The general clean-up day

You have quit!

It’s great!

Congratulations.

This, your first day without smoking, is an extremely important day. You may experience a difficult moment here and there, or feel kind of strange and maybe hollow at times. You may be sad, anxious or perhaps restless. The habit is still there, but the cigarettes are gone and they are not coming back, oh no!

Stay focused and strong, and if you are restless try to deal with it in a mature way. Just remember that this discomfort will soon pass, and you will be free.

We all have to endure tough times, nobody escapes them, and as tough as they may seem, such times pass. As far as giving up smoking is concerned, the times that will soon follow will be much better. This is guaranteed.

The body’s adaptation process is quite amazing. As you read this, your body is engaged in a massive effort to clean your respiratory system, your blood, and other faculties from the poisonous chemicals you inhaled with your last smoke. As mentioned before, each cigarette contains about 5000 different substances that float in your blood and affect different organs and faculties. None of these substances are good for you, and about forty of them are likely to cause cancer. Isn’t it absolutely fantastic to be rid of them and cleaning up your body?

You can think of today as a general clean-up day for your body. Nicotine is out of your system by now, and so are many of its by-products – most importantly, the deadly carbon monoxide.

With the carbon monoxide out of your system your lungs can now operate more efficiently. In a matter of days you will feel an improvement in your capacity to breathe and exert more energy without tiring and getting short of breath as before.

Other systems will soon kick in to further improve your health. Your heart rate and blood pressure will probably have decreased somewhat, although it will take some time (a couple of weeks or so) before they return to their optimal rates.

In a couple of days food will start tasting better. You will be utterly surprised to rediscover flavors that were dulled and bland due to the contaminating effect of smoking on your taste buds and nose. You will also be able to smell things that you weren’t even aware you’d been missing. This can be quite emotional at times, as smells tend to remind us of places, people and events. You will realize in many subtle ways how many of these aspects of being alive you sacrificed while fettered to a bad habit.

In just a couple of weeks you will feel transformed – more agile and alert as your invigorated circulation brings more blood to your limbs and organs, and your lungs pump fresh oxygen without having to compete with that parasite, nicotine.

You have done yourself a great favor and you will be rewarded for it.

The lungs, the sensitive biological apparatus that is in charge of the most essential function of life – breathing – will regenerate themselves. In the process you may experience coughing and the excretion of mucous, a natural sign of cleansing. You will get rid of that chronic smoker’s cough, and every day without cigarettes will further improve your lung capacity.

You will start realizing very soon that life as a non-smoker is actually much better, and that you have sacrificed nothing yet gained so much.

In the long-term the benefits are outstanding.

Your risk of lung cancer is reduced and you also have less risk of heart disease. It is difficult to give you exact statistics, as this may differ in each individual case according to your circumstances. Nevertheless, you should take into consideration that you are still in a higher-risk group when compared with non-smokers, and it may take a decade before that gap levels out. For this reason it is advisable to thoroughly review and act upon the following Sessions that deal with stress management, weight management and physical fitness.

We have advised you to make an appointment with your dentist for teeth cleaning. Be sure you do that, and tell your dentist you have quit smoking – make his or her day! Get the stains off your teeth and get fresh breath back into your mouth.

And please go and buy yourself a nice present or take yourself on a fun weekend – reward yourself.

You deserve it.

Although this is just a by-product of not smoking, we should also mention that you will save yourself quite a considerable amount of money. By not buying cigarettes, by not spending money on health services, by getting a better rate for your life insurance, etc. So maybe you can afford to spoil yourself now. Any way you look at it – you deserve it!

And promise yourself, right here and now, that no matter what occurs in the next twenty-four hours, smoking is not an option.

You can do it – for sure!