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Your First Smoke-Free Week

Thinking of quitting smoking? You may wonder how you'll get through the first week, when nicotine cravings are worst. Here's a primer.

As anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking knows, the first week can be the toughest. You may have to deal with nicotine cravings, calm fidgety hands accustomed to cradling a cigarette, or resist the urge to smoke while hanging out with friends who smoke.

But you can get through that first week, especially if you have a plan, says Jamie S. Ostroff, PhD, director of the smoking cessation program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "People who have a quitting plan are able to deal with the physical addiction and the psychological dependency that comes with smoking," she says.

Having a plan helped Mary Dickson of Charlotte, N.C., succeed. Dickson, 30, works for a product design firm. When she quit smoking more than a year ago, she could hardly imagine doing it. "I loved smoking. I was a great smoker, and I was known for it," she says.

Dickson's relationship with smoking ended suddenly, though, after a health scare. She had gone to the doctor because she was having trouble breathing. The technician did an X-ray, looked at the film, and then asked Dickson whether she was a smoker. "My hands grew clammy and my heart pounded," she recalls. "What could she see in that X-ray?" It turned out to be bronchitis, but the scare was enough to make Dickson decide to quit.

To quit smoking, she hatched a strategy. First she went to her doctor and got a prescription for a smoking cessation medication to help her deal with nicotine cravings. Her choice was Chantix (varenicline), but there others on the market, such as Zyban (bupropion). Then she made a list of her smoking triggers and how to deal with them. Her solutions included keeping a water bottle near her to sip from as a substitute for smoking and eating a peppermint patty after lunch as an after-meal cigarette substitute.

When Lynn Gorman, 53, quit smoking 28 years ago, there was little on the market in the way of smoking cessation aids. But she kicked the addiction without them. She also made a plan: She followed the American Lung Association's free week-by-week "Freedom From Smoking" workbook. Gorman, who runs her own public relations firm in Dunnellon, Fla., also stocked up on sugarless gum. Because coffee was one of her smoking triggers, she switched to tea. "I told myself, ‘The urge to smoke will pass, so I'm going to wait five minutes before I light up,' and the urge always passed," Gorman recalls.

Here are more tips on how to deal with that first week:

  • Do a self-inventory. Write down your triggers. Do you smoke on the phone, after work, or when you have an after-dinner drink? Ostroff suggests coming up with a plan to deal with those times, such as taking an after-dinner walk instead of having a cigarette.
  • Change your behavior. If you customarily smoke while you work at the computer, get rid of the ashtray and install a glass of ice water, or keep some healthy snacks, such as carrots or celery sticks, nearby.
  • Seek out "No Smoking" signs. Spend as much time as you can in places that don't allow smoking, like museums, theaters, libraries, and some public parks.
  • Brush your teeth after meals. This will give you a fresh, clean taste in your mouth.
  • Breathe deeply. When people smoke, they are apt to credit the act of inhaling tobacco with calming them down when they're stressed. But it may not be the cigarette; it may be that calming rush of oxygen.
  • Practice your quitting behavior. Get a head start by changing your habits before you quit. For example, go out with friends, don't smoke, and have a good time. Or write a memo for work without smoking. "Successful quitting is being ready, willing, and able to quit, so prepare yourself with real-life experiences," says Ostroff.

"It's almost one year after I quit, and my niece and nephew comment that I no longer smell like cigarettes," says Dickson. And she adds: "I no longer have to duck out at a family dinner, at work, or while traveling to smoke. Smoking no longer chains me down. ... I love my life as a nonsmoker."