Most people who quit smoking find that they gain a certain amount of weight once they stop lighting up.
Although the health benefits you gain from stopping smoking far outweigh any slight weight gain you may suffer when you quit, seeing your weight suddenly increase when you quit smoking can be distressing.
Here’s what you can do to control your weight after you’ve stopped smoking.
Eat Right
When you quit smoking, you may find that you want something else to take the place of your former habit. Using eating to substitute this can have devastating results on your weight. If you must use eating to wean you off smoking, you can try eating something healthy, like carrot sticks.
Spacing out your meals will also be useful to help you lose weight, as the steady supply of food means that your body won’t need to store fat to get the energy it needs throughout the day.
Of course, eating healthy will be good for your weight, but if you haven’t been eating healthy before you quit, you don’t need to drastically change your eating habits to maintain your weight. You may associate giving up your favorite foods with quitting smoking, which may convince you to start smoking again just to eat what you want. If you can start eating more healthily though, you’ll notice that getting proper nutrition allows you to feel better each day, and can help you cope with the effects of nicotine withdrawal.
Drink Lots Of Water
If you fail to drink water, your body starts to go into survival mode and clings on to all the water it can. By drinking lots of water, you can get your body to release more excess fluids and ultimately lose more weight.
Water also helps in metabolization, and you may find that your body is able to burn fat at a greater rate once you start drinking lots of water.
In addition, water can be used to help flush out the nicotine from your body and get it back to optimum health faster. Your skin will also look better when you’re properly hydrated, so if you want to look great after you’ve quit smoking, drinking water is key.
When should you drink all this water? Make sure to get a glass of water at least in the morning, as you’ve slept all night and your body is likely slightly dehydrated. Other than that, keep a large bottle or several smaller bottles of water handy throughout the day and sip it slowly throughout the day.
Start An Exercise Program
Smokers probably aren’t in the greatest of physical shape. You should pick up some sort of physical activity to take your mind off the stress of nicotine withdrawal and quitting smoking. Exercise also has the added benefit of speeding up the process of expelling nicotine and other toxins stored in your body from smoking.
You’ll get the most benefit from an exercise program if you stick to an exercise you can keep up. Pick a sport or activity you enjoy, such as basketball, tennis, or aerobics. If you don’t like sports, you can simply go walking twice a day, 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening.
Remember, you don’t want to be an Olympic athlete, you just need to get your heart rate up to keep your weight under control. It’s better to start a light exercise regimen you can keep up for the rest of your life than to do a 2 hour workout for 3 days then never exercise again.
These tips may be the typical ones you hear when you ask how you can lose weight or keep your weight under control, but proper diet, exercise, and lots of water can be twice as effective for people looking to quit smoking. Not only will you maintain a reasonable body weight, but you and your body will be better equipped to deal with the physical and metal effects of quitting smoking.
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
It took me 2 years to fully Quit Smoking, it is really difficult to Stop smoking and you need lots of self discipline to stop the cravings on cigarettes.