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We’re a society that doesn’t like quitters—not in sports, not in school, not in wing-eating contests. So it’s against our human nature to give up something that we’ve started—even cigarettes. One of the toughest parts about quitting smoking is that they’re both physiologically and psychologically addictive. From the physiological end, it seems that the release of dopamine—a naturally occurring substance in your body that dulls pain and causes pleasure—is actually triggered when you’re smoking. When you smoke, you get used to the elevated dopamine levels, so when you don’t smoke, you crave the cigarette with no explanation as to why, almost like the way a pregnant woman craves chocolate-chip relish. Luckily, those dopamine levels don’t stay elevated all the time, and if you can quit, you can switch your dopamine level back to normal.
Psychologically, smoking becomes a behavioral addiction—you have a cigarette with a beer, after dinner, after sex. And you get used to the feeling of picking something up and putting it in your mouth. The hardest part of quitting comes in the first week. You feel cravings, you’re sluggish, and you start producing and expelling a lot of gunk from the lining of your lungs. But all that subsides after a few weeks, if you can push through. Luckily, there is an effective way you can stop smoking. Here’s the plan:
Days 1 through 30 (don’t try to stop yet; establish another behavior in its place): Walk thirty minutes a day, every day. When you’re done, report to another person that you’ve completed it (use the same person every day). Walking thirty minutes a day will help prevent the weight gain for when you do stop, but it also proves to you that you have the discipline to stick with a plan. Only one rule: You can’t act like an eleventh-grader who blew off doing his chemistry homework. No excuses. Tired? You walk. Hurricane swirling outside? You walk for thirty minutes, taking laps around the dining room table. Want to watch Seinfeld reruns? You buy a treadmill and walk while you watch. You walk every day.
Days 31 and 32: Start taking 100 milligrams of Wellbutrin (bupropion) once a day in the morning. An anticraving drug (it’s also an antidepressant, if you take much more of it) can help you make the transition from being a smoker to being a quitter. (Check with your doctor if you have high blood pressure or seizure disorders, because bupropion can have side effects when taken with other medications.) Keep walking thirty minutes (or more) every day, no excuses, and keep checking in with your support person.
Day 33: Quit. Throw away all your cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, ashtrays, lighters, pipes, and Kool boxer shorts. Put on a nicotine patch as prescribed by your doctor (usually about 7 to 10 milligrams if you smoke less than half a pack a day, 14 milligrams if you smoke between a half and one pack, and 21 or 22 milligrams if you smoke more than one pack a day). Also, increase your Wellbutrin to two a day—100 milligrams in the morning and the same dose in the evening. Keep walking. The toughest days will be three to five days after you quit, but if you can make it to Day 40—seven days after you quit—you’ll have crossed the desert and made it past the most difficult part of the quitting cycle. You’ll decrease the size of the nicotine patch after two months, and again after four months, and you’ll also gradually come off the pills so that you won’t be taking any after six months. Walking? You do that as long as U2 keeps selling albums. In other words, forever. After five days off cigarettes (Day 37 or so), you begin lifting weights ten minutes a day

One of the biggest concerns with quitting smoking is the potential weight gain. On average (and without the walking), men gain ten pounds after quitting, and women about eight. Six months later, the typical woman is just two pounds heavier than when she was smoking, but those men and women who use the plan above and do the walking and weight lifting average six pounds lighter than the day they quit. Though the dangers of smoking far outweigh the dangers of this additional weight, you can prevent weight gain during the quitting process. Walking will help. Chewing sugarless gum will ease oral cravings. Put a rubber band around your wrist so you have something to do with your fingers besides pick up baby back ribs. Concentrate on low-fat snacks, like fruits, vegetables, and unbuttered popcorn, with a little healthy-fat snacks like six walnuts with the fruit.

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