
- Break it down into smaller and easier “baby steps.”  Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds.  That seems like an insurmountable task, but it becomes easier to manage if you look at it as losing an average of 1 pound per week, over a course of 20 weeks.  Now’s that manageable!  For you to lose a pound a week, you only need to create a calorie deficit of about 500 calories per day by controlling your diet and increasing your amount of exercises.
- Okay, now for the big “secret” — the missing key to achieving your goals: Write down your “Why” i.e. what are you doing this for?  Most people skip this step, and it’s a primary reason why they never seem to achieve their goals. It’s absolutely critical for you to write down the reasons why you want to achieve each specific goal.  For example, if the goal is to “lose 20 pounds in 6 months,” write down why you want to lose that weight.  And here’s another tip: Make it “personal and emotional.”  The more “emotional” the reason, the more likely you’ll be driven towards the goal. So, let’s say you’ve got kids.  An example of a good “reason why” is “I know being overweight is a leading cause of many health problems — I will lose the 20 pounds and get healthier so that I will not be a burden to my children, and be able to stay healthy long enough to attend my daughter’s wedding and be there to carry my grandchildren.” A ssuming all these things are important to you, of course.   But I’m sure you get the picture.
- “Write it down and put it up!”  It’s usually not good enough to just think of the goals in your head.  You need to write down all your specific goals and the “reasons why,” and then paste it up where you will look at it every day. Don’t write it down on a notebook and chuck that inside the drawer.  Instead, paste it up on your dressing table mirror, or anywhere else that is in plain sight.  Remember, “out of sight, out of mind!”
- Do not be too ambitious.  Aim for a loss of 1-2 pounds per week, at the max!  Losing more than that amount is bad for you.  And it’ll most probably be caused by a loss of water and/or muscle, rather than your unwanted excess body fat.
- Be realistic and “go with the flow.”  The pounds didn’t come on overnight, so don’t expect them to disappear in a jiffy too.  And sometimes the weight loss isn’t as fast (or as much) as planned.  But don’t get stressed out, because stress will only add on the pounds.  It’s important that you don’t think of the weight loss process as “all or nothing.” Instead, think of it as “slowly but surely.”  The weight may go up a little sometimes, but if you stick to your plan, you’ll still be delighted at the end of the year!
Use these simple steps and make a positive difference to your life this year!  Best of luck!

Most of us know that smoking is indeed a habit that can have many serious implications on our health but there is a tendency to view the problem lightly. It’s important that every smoker be aware of the facts concerning smoking and so I have included certain facts and figures that I hope will serve as eye openers.

I don’t know how it is with you, but as far as I am concerned as soon as I have to look at statistics, my eyes get bleary and something just turns off in my head. But for your own good I implore you to take a good look at the statistics given below, remember, it could save your life.

The World Health Organization has been studying smoking trends and statistical patterns across the globe and has come up with the following statistics:

Most smokers begin early in life, before they are 25 years old. According to World Health Organization studies, the majority of smokers in affluent countries begin in their teens. A decline in the age of starting smoking has been observed worldwide.

As a wannabe quitter, you’re in excellent company. People all over the world are trying to quit and stay away from cigarettes. There appears to be a correlation between a country’s standard of living, level of education, and income and the number of people who have quit smoking. The more and better-informed people are, the more likely they are to quit smoking.

Current estimates are that over 1 billion people in the world smoke. (In other words, approximately one in three adults on the planet smokes.) The majority of these smokers reside in countries on the low end to the middle of the socioeconomic spectrum. Of this majority, about 80 percent live in low – and middle – income countries. The total number of smokers worldwide is expected to keep increasing.

But are things in the USA any better? Not really, as you can see for yourself in the figures of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.

In the United States, an estimated 25.6 million men (25.2 percent) and 22.6 million women (20.7 percent) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. The latest estimates for persons age 18 and older show…

Among whites, 25.1 percent of men and 21.7 percent of women smoke
Among black or African Americans, 27.6 percent of men and 18.0 percent of women smoke
Among Hispanics/Latinos, 23.2 percent of men and 12.5 percent of women smoke
Among Asians (only), 21.3 percent of men and 6.9 percent of women smoke
Among American Indians/Alaska Natives (only), 32.0 percent of men and 36.9 percent of women smoke
Studies show that smoking prevalence is higher among those with 9-11 years of education (35.4 percent) compared with those with more than 16 years of education (11.6 percent). It’s highest among persons living below the poverty level (33.3 percent).

