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Using the Outdoors To Help You Quit Cigarettes

If you're like most smokers, you probably tried methods in the past to stop smoking like the nicotine patch or nicotine gum. To truly quit, you need to change your daily habits, activities and even rituals. Heading outside just might be the key to finally quitting once and for all.

By: Craig Middleton + Save to a List

Tobacco addiction is a serious problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 15.1% of Americans over the age of 18 smoke, which equates to more than 36 million people. If you're like most smokers, you probably tried methods in the past to stop smoking like the nicotine patch or nicotine gum. Those methods can curb your cravings for cigarettes but will not stop the bad habits that go along with smoking. To truly quit, you need to change your daily habits, activities and even rituals. Heading outside just might be the key to finally quitting once and for all.

Make the Outdoors Your Smoking Destination

It's easy to blow through multiple cigarettes or even an entire pack when you don't notice your habit. You might smoke more while you play a video game, surf the web or even read a book. When you make the great outdoors your one and only destination for smoking though, you can get more control over your bad habit. Heading outside every time you want to light up can eventually become a burden and leave you looking for other ways to spend your time.

Exercise Away Cravings

The next time that a craving hits, look for something else you can do. Take your kids to the park for some fun in the sun, or just take a simple walk around your neighborhood. Give yourself a specific goal that you must hit before you can have a cigarette. Tell yourself that you can have one after coming home from the park or once you walk five blocks. Keep increasing your goals to go longer between cigarettes. This can help you battle cravings and cut back on the cigarettes that you smoke.

View the Dangers on the Environment

Looking at pictures of diseases lungs may have minimal impact on you, but finding out how your smoking can harm the environment might finally make you quit. Many smokers do not realize what happens when they flick their butts. While the paper on the outside can break down, the filters inside those cigarettes will not. Those filters can cause animals to choke, clog up landfills and even kill plants and flowers. Cigarettes can also contaminate the water supply of animals living outside as well as the water that your city pumps into local homes and buildings.

Change Your Habits

When you smoke as you do a specific thing, you body begins to connect the two. That makes it harder to do one without the other. If you often have one last cigarette while watching the stars outside before going to bed, gaze at those stars while talking to a friend on the phone. If you love smoking while watching your child's soccer game, grab a bag of baby carrots or veggie chips to snack on during those games instead. Breaking the connection between one specific activity and smoking can help you break the chain of addiction.

Invest in a Vaporizer

To end your addiction to smoking, invest in a vaping starter kit. Starter kits come with a vaporizer, an atomizer for inhaling the vapor, coils and a charger for charging the battery that the vaporizer uses. Many people found that they could significantly cut back on cigarettes or stop smoking completely with a vaporizer. The best thing about these devices is that you can use one at home and on the go. Use a vaporizer instead of smoking while playing video games, touring a state park or even taking a short walk to change the connection between smoking and other activities. Once you stop smoking, your brain and your body will thank you.

We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

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