Giving up smoking and putting on weight!

Are you someone who has given up smoking and then put on a load of weight?

• Do you find yourself thinking you'd be better off smoking and being slimmer rather than cigarette free and fat?

The answer to this dilemma in principle is really quite simple - it's about understanding 'habits'.

You cannot simply drop one habit and expect it and everything associated with it to go away, you need to understand why you had that habit in the first place and how it was serving you. When you know how it was serving you and what it is you are REALLY needing at these moments then you will be empowered to choose a different way of getting this need met. Rather than dropping a habit you will be replacing it with another, preferable a more healthy one.

Basically what is happening when you find yourself putting on weight after giving up smoking it is because you are now 'munching' when you used to 'smoke' . However, rather than just trying to now stop 'munching' as well, what if you looked more deeply into this at what you are really wanting here. Why do you have the need to smoke or eat, what is it 'covering up'? For example, a common reason to smoke is to relieve stress, so if you can identify what it is you are stressed about and what HEALTHY option you can find to DE STRESS then you will have cracked this and you will have found a way to replace an old unhealthy habit with a new one. For all new habits to become habits they need to be 'practised', so don't give up when the old cravings come back, just notice what thoughts are attached to this and what it is that you REALLY need here and give this to yourself.

And if you want to look deeper into this and understand and change some of your habits then e-mail me for a complimentary coaching session.