Mack Prioleau – Tips on Quitting Smoking For Good

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It will be 10 years next month that I finally quit smoking and my life has been infinitely better since the day that I waved goodbye to them. All of these memories were brought back a few months ago however as my buddy Mack Prioleau asked me for my help in helping him to finally kick the habit. I couldn’t say no of course and so I helped him with his plan and his strategy for quitting. As it stands Mack has done really well and not returned to smoking, something which I must confess I feel a little bit responsible for. Mack encouraged me to share my tips with the wider world in the hope that it also may help others out there looking to quit, so here they are, nothing special nothing complex, just some handy tips to help you quit. 

I must add that the way in which you quit is up to you, be it cold turkey, with patches, tablets or gum, whatever works. 

Snacking 

Everyone knows that when you quit smoking you have a far higher tendency to hit the snacks more, which is why many try to avoid them. I say that you most certainly should snack however, it will keep your fingers and your mouth busy and it will give you something to do when you are not smoking. With his being said I am not recommending that you start hitting the chips, a much better idea is to use things like nuts, cucumber, peppers, carrots and dried fruit for your snacks. Prepare them in advance for your day and you can use them as a go-to when you are starting to get the urge. 

Tell The World 

I found it a great plan to tell as many people as possible that you are trying to quit, and this plan helped Mack a lot too. In doing this you are building peer pressure which is going to prevent you from just lighting one up. If you are with friends or family then you know that they know you shouldn’t be smoking, and this alone will keep you away from cigarettes for fear of disappointing people. 

Exercise

Daily exercise used to be very difficult for me when I smoked because I would always have difficulties with my breathing. It was for this reason that as soon as I had quit the habit, that I began to go to the gym more. What I didn’t realize however was that this would also prove to be a huge help to me staying quit. The reason is simple, if you have just busted your butt in the gym you are hardly going to feel like doing any damage to your body by smoking afterward. With Mack, I told him to hit the gym on day 1 and make sure that every day he did at least some kind of exercise. Work on making your body feel better, not worse.

Boris Dzhingarov