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The chancellor has increased duty on tobacco yet again, no surprise there then! There has been a lot of pressure on the government to tax bankers bonuses and the oil companies. How about increasing the tax on the profits of the tobacco industry for producing their sticks of poison!

In these times of austerity and low interest rates, if you are a smoker, then stopping smoking could be one of the best investments you ever make. One of my clients Sandy Eldridge stopped smoking  5 years ago and has since saved over £20,000 !

To help you increase your wealth and improve your health here are my top 10 tips to help you to stop smoking:

1. Stop because you want to not because you feel you should.
2. Stopping is the easy part, the more difficult part is ‘staying stopped’ so plan and prepare for the future. For example; if stress is a trigger for your smoking habit you might want to learn some healthy coping strategies for dealing with stress before you stop.
3. If you have stopped successfully in the past remember how you did it and do it again. Just because you started smoking again doesn’t mean that the method you utilised to stop didn’t work.
4. Focus on achieving ‘freedom from nicotine’ instead of ‘giving up’.
5. Ask yourself ‘The Miracle question’; “If a miracle were to happen tonight whilst I am asleep and I woke up an ex-smoker with no desire to smoke what is the first thing I will notice that’s different and how different will my daily life be”
6. List the benefits in not smoking, what’s in it for you, short term and long term?
7. You may have convinced yourself that there are positives to be gained from continuing to smoke but are these reasons/excuses real or imagined? For example, many smokers claim that smoking helps them to relax, yet nicotine is a stimulant! List your illusions about smoking and then set light to them!
8. Are you physically dependant on nicotine and psychologically attached to smoking, and if so and you need professional help, you need a programme that can help you deal with both aspects. if not, its like chopping off the tops of the weeds and leaving the roots intact.
9. If you are seeking professional help don’t be afraid to ask questions about what they do, how they do it and what experience they have. Don’t base your decision on the cheapest option because if you are successful you will be recouping your initial outlay anyway. Beware of therapists and practitioners quoting success rates, if they do ask them to prove it.
10. Consider what motivates you generally in life, have there been times and situations in the past when you have been so determined to achieve something or change something that nothing was going to stop you. Consider how and what you can do to develop the same mindset regarding your goal of stopping smoking.

Do you have any tips you would like to share?

The government announced today, No Smoking Day, their latest plans to reduce the number of people smoking in the UK. In addition to helping smokers to stop smoking they also want to prevent children and teenagers from taking up the habit in the first place.

It is estimated that 10 million people smoke in the UK and that approximately 300 die each day from smoking related diseases. The tobacco industry needs to recruit 300 new smokers each day to replace those that die from their product and one of their ways to recruit is through the powerful medium of advertising.

The message that ‘Smoking kills’ and images of diseased lungs etc doesn’t seem to have made much difference so will the Governments latest idea of forcing displays of cigarettes behind the counter in shops and packaging cigarettes in plain packaging have any effect? I don’t think it will make any difference to people who already smoke but I do think it might have an impact on impressionable and suggestible children/teenagers who might be tempted to take up the habit.

I know how much difference the packaging of food makes on my buying decisions when I’m in the supermarket. The plain packaging on supermarket economy ranges is a good example. I wonder what impact plain packaging would have on the sale of chocolate?

If you are a smoker or have been a smoker do you remember being influenced by the packaging when you were younger even if it was just the specific brand of cigarettes you decided to smoke?

For advice and tips on stopping smoking visit helptostopsmokinglondon.co uk

I have been helping people to stop smoking in Brighton and central London for over 15 years now and one of the questions I often get asked is ‘What are your success rates’?

Factually, it is almost impossible to be able to provide an accurate figure. Firstly, what determines success? At what point do you measure the success of an individual in quitting smoking? Is it when they have been free from cigarettes for 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 12 months perhaps? If someone hasn’t been smoking for 4 weeks but is still using nicotine patches should this be described as success? What about someone who was smoking 60 cigarettes per day but now only smokes on social occasions?