And These Figures Spell Death…
One out of every five deaths is caused by tobacco

An average of 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco

Tobacco to blame for many serious pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases

Tobacco and nicotine are some of the most potent carcinogens and are to blame for a majority of all cancers of the lung, trachea, bronchus, larynx, and esophagus

Tobacco use also produces cancers in the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix

Impotency is sometimes to blame from addiction to nicotine because of its ability to reduce blood flow

Smoking is an important risk factor for respiratory illnesses, causing 85,000 deaths per year from pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia

Children and adolescents who are active smokers will have increasingly severe respiratory illness, as they grow older

Smoking during pregnancy causes about 5-6% of prenatal deaths, 17-26% of low-birth-weight births, and 7-10% of pre-term deliveries, and it increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal growth retardation

Cigarettes are responsible for about 25% of deaths from residential fires, causing nearly 1,000 fire-related deaths and 3,300 injuries each year

These are grave statistics and well worth heeding the message of, which is to quit, now.

Physicians are often asked whether it is harmful to smoke three cigarettes a day, or five, or fourteen, or a pack; people seem to seek a standard measurement. If they exceed it that would be bad; if they smoked fewer than the standard that would be all right. But no such figure can be set. For several of my patients, one cigarette a week would be too many cigarettes.

A better way to respond to questions about cigarette smoking, then, is to speak not of quantities but of habit patterns. You are smoking to excess if you do any one (or more) of the following:

Reach for a cigarette the first thing in the morning or the last thing at night.

Light a cigarette without realizing it, find yourself smoking, and wonder why you lit it and when.

Claim that you are unable to enjoy certain situations without a cigarette – your morning coffee, food, reading the paper, playing cards, and so on.

Feel it necessary to explain the number you smoke with such phrases as “They help me relax” and “I only take a puff or two, forget it, and then light another.”

Become severely upset when you find yourself in a “no smoking” area – certain theatres and public buildings, for example – and feel compelled to “duck out for a quick cigarette,” or are ready to risk public disapproval or punishment by “sneaking” a few puffs.

Find it almost unbearable when you are out of cigarettes, and are unable to tolerate the situation; instead, are willing to go to some lengths (dressing, walking to the corner store, stopping a stranger) to get a cigarette.

Feel that you have to smoke to show that (a) you are one of the gang, or (b) “adult.”

If with any degree of regularity you act or react in any of the ways described above, you are smoking to excess.

“Excess” means “more than what is right, proper or necessary.” When used in medicine, it means “more than is good for continued good health” We can eat too much, work too much, drink too much (including non-alcoholic liquids), sleep too much, and so on; and while any such excess is potentially troublesome, some excesses are worse than others.

Smoking must be put in that category, because it has vastly increased the incidence of lung cancer and coronary artery diseases, and because it plays a significant role in increasing the mortality rate in other pathologies.

Some people do more than one thing excessively; for example, they may smoke excessively and drink excessively and perhaps also work excessively. Since there is a reason for everything we do, there are reasons for this pattern of behavior. Usually the excess acts as an “escape mechanism” from an emotional problem. If the habit is removed but the cause is not, another habit generally develops. That is where the psychiatrist can make his unique contribution; he can seek out and remove the basic cause or causes for that particular emotional problem.

Excess can also be the result of an endless circle of action and reaction. An emotional problem causes anxiety; the anxiety itself causes greater anxiety. And as the anxiety continues to mount, feeding on itself and breeding itself, an escape mechanism becomes necessary. Relaxation effectively prevents this dangerous accretion of anxiety and tension, and one bonus you can achieve as the result of reading this book is learning how to relax.

Excess, we’ve seen, can take many forms. Psychology shows us that the individual makes an unconscious “choice” of his particular escape mechanism (or mechanisms), and that his choice is usually made through an unconscious association with what he thinks will bring gratification – excessive eating, drinking, playing, sleeping, working, or so on.

Quitting smoking is an admirable goal. But you can be sure of running into some problems along the way. It is difficult to be persistent when everything you try seems to fail. And many people who don’t realize immediate results from their efforts are easily swayed toward giving up.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s begin by emphasizing how important it is to your self-worth that you never allow yourself to give up fighting for something you know and believe to be right.

If you can commit yourself to being smoke-free for the rest of your life, you’ll need to make sure you can re-enforce that idea positively by removing any doubt about your ability to see things through. Even if you are the type of person who sets goals only to see yourself fail time and again, you can still make this work with the proper motivational techniques.

Of all the tools you’ll need to achieve quitting smoking, a positive mental attitude will be your strongest ally. For long time smokers who may be first time quitters, be aware of the grip nicotine has on you. Respect its power, its cunning, and see it as an entity that can be expunged from your body. This addiction is tricky and will test your resolve unlike most anything you may have ever been through.

For those of you who have tried and failed in the past, remember that every failure brings with it the seeds for future success. Many successful former smoker’s had to go through multiple attempts to achieve their goal while other’s succeed right away and never go back to the habit.

As promised, here are five very powerful motivational techniques to help you on your journey.

