The long-time waitress, who never smoked, is widely known for television ads in which she describes how she contracted cancer from second-hand smoke at the restaurant where she worked for 40 years. She was diagnosed in 2002, fighting the cancer with chemotherapy, radiation and steroids before it went into remission. However, she learned last August that the cancer had spread and she was losing her battle with the disease.

Crowe’s passing comes just one week before the Smoke Free Ontario Act comes into effect in Ontario.

The act will ban any smoking in any enclosed public places and will add restrictions to the promotion, handling and display of cigarettes in stores.

Jim Watson, the Liberal MPP for Ottawa-West-Nepean, was a frequent customer at the restaurant where Crowe worked and called her the “matriarch of the anti-smoking movement.”

He said on Monday that Crowe told him she really wanted to live to see the anti-smoking legislation come into effect.

“It’s very sad that she’s not going to be here to see it, but she should be very happy that because of her influence, Ontarians will be able to breathe easier as a result of the legislation on May 31,” said Watson.

Watson said Crowe was an unlikely activist.

“She fell into this anti-smoking passion because she experienced first-hand what so many people have suffered over the years.

“She was a very thoughtful, compassionate individual who was not fancy or glib. She was very sincere in her approach and she just wanted to ensure that no one else had to suffer like she had to suffer as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty presented Crowe with an award named in her honour last December.

The Heather Crowe Award will recognize the efforts of individuals and organizations in promoting a smoke-free Ontario.

Source: Canada.com

Many people say Hypnotherapy is the best way to quit smoking.

The respected scientific publication ‘New Scientist’* answered this when it reported on research carried out on over 70,000 people. It statistically showed hypnosis as the most effective way to give up smoking.

Help to stop smoking using hypnotherapy / hypnosis, was found to be 300% as successful as nicotine replacement therapy, and 500% as successful as just will power alone.

But how does it help you quit? Is that what you are asking?

The help with stop smoking hypnotherapy sessions are quite straightforward, very effective.

Stopping Smoking Hypnosis is effective because:

• It deals directly with the habitual processes which cause you to smoke
• It can remove your desire to smoke
• It explains why you need a reward in order to stop smoking…
• and it gives you that ‘reward’ for stopping smoking.

You can quit smoking with Hypnosis. Smoking is a habit and habits can be changed.

Through hypnosis you can develop insight into the real reasons you smoke.

Stopping smoking is NOT a matter of willpower. You must recondition your subconscious mind with new information.

Even if you have tried to quit and failed before, you have a better chance of succeeding through the use of hypnosis.

Hypnotherapy is a drug-free therapy and in the long term, can save the medical health insurance companies, over time, millions upon millions of dollars in health and palliative care. Yet in Australia, not many medical health insurance companies offer rebates or incentives for the service of hypnotherapy. One has to ask why?

In fact, if you belong to the medical health fund, ask them if they offer rebates for hypnotherapy, remember it is your money you pay them. At least they should offer you this invaluable service. If they say no, then ask this to be changed. Or simply change to a fund that offers you this modality.

Smoking is a highly dangerous pastime. Yet tobacco has used the image of vibrant healthy people to promote their product that if introduced on the market place today, would surely be banned.

For me I think it’s about the 2nd or 3rd day of quitting or stopping that’s actually the hardest.

It’s partially due to the nicotine flushing out of your body, it’s still around after a couple of days so the cravings get more and more intense.

Remember drink a lot of water, this will help you flush the nicotine out of your body. There are some more tips in How to Quit or Stop Smoking Cold Turkey.

The day you quit is not so bad, because you can take not smoking for 6-8 hours without feeling too bad anway (think of a long haul aircraft flight, they are ALL non-smoking now).

The day after you quit is reasonable too, you get some bad cravings, but for me it wasn’t THAT terrible..

It was worse after that during the 2nd and 3rd days, man those day for me were REALLY tough.

Just remember, be prepared for it and you’ll be fine, know your triggers, get support and be ready for the hard days, it might be different for you, depending on how heavily you smoked, the rate your body flushes out the nicotine and so on.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the first 1-2 days will be the toughest though, as you might fall down when it gets harder.

If you are running out of ideas, you can always check out the Top 10 Gadgets to Help You Quit Smoking.

But the question is, why is it so hard to quit?

Everyone knows how to lose weight right?

Don’t eat foods with fat in them and exercise!

Everyone knows how to give up smoking right?

Don’t light the cigarette..easier said than done..

Having this knowledge just isn’t enough, sometimes even having the desire isn’t enough!

Time and again I see people who get really close to quitting smoking. They can get all the way down to one or two cigarettes a day, but just can’t give up those last two. Many even make it all the way down to zero, but the cravings, oh the cravings! They are wretched, those cravings. Most will go back to smoking within the first few days. They can cut away most of the “stuff” that keeps them glued to the cigarettes, even not be addicted to nicotine anymore(!), but there is just something deep in their core that magnetically pulls them back in, like two lovers who know they are bad for each other but just can’t help themselves.

What is this thing? What is at this core?

Let me take a step back for a moment. How many adults do you know who are happy? I mean really, truly happy? Think that question is foolishness? Let me ask you this. How many people do you know who love their work? I’m talkin’ jump out of bed in the morning, can’t wait to start. Sadly, the percentage is very small. Why is this?

We live in an interesting quick-fix culture. People don’t really have to deal with their issues. We’ve got:

• Television
• Movies
• Shopping
• The Internet
• Video Games
• Hitting the gym
• Drugs
• Eating too Much
• Gambling
• Drinking

to distract us and make us feel better. Even more than that, many people’s issues are quite buried. Think of dreams that were squashed when we were young. “An artist? You could never make a living at that! You should be a doctor!” People often forget what their dreams once were.

Basically you need to find out what the problem is, why do you need to smoke?

What is lacking in your life?

I had no energy.

You lose your sense of smell.

Things become less tasty as you destroy your tastebuds with the putrid but addictive grey smoke, filling your lungs with tar and infusing your bloodstream with what you really desire..

NICOTINE.

The bane of us all, the smokers.

I also started caring about the people around me, how my second hand smoke effects them, how it makes everything smell, how it makes kissing me..like licking an ashtray. For non-smokers dating smokers, I now realise it must be hard.

I wanted to stop mainly because the smoking had become habitual, I realised it had. It was no longer a pleasure, it was no longer something I did because I wanted to, it was something I did because I did it, I needed to do it like clockwork.

• I would wake up – first thing pee, then cigarette.
• Before I sleep – last thing cigarette then brush teeth.
• Stuck in traffic – light up a cigarette.
• Stressed at work – light up a cigarette.
• Hungry but no time to eat – light up a cigarette to push back the hunger.
• After a meal – first thing is to light up a cigarette.
• After sex – light up a cigarette.

It becomes habit, smoking becomes associate with these things in your brain, you no longer really want a cigarette or enjoy it, or truly desire it. But because you did one of these things, you have to smoke, your brains tells you to smoke.

YOU’VE EATEN YOU MUST SMOKE NOW.

I didn’t want the cigarettes to be in control any more, I wanted to get the control back.

I wanted to be in control of what I did…not be controlled.

So, I decided to quit, and that my friends is what this site is all about.

Perhaps you can share your story, if you are a smoker why you want to quit, or if you’ve quit, what feeling did you have that was so strong?

Maybe you or your partner got pregnant?

Maybe someone close to you got cancer?

Maybe you just realised you didn’t need it any more?

Maybe…any let us know, it’ll be interesting.