Planning key to kicking smoking habit

Tens of thousands of Iowans will vow to quit smoking this week and thousandsof them will fail, an expert says, because they didn’t properly plan for theimpact. David Bullwinkle, program coordinator for the Iowa Tobacco ResearchCenter, says it takes serious preparation and a lot of will power to break acigarette addiction. Bullwinkle says to start planning to quit several daysin advance, write down your reasons for quitting, tell your friends andfamily you’re going to quit and enlist their help and support, and make anote of your smoking habits and in what situations you tend to light up.Bullwinkle says it’s easier now than ever before to whip the horrible,health-robbing habit with all of the medical advances like gums, patches,smokeless cigarettes and numerous toll-free help lines. He suggests meetingwith your doctor to get a prescription for nicotine replacement therapy,dry-cleaning your clothes to get rid of the cigarette smoke smell, and thinkof a reward you’re going to buy yourself for quitting as motivation.Bullwinkle says another motivation is to simply envision all of the moneyyou’ll save not having to buy cigarettes any more. He says smokers also needto prepare themselves to meet a few obstacles too — like compensating forweight gain with more exercise and whipping cravings by eating carrot orcelery sticks. A statewide toll-free smoking cessation hotline calledQuitline Iowa is available from 8 A-M until midnight, seven days a week.Call 866-U-CAN-TRY or surf to “www.quitlineiowa.org”.