06 Quit Smoking & Diet: Advanced Advice, Basic Tips & Tricks

Time for some Basic Advice & Tips for our Dual Dieter & myself:

- Eat much & drink much! Very important. What to eat and drink? here & here.

- Don't worry about the scales or the number of calories / kcal. You needn't weigh or measure anything. How you feel in your body is what's important. The diet, even followed only approximately, ensures that you stay within your former weight range, 200% guaranteed.

- Keep Yourself Busy! KYB!
Inactivity is the moment you'll itch for... chocolate? And you know what? If you really must have a bite or two, go ahead. In case you've already forgotten, the main purpose of it all is, not to complete a Spartian diet, but to quit smoking with the least effort & stress.
Instead of creating additional stress because of food restriction, which might fuel cigarette craving again, just have a slice of pizza. Or a cookie.
But don't make the exception the rule. It takes very little to create a habit, for good or for worse. I have my cravings for sweet things after lunch (aaah, dessert) but never indulge into it (I'm just really looking forward to my day-off). As a compensation, I allow myself a cookie or some sweet while I can't follow the meal schedule properly (because of work, mainly).
To come back to our topic — KYB! —, the cigarette reflex is psychologically as much associated with inactivity (waiting for the bus, for the computer to launch, to pics to upload, breaktime / cigarette break, etc.) as it is with a specific activity (morning coffee, social time with friends, internet, etc.).
Don't tempt the devil and keep yourself busy. Too much free time and you'll fall. Fortunately, the diet is here as a safeguard: you'll crave for the restricted food first.
Alternative: create a new habit for the (additional) free time (smoking actually takes time, in case you didn't notice), be it push-ups or — thinking about what you'll cook for dinner. ; P

- If, on the top that, you want to redesign your body (lose or gain some weight, fat or muscle here or there), now is the time: that's another small challenge that will keep you away from even thinking about smoking.
Ideally, if you don't aim to turn into Superman or Wondergirl (none of our business really): light exercise (stretch, squat, push-up or wall-press, muscle contraction if not at home, etc.) shortly before & 1h30 after meals.
Anytime wouldn't do, but is better than nothing. Actually, if you experience those moments of inactivity & subsequent craving, you might want to make the best of those moments and create the habit of working out a bit. It's easily done, and only to your benefits.

- To follow, here are some ideas for no/low slow carb menus.

04 The Quit Smoking Diet

It is as simple as that, we're here to testify, ongoing and feeling great. Starting a diet will make your quitting smoking feel like a joke and you won't even think about it so much. Even if you were smoking 3 packs a day.

Now, what about food? Independently of your weight, we'll go for a well-known low-slow carbohydrate, protein-focused diet.

Meaning:
- forget most carbohydrates (starch as in, bread, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, beer, etc.)
- which also means no fructose (fruits, fruit juice) nor glucose (cookies, sweet drinks, etc.)

Which leaves:
- proteins: eggs, meat (preference for chicken, beef), fish
- legumes: beans, lentils
- vegetables: spinach is the best, broccoli is VG, all the rest is fine

Now, no carbohydrates (CH2O from now on) means a huge dip in caloric intake. That's all right: you just have to eat more, and drink much while you're at it. You'll have to anyway, because you'll be hungry. And it's OK: caloric intake from proteins & veggies produces much less fat than caloric intake from CH2O.

While we don't want to fatten unconsiderably, remember that the goal is not to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, that won't be achieved by eating less anyway: you'll just starve yourself, which is never good.

Ideally, have 4 meals per day (breakfast, lunch, lighter second lunch, dinner) with roughly 4 hours between each. We'll give some typical menus later on.

Also, set one meal to one day off per week: we don't want the body to adjust to the new diet, but keep it burning fat & stuff like before, so this meal/day off — when you may eat absolutely anything and in whatever quantity you want — is necessary.

And these few points are all the basics.

Let's review.