1. Picture the End Result

Begin by seeing yourself as a non-smoker one year from today. Then two years. Then five. See yourself having more energy, more money. See yourself talking to your friends without smelling like a foul stale ashtray.

See yourself walking briskly down a tree-lined street under blue skies, maybe even running, without getting winded. Imagine walking out your front door without having to check if you’ve brought along your cigarettes and lighter. Without worrying about running out of butts before you can get to the corner store in time to replenish your supply.

How would it feel to be free from the restrictions that are ever increasing in a society hell-bent on becoming smoke free? You already know that you can’t smoke in most public places any longer. Imagine not having to step out into the biting cold of a nasty winter day to placate your body’s demands for more nicotine.

Now picture yourself as a healthy robust non-smoker with plenty of energy, more money in your pocket and free of offensive odors and nicotine stains. See yourself going through your daily life completely free of any desire to smoke.

Dwell on that scenario for five minutes or so with your eyes closed. Breathe deeply and exhale slowly while you use this mental exercise. When you open your eyes, imagine that you have already accomplished your mission. Feel the joy and allow yourself to believe it to be true right now. Let the feeling sink in and boost your desire to actually achieve this lifestyle.

2. Reward Yourself

Make a habit of rewarding yourself for each victory over your cravings. Set small goals at first so as to set yourself up for rapid achievement of successes.

For instance, on your first quit day you could set aside 5 dollars for every 4 hours you go without lighting up. When you wake up on day 2 and see 15 or 20 bucks in your reward jar, it’ll inspire you to keep it up so you can maybe buy that new car stereo you’ve been checking out recently.

Or maybe that vacation to Mexico you’ve always wanted to take. Doing something nice for yourself as a reward will stimulate your mind in a positive re-enforcing manner. You will be focusing on the end result instead of your craving and the critical first few days will pass more quickly and easily.

3. Create a Success Circle

Another way to be successful in any endeavor is to surround yourself with like-minded people, a mastermind group if you will.

In this case, they don’t all have to be people who are quitting at the same time as you. In fact, people who do not smoke and who share some of the same interests and ideas as you would be best suited to your group for this purpose.

You needn’t make a big deal out of your decision to quit smoking. But if you do tell your friends about it, it could keep you from allowing yourself to backslide.

Use the leverage at your disposal and have your friends monitor your progress. Sometimes just the thought of having your peers see you go back on your word will be enough to deter any thoughts of backsliding. After all, you want to be seen as a person of your word, don’t you?

4. Your Health is Your Future

Begin to exercise regularly. Even if it is no more than a daily half hour walk, help your body to heal itself through some type of low-impact aerobic activity.

Your body needs plenty of oxygen to flush out all those years of toxins. Mild exercise will not only provide that but will also help control any possible weight gain.

If you experience a particularly tough craving, go for a bike ride or pump some iron or take a brisk walk to the park and back. Working your body will also help change what you are focusing on and that is critical to your eventual success.

You should also pay attention to your diet. Eat plenty of green and orange vegetables for their anti-oxidant qualities. Stay away from too much caffeine or soft drinks as these are dietary triggers that launch a nicotine craving. Drink plenty of fresh, clean water to help flush out your system.

Plan to get a good night’s sleep at the end of the day. Don’t allow yourself to slump into a chair in front of the television as this is prime time for your addiction to kick up it’s heels and bite you in the butt.

Get a good book that interests you and allow yourself to focus on its content. Once you have been smoke-free for a few months you will find it easier to relax without the distraction of a nagging urge to light up. Regaining good health is key to your success.

5. Avoid Those Enabling Triggers

Make no mistake about it, you cannot let your guard down for one minute during the quitting process. The first year of your new smokeless existence will be tested frequently for chinks in the armor of your determination. Identifying these triggers and removing them from your daily routines is critical.

Alcohol has been a common trigger for most people who smoke. It really should be avoided but can be consumed in moderation as long as you don’t let it break down your resolve.

However, if you can’t have a drink without a smoke, just don’t drink until you have eliminated smoking from your daily routine. It’s that simple.

After dinner smoking is a bit trickier. You obviously cannot go without eating. Instead, once finished eating, get up from the table right away and help clear the dishes and condiments from the table.

Reach for a stick of gum to cleanse your breath and teeth. Do anything that would change your normal routine of lighting up. Go for a walk and bring along a camera to take pictures with. As long as you change what you are focusing on after dinner, you should be able to avoid grappling with the urge to fire up.

Many people who drive like to light up the minute they slide behind the wheel. Replace the ashtrays with sugar-free gum or candy mints and remove all lighters from your vehicle. Try to keep a cold bottle of water in the car as well.

The most important thing is, don’t give up if you hit a bump in the road. Re-motivate yourself and get back on track. Always keep your end goal in sight and never let the word ‘defeat’ find a place on your list of options.