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Dieting and Giving Up Smoking

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Dieting and Giving Up Smoking

Attempt to diet(succeeded)

Introduction

I interviewed a 25-year-old female weighing approximately 65 kilograms. She attained this weight after attempting a diet plan. She was happy to share the details of her journey with me for the purpose of this interview. At 24 years old, she weighed 80 kilograms. Since she was a child, she had a large body mass making her get used to her heavyweight. Her childhood life was not enjoyable since most of the kids would make fun of her at school because she was the biggest in size. At home, it was the opposite of what was happening at school as her mom was supportive of her and would assure her that she was the most beautiful girl in the universe. When she turned 16 years old, she was excited at the prospect of having her first boyfriend. So she made herself look pretty every day waiting for a boy to ask her out but the year passed by and no one approached her. She felt invisible. This caused her to become stressed and depressed so she turned to candy, sweets and ice cream for comfort. She never shared her experience with anyone and avoided most of her friends who would talk about their boyfriends most of the time. Her life changed drastically and she became hooked to books and journals, giving up on her childhood dream of becoming a TV anchor. Who would hire a girl who was as fat as she was? She never cared about what she ate but all she cared about was her books and to be successful in life. She finished school and got a job as a librarian, which she felt was an excellent job as it would keep her away from interacting with people. But later on, she met her best friend who later proposed to her and asked her hand in marriage something which changed her life positively.

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Her journey with dieting

Starting a diet was not an easy objective and throughout her story, I have learned several lessons on dieting. According to Alkerwi (2014), diet is a unique course of food which people restrict themselves, either to lose weight or for health purposes. The decision of losing weight is not an easy thing as it requires the change of lifestyle. Any Individual who is ready for losing weight should be cautious on what to eat and should engage in physical activities (Evans, 2014). Starting a diet involves adapting to a new lifestyle – which everyone knows the transition is not smooth and requires dedication and discipline. In most cases, people live a stress-free life, where they do not care about how they eat, what the individual tastes and whether they are involved in exercises.

One thing that an individual must do when embarking on a diet journey, as per the interviewee, is to be dedicated and to have a plan on diet. An individual who has decided to start dieting should change their daily routines and come up with a schedule that they should adhere to. When you are on a diet, you should forget about the ways of eating you were used to and adapt to the new routine (Partridge et al,2015). This includes eating random foods anyhow. Additionally, the routine should state the kind of food to be eaten and the time when it should be taken. In the interviewee’s case, three meals per day ware appropriate, whereby she had breakfast at 7 am, lunch at 1 pm, and dinner at 8 pm. In between, she would take fruit at 10 am and at 4 pm. She ensured that her diet had a lot of fruit and vegetables as they are rich in minerals and vitamins that help an individual feel healthy and energized (Partridge et al,2015).

However, the fact that one was used to a free life is one of the factors that can make an individual give up and go back to their old lifestyle of eating habits (Muktabhant, 2015). The assessor said that, at one point, she was exhausted from her daily exercise after work, and that eating healthy foods was uninteresting, especially the fact that she had to reduce her daily sugar intake. According to Partridge et al (2015), If an individual has someone who is always motivating, encouraging and reminding an individual of the set objectives, then it becomes hard to give up and go back to the old habits. In the interviewee’s case, she was lucky to have her friend always there to give her the support she needed, accompany her to the gym, and who also enjoyed eating her meals.

Throughout her story, I learned that being on a diet is not as easy as it sounds as one must quit some things she enjoys eating, which is a hard decision to make. The most significant lesson was if an individual takes any substance may it be food or a drink continuously, these consumptions become habits and they eventually become hard to quit.  One of the things the applicant had to deal with was cravings since she would feel the urge to consume ice-cream, sweets, and cakes because she had got used to them. Sometimes she would be tempted to buy cakes from her neighboring cake shop but when she remembered her diet goal she would control herself and conquer the craving.

