I quit smoking during Ramadan - here is how I did it. Smoking is one of the most addictive substances around and for this reason it is very hard to quit. But you can quit and I will explain how.

The hardest thing I found with smoking during Ramadan was getting over that first cigarette. Having fasted for nearly 19 hours I would eat and then hurry outside to have that first cigarette. For the first few days there was a slight buzz.

I would have another three or four. At midnight and after Tarawee prayers I would smoke again.
But once you have smoked that first cigarette you have failed. 

I would go to bed for a while thinking I had done something spectacular by cutting my cigarette intake down to five or six a day instead of ten or twelve. I was kidding myself though. 

Other days I would stay up until Sehri time and smoke a full packet. It was a way of rewarding myself for having gone through the rest of the day without a cigarette. It was an excuse more than anything else. I wanted to pretend I was cutting down on my cigarette intake. It was a false promise I made to myself.

A cigarette smoker is a drug addict. He or she will make any excuse not to quit. He or she will find others who also smoke to help to justify one’s own addiction. That is why many smokers tend to hang around together. They want to take the guilt out of smoking.

Then you have the type who state openly that they like smoking. This is a lie. They smoke to appease the habit – it has got nothing to do with ‘liking to smoke.’

They want to quit but do not want to go through that first day of being smoke free. 

Ramadan is the best time to quit cigarettes and it can be done cold turkey – through no aids or nicotine replacement. If you have gone close to 19 hours without smoking and then light up, you are just stupid.

Your body has already been through the worst of the withdrawal symptoms and is now going through the next phase. By smoking at the end of the day you are simply starting the whole process again.

Let me make that clear. You are starting the whole process of withdrawal again.

Think about it. The person fasts as a way to teach himself a level of discipline and then when the time comes he resorts to doing the complete opposite.

I decided after the first day I fasted not to smoke. It was tough. It was very tough. But I kept telling myself I needed to get through the first day.

Then the next day arrived and I went through the same process again. By day three I can tell you the body has removed the nicotine from your body and you are battling your mind.

But nothing is impossible or the world would still be full of cigarette smokers.

The idea was to break not just the habit of lighting up but changing my schedule of smoking. I would smoke at certain places and certain people.

Like I said Ramadan is best time to go cold turkey and break all these habits. It can be done if you want to go through those first three days.

Or you can just carry on having gone through 19 hours of withdrawal symptoms and starting the whole process again in the morning. The choice is yours.

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