How to stop smoking AND lose weight

Many people will find the thought of stopping smoking means also contemplating gaining weight. This need not be the case. I stopped smoking and lost weight (two stone or 28 pounds in 12 weeks) at the same time.

So can you.

I was getting annoyed with myself for comfort eating and smoking to relieve the upset that other people were causing me (I had been experiencing a particularly bad time with a work related situation) and was drinking a little more than was probably good for me.  I decided to rebel against the crazy situation that I was in; smoking, drinking and over-eating to comfort myself because of how other people were making me feel.

It was time to begin my own resistance movement, and I suggest that you will need to do the same; instead of comfort eating and smoking, get angry at the reasons that you comfort eat and get angry with the reasons you smoke.

To be blunt, if you don’t want to stop smoking and lose weight, you won’t. Stop reading now, go and eat something, have a cigarette.

If you do want to stop smoking and lose weight then here is what I did. Three simple steps:

1 - Start the diet.

I chose the Dukan diet to start off with. This diet might not suit everyone, and to be blunt, there is no need to enrol on any of his fancy and expensive programmes, or even buy his book. I’ll explain the diet later.

2 – Stop smoking one week later

Give yourself about a week after starting the diet. By then you will have noticed some differences from the diet and will be feeling a little more positive because you will have lost some weight. Stopping smoking can be really hard, but having the focus of the diet helps. Feel free to use a nicotine substitute, but avoid Champix. I found nicotine lozenges most palatable.  Use the lozenges as often as and for as long as you want (within reason, probably no more than six months), but try to get down to using 1mg ones within a few weeks.

3 – Avoid alcohol

Yes, I know this is harsh, but there are two reasons to do this. The first reason is that alcohol is so full of carbohydrates that it will not help you lose weight, the second is that the association with smoking may be too strong. The third reason (yes, I can’t count) is that alcohol is bad for you.

The Dukan Diet for cheapskates like me

The Dukan diet is a low carbohydrate, low fat diet, a bit like the Atkins diet but with no fat. These diets work on the principle that if we take in little carbohydrate (sugars and starches) our bodies will burn off fat deposits instead.

Your body uses carbohydrates as its main fuel source. Sugars and starches are broken down into simple sugars during digestion. They're then absorbed into your bloodstream, where they're known as blood sugar (glucose). From there, the glucose enters your body's cells with the help of insulin. Some of this glucose is used by your body for energy and extra glucose is stored in your liver, muscles and other cells for later use or is converted to fat.

The theory behind most low carbohydrate diets is that insulin prevents fat breakdown in the body by allowing sugar to be used for energy and by decreasing carbohydrates we reduce insulin levels, which causes the body to burn stored fat for energy and ultimately helps you shed excess weight and reduce risk factors for a variety of health conditions.  I can attest to this as my cholesterol levels have significantly reduced.

Doing the Dukan means reducing sugar and carbohydrate. A lot.

Shopping list for your first week.

·       Oat bran. This stuff is amazing; it reduces cholesterol, and you will be eating it every day.

·       Skimmed milk

·       Fat free, unsweetened yoghurt

·       Fat free cottage cheese

·       Fat free quark cheese

·       Fat free fromage frais

·       Sucralose sweetener, like Splenda

·       Diet cola or similar diet drink

·       Low fat proteins, including:

o   Chicken

o   Ham

o   Beef (steak, mince)

o   Fish and seafood

o   Surimi (crab sticks)

o   Quorn (plain)

o   Tofu

o   Textured vegetable Protein(TVP)

o   Eggs – but no more than one a day

As you can see there is scope for someone who is a vegetarian to do this diet, although it is pretty limited if you are a vegan.

Week one

Dukan calls this the ‘attack phase’ and he recommends between 3 and seven days of only foodstuffs identified in the shopping list above.

You must drink plenty of fluids. Diet cola or tea and coffee are fine, made with skimmed milk and sweetened with splenda, but do try to drink plenty of water. Aim for two litres a day.

You should eat around two table spoons of oat bran every day. The oat bran can be made into pancakes (use some oat bran, fromage frais, an egg, and skimmed milk to make a thick batter, and them cook in a skillet sprayed with a little light oil) but to be honest, I found that most ways of preparing oat bran gave me terrible wind, and found the solution was easy; it is oat bran porridge.

I now start each day with a bowl of oat bran porridge, simply made by mixing two table spoons of oat bran, a good spoonful of splenda and skimmed milk, bunging the lot into a microwave and cooking on high until it bubbles up. Experiment until you get the consistency you like, just remember, the more you cook the oat bran, the less you will fart!

Eat as much protein as you like; I often have crab sticks for lunch, maybe with some wasabi (Japanese horseradish - very hot!) and a dash of soy sauce to add some interest. For my evening meal I might dry fry lean mince with some chopped up onions (onions and other things, like gherkin are ok in the attack phase to add some flavour) and eat with some cottage cheese on the side.

Another favourite of mine is to make a chicken tikka (marinade some chicken chunks overnight in yoghurt mixed with a bit of chilli powder and garam masala, then oven cook for 40 mins to an hour) served with  yoghurt relish with chopped onion, chilli and a bit of mint.

I also bake with oat bran and discovered that quark cheese with a bit of lemon juice and splenda makes a great topping for a cheesecake.

The rest is up to you, but feel free to experiment. There are plenty of recipes online.

Week two onward

By now, hopefully you will be feeling more positive. You are doing something to change your life for the better and will have already lost some weight.

Now it is time to stop smoking.  Use nicotine replacement therapy freely.

Whenever you have the urge for a cigarette, take in a deep breath of clean air, exhale it slowly, and relax a little.  That little tip helped me.

From now on, every other day you can add vegetables to your diet. Choose low carbohydrate, high fibre vegetables. Salad vegetables are pretty much a free food now.

A couple of months later

By now you will have lost weight, and still be free from cigarettes too.  This will be a massive achievement, and you will feel much healthier and be able to wear clothes that look good on you rather than hide you. Do remember though, that life will NOT be perfect!

By now you will be familiar (possibly even bored) with the low carbohydrate diet. It might be worth considering changing onto a low Glycaemic Index diet now, to incorporate more (slow release) carbohydrates into your diet.

Good luck!

Edit - November 2011.

Exercise

It is not necessary to exercise to lose weight, however, I recommend a half hour to an hour brisk walk every day, if you can.