According to the NHS stop smoking service , 49% of people who set a quit date through their services had successfully quit at the 4 week follow-up for the year 2009/10; source http://www.lho.org.uk/LHO_Topics/National_Lead_Areas/NationalSmoking.aspx#Stoppingsmoking

 Apart from the fact that 51% didn’t succeed in stopping smoking for 4 weeks what happened to the 49% after 4 weeks and how many subsequently re-lapsed. The fact that the NHS don’t publish figures beyond 4 weeks suggests this figure could be high!

I have also seen advertisements placed by Hypnotherapists and other stop smoking services quoting success rates as high as 95%. I would be amazed if anyone can prove these figures.

One of the problems in determining success is maintaining contact with people for a long period of time after they have stopped smoking (people move on and some don’t want to be constantly reminded of something they used to do). Secondly you are reliant on your clients being truthfull with their feedback. They might not want to admit they have failed.

So what do you do and how do you decide on whats the best stop smoking service for you?

Firstly, do your research and find out whats available, ask your friends,family, and colleagues for a recommendation and ask questions of the potential service provider such as:-

• How long have you been specialising in smoking cessation?
• What methods and approach do you use?
• Do you provide any post therapy support?
• Would I be suitable for your approach and why?

Expect the stop smoking consultant/practitioner to ask you questions about your smoking habit; such as how long have you been smoking , how many do you smoke, do you smoke habitually every day or are you just a social smoker and how motivated are you to stop smoking etc?

It is estimated that 21% of adults in the UK still smoke which equates to 10 million smokers of which 6.5 million(65%) wanted to stop in 2008. source  http://www.lho.org.uk/LHO_Topics/National_Lead_Areas/NationalSmoking.aspx#Stoppingsmoking

We can’t compete with the advertising budgets of the NHS and drugs companies so we rely on word of mouth recommendations, therefore, if we weren’t being successful we wouldn’t still be in business!

One of the motivators for parents to quit smoking is that they don’t want to influence their children to smoke, Firstly on the basis that it is hypocritical to tell your children to stop smoking whilst you are doing it. Secondly because young children copy adult behaviour. This is how Charlie the chimp learnt to smoke in South Africa, by mimicking the actions of the smoking visitors to the zoo  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gteEe1d-rQo

Unfortunately, Charlie died yesterday, but not from a smoking related disease and in fact he lived 10 years beyond the normal life expectancy of the average chimpanzee!

It has been just over 3 years since the ban on smoking in public places was introduced in England. So what have the benefits been;

* Has the nations health improved?

* Has it resulted in fewer people smoking?

* Have pubs and clubs become more pleasant places to visit?

* Have pubs really been closing as a result?

It certainly seems to have created a culture whereby people are spending more time outside the pub, than inside and groups of people stand outside public buildings smoking.

Whether you think the smoking ban has been a positive step forward or you think that the ‘nanny state’ is taking over, and whether you are a smoker, non-smoker or ex-smoker, we would like to hear your views on how things have changed since 2007.

Whatever your views, there can be no disguising the fact that smoking is likely to be detrimental to your health and there are very few who would disagree with this.

Smoking is a lifestyle choice and we don’t intend to preach to you about the possible consequences of your actions. However, at some point in your life you may well wish to make some lifestyle changes and decide to stop smoking. If, and when you do, we would like you to turn to us for help if willpower alone, doesn’t work for you.

Check out James Lamberts success story to see how Nicotine Replacement Therapy made things worse for James and listen to our video success stories to hear how effective thespencepractice stop smoking programme is, especially for heavy smokers.

Is the governments latest proposals to ban smoking outside public places another example of the ‘nanny state’ taking away the personal freedom of a sector of the community or is it a genuine attempt to improve the health of a nation.
If you are a non-smoker (about 70% of the population) then you might agree with the proposals. If you are a smoker who is trying to quit you might feel that making it more difficult for you to smoke will make it easier for you to give up smoking.
On the other hand if you are a smoker who enjoys smoking and wants to continue without being persecuted you may feel very aggrieved by what you feel is another attack on your personal freedom.
Whichever way you look at it, it always seems to be the individual smoker who is penalised. What about the tobacco companies who make millions by selling what they know to be ‘sticks of poison’ across the world? Are they being penalised?
We would be interested to hear your views.