My Unhealthy Habit Of Smoking Cigarettes

You will listen to my voice taking you through the changes you want to make… As you are completely relaxed… you will respond to my suggestion… From now, you will stop smoking… This is your wish and desire on which you will act on from now… No one is able to make the change except yourself… Think of the positives gained by yourself in total command… your response is yours only… You are the only benefactor… Think of the harm cigarettes cause...think of lungs being completely black… foul smell from your mouth…your clothes smelling … continue with your breathing in and out...think of your family… Think of spending money on buying cigarettes as money going down the drain…Don’t turn them into passive smokers… your health and that of your family matters…You will continue with further sessions which will help you achieve the change…

The behaviour modified for this self-directed behaviour change project is smoking. Smoking was selected as the behaviour I wish to change because it is known that tobacco use is the leading cause of premature, preventable death and disease (Edwards, Bondy, Callaghan, & Mann, 2014). Smoking is a behaviour that has been recently initiated; I started smoking occasionally in August 2013 (one cigarette a few times a week) and intended to buy only the one pack. However over a period of several months, my smoking has increased. The rationale for this choosing this target behaviour is that it is still a relatively

This behavior change project has become a huge part of my everyday life. I lost sight of how important staying in shape affects my overall mental state along with my physical well-being. Having a life that consists of so many activities such as going to school, working, and maintaining a full and happy relationship with the people I care about is hard to balance with just making time for myself. That is why keeping this three day a week workout regime over the past five weeks has been so important; it made me realize that I can make time to focus on just working on myself, and in turn, improve all other aspects of my life. Realizing of course that there are many people in this world that have real life health problems that they seek professional help for. These changes in their lives require a system or a theory that must be applied to develop a strategic an organized way to regulate or change their behavior.

This past summer, I realized that I was getting a lot more exercise compared to the school year. Aside from the occasional basketball, volleyball, or run, I do not have a set schedule or exercise regularly. As a result, I found the Behavioral Change Project the perfect opportunity to set the goal for myself of being more physically fit by exercising daily. To do so, I aimed to either play sports (basketball or volleyball) for at least 1 hour or run at least 1 mile (which includes 5 minutes of stretching beforehand) as my daily exercise. Having the objectives established beforehand made it clear to me what I needed to do to reach my goal. I also wrote down goal-facilitating behaviors (planning to run with others, to work and study effectively

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and worldwide (Centers for Disease Control, 2013, World Health Organization, 2008). Tobacco cessation counseling is a vital component of any public health strategy seeking to decrease mortality, disease and costs associated with smoking. To that end, the Healthy People 2020 Tobacco Use Objectives cover three main areas: reducing tobacco use, instituting health system changes, and creating social and environmental changes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). Objective TU-10 falls under the category of health system changes as it seeks to open doors for patients to make quit attempts and to pursue tobacco cessation methods by increasing

It is well known that we, as human beings, are creatures of habits, so when it comes to quit smoking we find ourselves in a bit of trouble. But another thing we are good at is social interaction; this means that having someone by us to help us through the transition of becoming non-smokers can make a significant difference. Although there are many methods to help people quit cigarettes, for the ones interested in helping themselves as they help others, support groups are the best idea.

The Trans theoretical Model (TTM), or Stages of Change Model, formulated by Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente, is a bio-psychosocial model used to conceptualize the process of behavioral change in an individual. It evolved from studies comparing the experiences and outcomes of individuals who quit smoking due to individual decisions and actions, to those who required further treatment and program attendance to quit smoking (Lamorte, W., 2016). This highly credible, and useful model seeks to incorporate key constructs from various theories into an understandable theory of change, which is applied in Public Health to multiple populations, behaviors, and situations where individuals seek to better their physical, emotional, and or even social health.

A published study (36) acknowledge the important questions we mentioned above, and they precede the first ever analysis of PD where they combine individual level data from 8 US case-control and 3 cohort studies. In this study, the participants were essentially white (81%-100%). In case-control studies, about half the subjects reported at any point have smoked cigarettes regularly and men reported smoking more often than women. Most participants started smoking in their late teens (mean age, 18 years in men, 21 years in women), and most smokers who had quit did so between the ages of 40 and 50 years. This study resulted that the effects seemed not to be affected by sex or education and the risk reductions we observed for white and Asian patients

I pulled the Marlboro cigarette from my red painted lips, the evidence left on the cigarette, long enough to scoff at the overly used line. He obviously didn't take the hint as he sat on the bench beside me. I glanced sideways at him, allowing myself to give him a quick assessment. I immediately made note of our physical differences. My skin was pale as his was tan. My hair was dark brown as his, light blonde. I couldn't tell the color of his eyes, being that he had dark shades on. He was attractive, I thought. But I wasn't going to tell him that.

Typically, the first step of smoking cessation is having the desire to quit smoking. Moreover, smoking cessation can be hard to accomplish when the smoker does not intend to quit smoking. For one to abandon this habit, one would think that a desire to quit should be present for a successful cessation. Electronic

After looking back at my behavior for the past three days I noticed that I have the mentality of wanting to do physical exercise, but lack the motivation and the discipline. I realized that I was stuck in the contemplation phase of as the transtheoretical model of behavior change explains. In order to to improve my behavior as emphasized in class, I needed more to work on the pros and cons that come with the behavior change and set a specific goal. The goal I decided to place for myself is to engage in some sort of physical activity for at least 30 minutes every other day. I included some self-reinforcements as in the book titled Health Psychology introduced in page 52, in order to keep the health behavior steady and not lose focus on the goal

Today was not a good day. I broke the challenge. This semester I need to complete nineteen credits, so I am busy and stress. It was not a good idea to reduce the level of nicotine during this time because I know that If I want to give up to smoke, I need to look for a period without pressure. In addition to that I realized that If one day I want to quit to smoke I cannot only reduce the number of cigarettes, I will not smoke at all. I will try to do it again, when I finish this

Overall, I believe I successfully completed my behavior change, prior to this assignment I had only went on runs occasionally but with determination I have made physical activity a priority at least three times a week. I believe my biggest accomplishment from this project was

Thus, even if many continue to smoke, the fact that one has though about quiting can be translated to be the initial step towards smoking cessation. Progressing to the next step is often where the challenge lies and where help is needed. Critically, the sooner that a young adult quits smoking, the sooner that they can reverse the detrimental effects of smoking. Several options can be can be considered to assist the young adults on smoking cessation.

“Cigarettes destroy life. Toxic to the body. We are young generation. Confident for non-smokers.” This is motto of the Army Reserve Command to cultivate reserve officer training corps student and other youth to realize the harm of smoking.