February is Heart Disease Awareness Month and today is Valentine’s Day! DASHA® encourages you to do all you can to take care of your heart, because you only get one, and it has to last your whole life long. Nationwide drugstore CVS has just taken a stand in the anti-smoking campaign, declaring it will stop selling cigarettes in its stores by October 1st, 2014 – a bold and inspiring move, considering the sale of cigarettes generates close to $2 billion in revenue for them a year. If CVS can quit selling tobacco products, can you quit smoking them?
Let’s take a look at the practical side of the argument: Quitting smoking will improve your skin, cut your risk for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and many cancers, as well as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and prevents the likelihood of early onset of menopause in women and impotence in men. Smoking destroys cilia, the tiny hairs in your lungs that act as a natural cleaning and repair system, protecting your lungs against infection. Yet functioning cilia can actually begin regenerating within a few days of quitting smoking, and may even return to their original functioning after an extended period; statistics show that people who have quit smoking reduce their risk of developing lung cancer to that of a person who has never smoked, within 10 to 15 years after quitting. Quitting smoking will also save you quite a bit of money you can then put toward retirement or a dream vacation, considering New York State ranks the highest in the country with one pack of cigarettes averaging $14.50 + 16% tax. That is a very expensive habit – with tax it’s nearly 3x the minimum wage in the United States.
We all know that breaking a bad habit is far easier than it was to acquire it to begin with. Below are a few tips to get started:
Make a list of all the reasons you like smoking. Be honest about where you’re at. It will help you be clearer in where you’re headed.
Then make a list of all the reasons to quit smoking. Start with your health and the people you love in your life and go from there. Hang this list up in plain sight – on your mirror, computer, bulletin board -somewhere where you’ll see it every day.
Make a list of three different things to do when you get the urge to smoke. These can include things like walking the dog, calling or texting a friend, doing 25 push-ups – whatever works for you.
Find another, healthy oral fixation. Chew some sugarless gum, eat a breath mint, down a handful of cranberries, raisins or a few nuts, anything that gets you using your hands and mouth in a more positive way.
Create a no-smoking environment in your home. Hang signs if you need to, but let everyone know your home (outdoors and indoors) is a no-smoking zone!
Buy one pack of cigarettes at a time. Make the purchase even more expensive and more of an effort for yourself. As you cut down, put the remainder monthly money you would spend on cigarettes into a fund – be it a mutual fund, rainy day fund, new car fund, or tropical paradise vacation fund.
Consider booking an acupuncture appointment at DASHA®. There’s some evidence that auricular acupuncture (needles in your ears) can help you get your nicotine cravings under control!
As always, the path to wellness is an individual one, so some of these tips are more likely to speak to you than others. Find the ones that work for you and run with them! Your heart will thank you.
DASHA® wellness & spa is a luxury lifestyle brand and New York City-based wellness center created to offer a truly holistic approach to wellness. To learn more, visit dashawellness.com.
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