Stop Smoking Cigarette smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, but quitting can be daunting. Many fear it will take a long time to see improvements in health and well-being, but the timeline for seeing real benefits is faster than most people realize. Health benefits begin in as little as an hour after the last cigarette and continue to improve.

Fast facts on quitting smoking:

Here are some key points about smoking cessation. More detail and supporting information is in the main article.

  •  Quitting smoking means breaking the cycle of addiction and essentially rewiring the brain to stop craving nicotine.
  • To be successful, smokers that want to quit need to have a plan in place to beat cravings and triggers.
  • The benefits of quitting smoking begin in as little as 1 hour after the last cigarette.
  • The sooner a smoker quits, the faster they will reduce their risk of cancer, heart and lung disease, and other conditions related to smoking.

Benefits

Smoking is a harmful habit that can lead to severe health complications and death. When a person quits smoking, the body will start to naturally heal and regain the vitality of a non-smoker over time.

Some effects, such as lowered blood pressure, are seen almost immediately. Other effects, such as risks of developing lung cancer, heart disease, and lung disease, take years to drop down to the levels of a non-smoker.

However, each year of not smoking decreases risks and improves overall health, making quitting smoking an excellent choice for anyone who started the habit.

Exercise and Physical Activity: Getting Fit for Life

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Four Ways to Be Active

To get all of the benefits of physical activity, try all four types of exercise — (1) endurance, (2) strength, (3) balance, and (4) flexibility.

  1. Try to build up to at least 30 minutes of activity that makes you breathe hard on most or all days of the week. Every day is best. That’s called an endurance activity because it builds your energy or “staying power.” You don’t have to be active for 30 minutes all at once. Ten minutes at a time is fine.

    How hard do you need to push yourself? If you can talk without any trouble at all, you are not working hard enough. If you can’t talk at all, it’s too hard.

    For examples of endurance exercises, watch the video below.

Safety Tips

Here are some things you can do to make sure you are exercising safely:

  • Start slowly, especially if you haven’t been active for a long time. Little by little, build up your activities and how hard you work at them.
  • Don’t hold your breath during strength exercises. That could cause changes in your blood pressure. It may seem strange at first, but you should breathe out as you lift something and breathe in as you relax.
  • Use safety equipment. For example, wear a helmet for bike riding or the right shoes for walking or jogging.
  • Unless your doctor has asked you to limit fluids, be sure to drink plenty of fluids when you are doing activities. Many older adults don’t feel thirsty even if their body needs fluids.
  • Always bend forward from the hips, not the waist. If you keep your back straight, you’re probably bending the right way. If your back “humps,” that’s probably wrong.
  • Warm up your muscles before you stretch. Try walking and light arm pumping first.

Spend Time in a Friends

Smokers are 20 per cent more likely to try and quit smoking if they have friends

While alone time is important for creativity and inspiration, spending quality time with friends and family is just as important.

Research shows that spending time with friends and family makes a big difference when it comes to happiness. Social time is especially important for happiness –even for introverts. Studies have proven that the amount of time spent with friends and family –goes a long way towards boosting happiness –even more so than an increased income!

As Harvard happiness expert, Daniel Gilbert explains: “We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.”

So while money can’t buy you happiness, spending time with the ones you love, is always a good investment!

Family

Spending time with family is one of the best ways to create memorable experiences. Nothing can replace the time you spend with your family. This is especially true if you have children. With younger children, there’s a good chance that you already spend a lot of time with them, with older children and teenagers though, who may prefer to spend time with their friends, it can be more difficult to carve out family time.

If you don’t know where to start, consider starting small: dinner at the table, a board game in the evening. If games aren’t your family’s idea of a good time, try outside activities -perhaps a walk to the park. Even projects around the house can be a great way to get everyone involved and working towards a goal. Encourage your family to spend time together by looking out for opportunities to do things that everyone would be interested in. It may be a challenge at first, but soon it will become second nature.

Friends

As we get older, and life gets faster – the time we once had for our friends, seems to diminish. You might not notice it at first, but soon your coffee dates are being replaced by school meetings. Your carefree mornings are busy and rushed, and the phone calls you used to make daily to chat with your best friend are slowly turning into every other week (or month!) catch up calls. Fitting in time for friends is sadly one of the first things to go when life gets busy, and before you know it – you hardly know the person you used to call your best friend.

This fact is though, that while this is tragic, it’s also preventable! Spending time with friends is one of the few pleasures in life that can cost you very little, but reward you substantially. It is also proven to be one of the best ways to combat stress. Spending time with your friends can help melt away the cares of the world, and leave you a better person all around.

Carve out time for your friends, by scheduling it in. One way to do this successfully, is to find common goals you both might have, and spend your time together working on reaching those goals –accomplishing two things at the same time, and making it easier to find time to spend with friends. An example would be working out together, walking the pets together, trying new things together, or scheduling the kids’ play dates with each other. You could also look out for special occasions to spend time with each other –these events don’t have to be huge social events, it could be as simple as inviting friends over to watch the Super Bowl or having your spouse look after the kids so you can go out for coffee.

Spending more time with your friends and family is beneficial to your mental wellbeing, as well as your relationships. With friends and family your good times are better, and your sorrows are shared –so don’t overlook this important area in life!