In his latest instalment on quitting smoking in lockdown, Allen Carr CEO John Dicey, answers some of your questions about quitting smoking and attempts to bust some myths about giving up.
Is putting on weight inevitable if you quit smoking?
Previously I’ve explained how most of us gain weight when quitting smoking using willpower due to substitution (eating or drinking instead of smoking) and why as long as you understand the illusions that surround smoking you won’t be inclined to do that (and therefore don’t need to gain weight once you quit).
I’ve also talked a little about appetite suppression and how we’re fooled into believing that smoking takes our hunger pangs away and therefore prevents us over-eating. Knowing that it was you who ignored your hunger, in exactly the same way as a non-smoker does, is really important. The other key illusion involved with weight gain is one of the most commonly expressed at our live seminars, “What about my metabolic rate?”.
Your metabolic rate is defined as “the amount of energy you use per unit of time”. Because smoking does technically increase your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories), it’s easy to see how this fact, combined with the illusion of appetite suppression, and the substitution issues we experience when we try to quit with willpower, make us feel resigned to gaining weight as an inevitable side effect of quitting smoking. But I have some great news for you.
Weight gain is not inevitable!
To be clear, although smoking does indeed increase your metabolic rate, it’s affect in doing so is…insignificant!
This is something glossy women’s magazines and health and fitness magazines never clarify when they bang on about quitting smoking and weight gain. It’s enough to put us off even trying to quit. But the fact is, there simply isn’t a calorie-burning or fat-burning machine beavering away inside us when we smoke.
Think about it, how long does it take you to burn off a few hundred calories on a treadmill or exercise bike at the gym? Unless you work out really hard – it’s around 30 minutes. And how do you feel at the end of that? Pretty tired, pretty sweaty, and pretty good actually. But I digress. The point is there simply isn’t a meaningful calorie-burn occurring just because you’re puffing your way through 20 cigarettes a day. Or 40. Or for that matter 80! I was an 80 a day smoker and according to the metabolic rate theory I should have been as thin as a rake…I was far from that!
When I stopped smoking, I felt so empowered. I never thought I would ever be free, and the sense of elation and achievement was wonderful. It helped me sort out all sorts of other issues in my life, including my weight. I’m at least 3 stones (19 kilos – or 42 pounds) lighter than I was as a smoker. And I have zero willpower.
Why quit – I might get run over by a bus tomorrow?
This is another question that often crops up at our live group seminars. It’s fairly easily handled. It’s great to have a hedonistic, devil-may-care, swashbuckling approach to life yet that doesn’t prevent us from taking sensible precautions.
The fact is that life’s extreme daredevils display incredible levels of precaution, attention to detail, and care when they pack each other’s parachutes for sky-dives, prepare breathing apparatus for deep dives, or undertake meticulous calculations of speed, distance, and ‘point of impact’ for stunt-driving “accidents” staged for movies. They simply don’t have a, what’s the point in taking care when I-might-get -run-over-by-a-bus-tomorrow kind of attitude. They have the furthest thing from it.
In fact, you’re exactly the same. When you cross the street you don’t close your eyes, hum the national anthem, and hope for the best do you? Of course not. You look both ways and cross the road with care. And you teach your children to do the same.
Why? Because you don’t go looking for trouble. If there’s a way of mitigating the risk of anything we do, we do so.
The “I might get run over by a bus tomorrow”, attitude is born out of frustration at previous failed attempts to quit. We’d far rather present our failure to get free as a devil-may-care attitude to life, but deep down we know the truth. The only reason we smoke, is because we’ve failed to quit in the past and are afraid of trying again.
The good news is that once you understand how nicotine fools us into thinking it provides boundless pleasures and infinite support and benefits, you stop falling for it. It really is like a confidence trick – once you know how it works – no way can you be fooled by it again.
I lack the will power to quit smoking completely, can I just cut down instead?
The most important thing to remember is that stopping smoking is the key to your prison cell. As I’ve said before., it’s the distractions that prevent us from making a positive decision to quit that cause most harm. We kid ourselves that cutting down will work, in our heart of hearts we know it won’t last. We’re beaten before we even try. Ask yourself a question:
DO YOU WANT TO BE A SMOKER FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE – SMOKING DAY AFTER DAY, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, YEAR AFTER YEAR, NEVER BEING ALLOWED TO STOP?
Your answer to that question will always be “no”. Nothing will ever change your answer to that question.
Now you can either decide to be free from the whole filthy nightmare and spend the rest of your life celebrating your freedom – or you can try a half-hearted attempt to cut down or resist temptation with a feeling of doom and gloom.
Attitude Is Everything – GO FOR IT!
If you want to quit smoking on your own – it’ll be my pleasure to provide you with some further advice and guidance, or answer your questions, over the coming week or so. If you’d like to use Allen Carr’s Easyway the offers I made remain available to you (many of which are FREE).
The great thing about Allen Carr’s method is that you carry on smoking until you’re happy to stub out your final cigarette – so there’s no need to panic or worry – take your time and pick your moment – in the meantime, if you intend to use Allen Carr’s Easyway to quit please do carry on smoking (unless you’ve already quit of course), and if you want to quit on your own – start thinking about when. There is no time like the present. If you’re not sure then please do take up today’s free offer below.
I have several special offers for you to get on you started on your quit smoking journey:
ONLINE>FREE: Pre-quit Preparation Webinar: This is something I think anyone will find interesting, inspirational, and useful even if they don’t really want to quit smoking right now, or think they might want to quit now, or feel they’re nearly ready to take the plunge but aren’t quite sure. It isn’t a quit smoking programme, it has absolutely no scare tactics or shocking photos, and it’s actually quite entertaining.
Even if you don’t want to quit smoking it is worth watching this now. There is information contained in it which you’ll find incredibly useful if your mind ever turns towards quitting smoking. It’s presented by brilliant Senior Allen Carr’s Easyway Therapist, Colleen Dwyer. This information will stay with you for years. There is a special offer for our Live Online Group Seminars at the end – but please do ignore that. The intention of this is for you to enjoy the programme rather than react to any special offer (if I had the technical skills here in lockdown in my home office I would ‘edit-out’ the sales message at the end out – but I’m afraid that I don’t).
Anyway, I hope you’ve found this instalment interesting, inspiring, and of use. I’ll be in touch again in a couple of days, to answer some of your questions and cover some other common concerns and issues that smokers encounter when they quit (please email your questions to mail@allencarr.com with John Dicey in the subject box).
Next time, we’ll cover:
- I used Allen Carr’s method before, but it didn’t work
- Is now the right time for me to quit – especially during this COVID-19 lockdown
- You’ve mentioned a money back guarantee with the Live Online Group Seminars – what’s the catch?
In the meantime, best wishes, stay safe, & keep smiling
John at Allen Carr
John C Dicey
Global CEO & Senior Therapist
Copyright Allen Carr 2020
