Kiwi,
Great idea Kiwi, reaching out to other is my hearts desire. Sounds like it is yours too. BTW, your stats are AWESOME!!!!
I live in a very rural area, and when the word got out that I had quit smoking people began to ask questions. I had smoked for 50+ years and they knew this. I guess they thought if I could quit they could too, and they were right.
So I made some phone calls and ask if anyone would be interested in quitting smoking. To my surprise 3 women gave me a positive yes. Not ever doing something like this I really got scared. This was in August, 2006, I thought what in the world have I done. I had only been quit a little over 6 months. How do I start with a program?
We have a Community Center, so I decided that was where we would have the meetings. So I started printing posts off of SSC, and putting them in a notebook. Not all of the happy ones, but some of the tough ones too. Then I broke it down into categories:
Reason for quitting: and they were the usual, Health, financial
Quit Date:
What method will you use: cold turkey, patch, gum, prescription
Cravings: how to deal with them,
Motivation:
Attitude:
Determination:
Depression:
Rewards:
Exercise:
Slipping: I let them decide what a slip is, we have had a few.
Money Saved: They can't believe how much money they spent on Cigs.
We started meeting 2 nights a week, for the first 30 to 40 minutes we talk about what is going on in our lives. What problems we are having. For each meeting I ask them to bring a positive saying. I have something new for them each week from SSC and they love the posts. They have their on notebooks, and keep their own quit meter. I wish they had a computer so they could come and join us.
After that we have a gym in the Center, we spend as much time in there as you would like. Then one Sat night a month we go out to dinner.
It is very exciting right now, they love to celebrate milestones. They are anywhere between 7 months and 2 weeks.
Kiwi, I know that you are in New Zealand. Are you in the city, or country? Putting an ad in the paper might work for you, or just word of mouth. This program just fell in my lap. I had people that wanted to stop smoking. It is very rewarding, and I wish you all the best. I will be think
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Quit Meter
$231,933.38
Amount Saved
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Quit Meter
Days: 6787
Hours: 7
Minutes: 0
Seconds: 19
Life Gained
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Quit Meter
45814
Smoke Free Days
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Quit Meter
687,210
Cigarettes Not Smoked