Many addiction specialists consider that sometimes quitting chewing tobacco is more difficulty than quitting smoking. This is because chewing tobacco results in a greater nicotine deposit in your blood stream than smoking cigarettes. Be that as it might, quitting chewing tobacco is very important to live a healthier life. Though the ways on how to quit chewing tobacco is a great challenge, many people have succeeded in changing their habits before. You need to plan the entire process carefully and move as per that. Of course, the first few weeks would be difficult, but your plan may help you go through this.
Preparing to Quit Chewing Tobacco
Gradually Reduce Chewing
Let's say that you chose the date from which you will stop chewing. Now your preparation has to start a good 2-3 weeks before that. Switch to a new brand of smokeless tobacco which contains less nicotine. Start reducing the total tobacco intake on a daily basis. This will help your body adjust to lower tobacco and the sudden stop would not affect the body adversely then.
Decide on a Date
When you are still considering how to quit chewing tobacco, a very important thing is to make a plan, set a deadline and mark it on your calendar. A deadline will often prevent the potential backsliding of the overall intent, especially when you have told other people about your plan of quitting chewing tobacco. In order to have a good result, it is better to avoid choosing a stressful time, like the week you start a new job. Once you have decided a date to quit, mark it on your calendar.
Seek Medical Help
You might have often seen advertisements of various types of nicotine patches and gums to help you quit smoking. Well, the good news is that these types of products can help you tackle any kind of nicotine based addiction quite effectively. All you need to do is to check with your doctor and take the appropriate dosages.
Home Remedies to Help You Quit Chewing Tobacco
Choose Other Oral Substitutes
When you try to quit chewing tobacco, you might often suffer from cravings to chew something in your mouth. Well, choose a safe substitute to help you. Try these options:
Hard candy
Sunflower seeds
Sugarless gum
Beef jerky
Tobacco-free mint snuff
Rasins
Dried fruits
Nuts
Carrot sticks
Celery
However, don't take a lot sweets.
Engage Yourself in Exercises
Being inactive will increase your cravings for chewing tobacco. In order to avoid that, switch your mind and body to other activities that can bring your cravings down. You can go for a walk, go jogging around a park, go swimming or just soak in a tub with hot water to relax yourself until you feel sure that your tobacco craving has been in control.
Increase Intake of Vitamins A, C, and E
Tobacco has an adverse impact on your skin tissues and body cells. Increase your intake of foods that contain vitamin A, C and E, as they can help you reduce the bad effects and help your body heal gradually when you try to quit chewing tobacco. Vitamin A is effective to heal mucus membranes in the body that are irritated of the tobacco, while vitamin E is effective to the proper oxidation and to remove the free radicals from the body. You can also choose to take supplements to reduce the effects.
Try Cayenne to Curb Your Craving
Cayenne is an effective option to control your carving of tobacco, because it can desensitize the respiratory lining to it and other chemical irritants that are along with it. Cayenne has antioxidant properties that can be helpful to stabilize the membranes in the lungs and reduce the damage caused by chewing tobacco. Another reason that choosing cayenne to curb a carving is that the peppery taste of it can emulate the effects that tobacco has on your body and mind.
Choose Specific Non-Tobacco Products
Made from plants or herbs, non-tobacco products can effectively emulate smokeless tobacco in look and texture. These products with different flavors are packaged in tins and they can be obtained from grocery stores. When you decide to quit chewing tobacco, you can substitute these non-tobacco products for the smokeless tobacco that you chewed before. Instead, you can mix them together in order to quit your habit gradually. With time, increase the portion of non-tobacco products in the mixture and slowly, you can completely rely on them.
The 3-Week Plan for Quitting Chewing Tobacco
Week 1
This is the hardest week of all and you have to deal with the withdrawal symptoms. Here are some situation that you may be in, refer to these suggestions:
If you feel angry or irritated easily without any reasons, walk out to an open space and do deep breaths for a few times. You can also tell you friend about your situation and let them be patient with you.
If you are experiencing some physical disorders, such as headaches or constipation, increase your intake of high-fiber foods, fresh fruits, whole grain bread and veggies.
You many suffer from a gain in weight when you stop chewing tobacco. Because nicotine in tobacco can boost metabolism and the decrease of it may bring you a gain in weight. You should go to work out more and increase your water intake.
Week 2
Although things begin to get better after the first week, the second one still has challenges for you to deal with. There may be some triggers that can lure you to chew tobacco again. Here are some triggers that you should avoid:
Avoid places, people and situations that could trigger your cravings.
Avoid hard drinks like alcoholic beverages for at lease two weeks from the day you decide to quit.
Everyone is different and may have different triggers. Write down all your triggers and spare no efforts to avoid them.
Week 3
Congratulate yourself if you go this far. There are still cravings and triggers, but you are sure that you can beat them. It is easy for you to beat addictions and enjoy a life without tobacco. You will find that you are living a healthier life and experiencing a better change of your body.
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