By: Jason Markum

Smoking is a miserable habit. I know, I used to smoke at least two packs of cigarettes a day.

Quitting can be quite an ordeal, one that can seem impossible at times. But it doesn’t have to be so hard if you just know the secret and follow my three easy steps.

There are many methods of quitting available today. Most of them cost money, some of them cost a lot of money. But you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to quit smoking as long as you follow my foolproof three step plan. The plan doesn’t involve expensive “nicotine patches” or “nicotine gum”. It doesn’t involve any expensive prescription drugs. It doesn’t involve any expensive therapy sessions. And it doesn’t even involve hypnosis!

So without further ado, here are my three easy steps to quit smoking for good, and for free.

Step One: Schedule time to quit. Don’t just decide to quit and then start, instead schedule some time to do it. Two weeks is optimal, but a week will work too if you can’t find two solid weeks to get free. Try to get off work for this time. Try to get away from friends and family as much as possible. Don’t schedule anything else during this time. No dinner parties with friends, no work related trips, nothing. You want as much time as possible, free time that is, to focus completely on quitting.

If you can get off work for a week, do it! If nothing else, quit smoking on a Wednesday, and then take off work Thursday and Friday, then you also have the weekend. That’s five days right there (which is almost a week!).

Quitting is hard. The less other stress you have at the time, the better chance you will have of making it through the whole thing.

Step Two: replace cigarettes with something else, preferably some sort of food. I used Twizzlers. I suppose you could use pretzel rods or something like that. The thing is, you are used to holding cigarettes all the time. You are used to putting them to your lips. You need a prop of some sort to replace that for the first week or two when you first try to quit.

Pick something that resembles the general shape of a cigarette. I like Twizzlers because they are chewy. Chewing them gave my mouth something to do when I would usually be sucking on a cigarette. This really helps you control your cravings and is a very important part of my special three step system.

Step Three: this is the last step and the most important. DRINK LOTS OF WATER! The reason why a lot of people can’t quit is because your body has lots of nicotine stored up in there. Its in your blood! You have to flush it out and the sooner you do that, the sooner the cravings go away.

I kept two pitchers of water in the fridge and whenever I got a craving I poured water from one of the pitchers into a large thirty two ounce McDonalds cup and drank it down right then and there. In fact, you shouldn’t leave the kitchen till you finish the glass.

Then I would refill the pitcher with tap water and move it to the back of the fridge to get cold. I would then move the other pitcher that was still full of cold water to the front of the fridge for when my next craving hit, usually around a half hour to an hour later.

You can imagine, I went through a lot of water that way! But it’s a great way to flush your system very quickly and it gives you something else to think about and something else to do when a craving hits. Usually by the time I finished drinking that massive glass of water I found that my craving was mostly gone!

Those are my three steps to quitting for free.

By: Jason Markum

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. There are many different options for those who want to quit smoking, from patches, to therapy, to certain prescription drugs that are supposed to help you with cravings. There are so many different ways to quit that people often get confused and don’t know where to start.

Those methods all have one thing in common. They cost money.

Today I’m going to share with you my own method for quitting smoking. This is how I quit over eleven years ago. I used to smoke at least two packs of cigarettes every day but I quit using this method and literally haven’t had even one cigarette since then.

And the best part about it is that it didn’t cost me any money, well not really. That is to say, I didn’t have to buy expensive “patches” or expensive prescription drugs, or even expensive therapy. And my method doesn’t involve hypnosis like some of the more crazier methods I’ve seen that are out there today.

You will need a few things though. First, you need to pitchers that you can keep in the fridge. Any type of pitcher will do, the bigger the better. You will keep these two pitchers full of water and in the fridge at all times. Note: I like cold water, but it doesn’t have to be cold. If you prefer room temperature water, then keep the pitchers on the counter if you want.

Next, you will need one large cup. By large I mean at least thirty two ounces. The cup I used was from some fast food place. You know the kind I’m talking about right? The kind you get for free when you order an extra large soda. BIG, that’s the important part.

Finally, you need some sort of cigarette shaped food. In my case I used Twizzlers. You know, the red licorice type candy. But that’s a matter of personal preference. I suppose you could use pretzel rods or something else. The point is to have something that you can hold like a cigarette and chew on constantly to take the place of always having a cigarette in your hand.

And that’s all you need as far as supplies go. I guess I lied a little when I said this is free, but a few bags of twizzlers don’t cost that much, and you probably already have the pitchers and the cup.

So now let’s get down to the actual mechanics of this method.

First, fill up the pitchers with water and put them in the fridge. Next, open your bag of twizzlers and take one out whenever you have a minor craving to smoke.

In my mind, the difference between a minor craving and a major craving is this. A minor craving is just any old ordinary craving. A major craving is one you absolutely can’t ignore. It’s the one that tells you “Hey, just one cigarette is ok!”.

The twizzlers are for minor cravings, the water is for major cravings. Yes, for the first few days or the first week, you’ll have six to ten major cravings every day.

When a major craving hits, go to the fridge, take out a pitcher of water, fill your thirty two ounce cup to the top and drink it all. Don’t leave the kitchen, don’t close the door to the fridge till you drink the whole 32 ounces of water. Chug it if you can, drink it all within a minute or two if you can’t.

Next, after you’ve drank it all, refill the pitcher with tap water, then put that pitcher in the back of the fridge and move the other pitcher to the front (because it is cold, and you want it cold and ready for the next craving while the other one that you just filled gets cold).

What’s the point of this? Two reasons. The first is that it will take between five and ten minutes to do all this water stuff, during which time your mind will be occupied with guzzling down water and refilling the pitcher and NOT on your craving. Afterwards you may even have forgotten about the craving completely.

The second reason is that you need to flush the nicotine out of your system and drinking ALL that water, all day long, will really flush your system out quick. Within a week or so the immediate nicotine will be gone from your system and you won’t feel those cravings so hard.

Twizzlers and water…it worked for me and it will work for you.