sid_melo-tobaccohol: Quitting smoke

sábado, 12 de abril de 2014

Breathing fire, not smoke

It’s been a month and a day since I abandoned my binge-smoking ways, but only yesterday did I truly kill my desire to smoke.
The most apt description of what I’ve been fighting is this: Smoking creates an itch in the lung that only a cigarette can scratch. This past week my lungs have felt like flea-infested varmints. Perhaps I’d revived the nicotine monster by cheating with a puff here and there, renewing old cravings. Or maybe my lungs desired smoke because I put myself on a roller-coaster ride when I started slapping the nicotine patch on willy-nilly last week. (I didn’t follow the directions at all.)
But this feels different than a nicotine craving. It is a very specific wanting that crops up in my lungs. Yesterday I was dying to get in there and scratch it. I looked through the advice I’ve received in the past month and considered the three options that seemed most likely to reach my lungs.

Smoke a joint.
Use a nicotine inhaler.
Practice yoga.

You probably guessed that the first suggestion didn’t come from a medical source. Smoking marijuana cigarettes damages the lungs. But the woman friend who swears by this method is no sloppy stoner; she’s a successful ex-smoker. She told me to fill up a cigarette case with joints and light up whenever I get that craving in the lungs. This breaks the habit, she promised, because a gal can only smoke so much ganja.
Hmm. It was fun to think that getting high as a kite every day could improve my life, but I seriously doubted I could keep a straight face while saying: “But I’m just doing this to quit smoking, officer.” So I looked to option 2.
Sucking on a nicotine inhaler probably would’ve been a great solution. Unfortunately, I was not prepared when the need came yesterday. First I would’ve needed to go to the pharmacy, which meant I’d need a prescription, which meant I’d need a doctor’s appointment, which meant I’d just have to wait. (Not that getting marijuana would’ve been any easier.)
Patience has not become a virtue of mine since I quit cigarettes, so I went for the more convenient option 3.
I dusted off my old green yoga mat and sat in a cross-legged position to practice some yoga breathing techniques, or pranayama. I started out with three basic breathing exercises that I remembered: ujjayi (ocean-sounding breath), dirgha (complete breath), and nadi (sweet breath). Then I moved on to the energizing breath of fire.
There’s irony for me in the name breath of fire. See, I was quite the yogi a decade ago, but as I deepened my practice of yoga, I accidentally deepened my smoking addiction. In yoga I had learned to take long, slow inhalations, to send my breath to tense or empty places, to let my breath sit there, still and calm, and then to release it in slow motion. Then I started doing this with cigarette smoke, holding it in deep and long. Eventually, after hip surgery, I abandoned yoga, but genius that I am, I stuck with the smoking.

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Do you have any final advice for Libby?

How to Quit Smoking Without Gaining (Much) Weight

smoking-scale

Don't obsess over the scale while you're trying to quit. Focus first on kicking the habit, then worry about your waistline.

(PRISCILLA DE CASTRO)

Will you gain weight if you quit smoking? Probably. Four out of five quitters gain some weight—4 pounds to 10 pounds each, on average. The good news, however, is that quitters usually do get back to a normal weight, especially when the focus is on stopping smoking first.
Should you put off quitting in order to keep off unhealthy extra pounds? Nope. The science is unequivocal: "Theres no question that any weight gain is preferable to continuing to smoke," says Kenneth A. Perkins, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Emily Rubin, RD, of the Digestive Disease Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, agrees. "Youd have to gain 100 pounds to have the same health risks that a pack-a-day cigarette habit would give you," she says.
Why do quitters usually gain weight?
Smokers develop a lifestyle that revolves around smoking rather than eating or exercising. But its also true that smoking helps you keep your weight down (if at great cost to your heart and other organs, not to mention your appearance and smell). As a smoker, your body gets used to these facts:

Smoking burns calories. Smoking elevates your heart rate and increases your metabolism; when you quit, you burn about 100 fewer calories a day. After quitting, it can take weeks or even months for your metabolism to rebound.
Smoking suppresses hunger. Nicotine causes the liver to release glycogen, which raises your blood-sugar level slightly and suppresses appetite. Until your metabolism adjusts, expect to gain about a pound a week.
Smoking makes you feel good. Nicotine increases the levels of dopamine (a chemical associated with pleasure) in the brain. High-calorie treats, such as candy and cookies, produce much the same effect, so after quitting, you may be tempted to replace cigarettes with food. Alcohol boosts dopamine levels as well, and studies show that alcohol use tends to increase after quitting. This mechanism may explain why bupropion (Zyban), an antidepressant that works on the brains dopamine system, has shown to be helpful for smoking cessation.
Smoking gives you something to do with your mouth and hands. Eating does the same—and makes you feel less deprived by your decision to quit.
Smoking dulls your taste buds. After you quit, food begins to taste and smell better, so you may find yourself wanting to eat more.
Smoking is reliable when other things are not. People use both cigarettes and food as a way to deal with boredom or stress, as a reward, or as a crutch in social situations.

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