Quit Smoking AND Lose Weight?

A friend of mine who smokes and whom I’ve never been able to convince to quit, came to me recently on her own suggesting she might need to quit.Her biggest concern historically, is that she is already overweight and can’t risk the weight gain by giving up cigarettes.

This time, however, she was not only listening but also initiating the conversation.

Her inspiration was a commercial she’d recently seen with beautiful models sporting skin tight jeans. The true eye-catcher though, was a different smoking related illness written down the leg of each model -”Lung Cancer,” etc. This was the first ad my friend had seen that appealed to her senses. She knew that is she had this thought, so did a lot of other men and women.

We both gained an education from the conversation that followed.

My friend explained that she had tried once before to quit smoking and had even made a plan beforehand. Still, she gained weight and eventually started smoking again.

When pressed, my friend explained that once she “failed” and had one cigarette, it went against her entire plan to quit and loose weight so she wasnt prepared – her plan didn’t allow for ANY deviation.  My friend also hadn’t realized just how much she smoking was tied into her daily activities and how it wasn’t just giving up nicotine.

To help her in her second attempt to quit smoking, we decided to look at what was wrong with her first plan to stop smoking.

Cold Turkey – My friend gave up cigarettes completely one day without any preparation because she heard this was the best way to go.

This is where my friend discovered what a habit really was. What would she do when she woke in the morning with no cigarette? What would fill her time on the drive to work without a cigarette? What would she do on her coffe break without a cigarette?

Her solution was to replace the cigarette with food. Guess what? It worked! She wasn’t smoking. Of course, she was overeating and gaining weight. The second part of my friend’s plan was to go on a diet and lose weight. This is a fine idea and my friend even did research to find out the the “best” diet but that diet was for quick weightloss and she didn’t take into account that she wouldn’t like most of the foods on this diet plan.

My friend found herself bored with her available food choices and the diet soon became a thing of the past.

The third thing my friend tried to incorporate into her plan for health was to exercise. She chose great running shoes, bought the exercise equipment and started to work out. Always an over acheiver, my friend chose incredibly difficult exercise routines and was soon injured and stopped exercising.

“Moderation in all things.” I asked my friend to keep that as a daily mantra and to use that as the basis of her next plan to get healthy.

We talked about how her goals to stop smoking, lose weight and exercise were great but she needed to work up to the original goals she set – not start with them.  We first looked at how she approached giving up cigarettes. The “all or nothing” approach was difficult for her the first time.

Research has shown that chosing a date is important, which she did, but she never made any attempt to reduce her cigarette intake gradually before that date. An end date is good but she needed to have smaller goals of reducing her intake as well.

What happened if she did backtrack? My friend had no support system in place – no one to tell her she isn’t a complete failure and that she doesn’t have to give up. My advice was to find a “buddy” to quit with.

Diet – this approach also needed to change. I suggested that she first see her doctor to discuss all three things she wanted to accomplish – stop smoking, diet, exercise. Her doctor could recommend a diet plan she could stick with as well as ascertain her current fitness level.

Her doctor would have also been able to perform a physical to see if she was prepared for an exercise program and if so, at what level?

She could also join a gym and let the professionals there, who already have the expertise, design a program for her.

When you start out slowly have have a lot of short term goals that are acheivable, you will have more interest in a diet and exercise plan that is difficult or even impossible to achieve.

My friend was able to see that she would be able to tie her smaller goals together and I assured her that if she worked hard but in moderation, she would see results.  In the end, she chose my Weight Loss Breeze Program and has seen amazing results. The program is all natural and the exercises easy enough to accomodate even beginners.