What made her successful in attaining her goals was having a set objective and a well-laid plan of how she would be spending each day and having a diet table of what to eat and at what time. The most important thing that made it possible is changing her mind positively, which requires a positive spirit. Altogether, having her fiancé supporting her throughout the journey was the best motivation as he gave her emotional support, which is essential to an individual going through this process. The fact that her body responded to her change of diet in a positive way was a plus, as she was able to lose 15 kilograms within a year.

 

Attempt to give up smoking but failed

I also interviewed a 35-years-old male, who had tried to quit smoking several times but was unable to. On hearing the applicant’s story, I realized that there were several factors that caused him to fail in his attempt to give up.

Factors that can cause an individual to fail to give up smoking

Arcila et al., (2015) defines smoking as the action/habit of inhaling and exhaling the smoke of tobacco or a drug.  There are various reasons that can cause people to turn to habits like smoking. Some of these reasons include sociodemographic factors, popular culture, personality traits, peer pressure, availability of smoking substances and stress relief (Blog & Blog, 2018). In the examiner’s case, I learned that he started smoking in high school and it was because of peer pressure and he wanted to fit in the circle of friends he was interacting with at that time. According to research, peer pressure has shown to be one of the most influential factors that have caused many individuals to start smoking – especially teenagers (Kennett et al, 2018).

The applicant kept his smoking habit a secret, as his parents would have been disappointed. After high school, he joined college and during one of the lectures, they were learning about drugs and their effects on those who use them. After the address, he was worried, learning that smoking cigarettes had several side effects, such as lung diseases like emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer (Stämpfli, 2009). Since he was young and wanted to live long, he made the choice to stop smoking cigarettes. After two days of not smoking, the interviewee felt the urge to smoke and assured himself that it would be his last cigarette, which is a familiar saying to most individuals who try to quit (“Common Withdrawal Symptoms after You Quit Smoking – QuitSmokingSupport.com”, 2018). Unfortunately, it was not his last, and his craving for the cigarette made him go to some classmates whom he knew smoked to ask for a cigarette. This action caused him to become a frequent smoker. Before joining his new friends, he would smoke one or two cigarettes a day but after meeting them the situation worsened and he started smoking up to five cigarettes per day.

The second time he tried to quit smoking was after he got a job. During this period, he told me he had turned into a chain smoker, where two hours could not go by without him smoking. Spending half a day without smoking would make him have a headache which would stop immediately when he smoked. Since smoking was not allowed in his workplace, he felt that it was time to look for assistance from a professional consultant to quit smoking permanently. It was hard for him to go to a hospital and openly tell a doctor that he was an addict and wanted to stop. Therefore, he looked for help on an online platform and found a website where they were offering free counseling programs and nicotine-replacement therapy. When he started the therapy online, he was keen and followed every instruction to the latter.

The second attempt was almost successful as he could last two months without smoking any cigarettes. He followed all the advice he got from the online counseling program. One of them being avoiding going to places where he was sure people would smoke – especially in pubs and parties, and the other being staying away from friends who smoked as they might offer him a cigarette which would be unable to resist. Unfortunately, there was a lady, from his neighborhood who he had admired since he moved there, and he had tried to pursue her, but she resisted him. One rainy day as he was driving home, he found her at the bus stop and offered to take her home. Along the way, they exchanged numbers and she even agreed to go to his place for a date. That day the lady came with a bottle of wine and cigarettes. There was no way he would have resisted because in his mind he had decided it was just for the night, but as days went by, their relationship grew stronger, and he eventually married her. Today, they are married, and most of the time when they are free, they still spend their time smoking and watching movies together.

Although the interviewee would try mostly to quit smoking, he lacked the willpower. He never set his mind on the idea of abandoning cigarettes, as most people who stopped their addictive habit first have a fixed memory on the concept (Stämpfli, 2009). Another factor is that he surrounded himself with the wrong people, as most of those who were around him were not supportive as they were also smokers. Research has shown that when planning to quit a habit it is advisable to stay away from individuals who practice that habit (Blog, A et al, 2018). When you stop a habit, your body frequently goes through a lot of hormonal changes that usually makes one uncomfortable. For instance, if you quit smoking and had all the syndromes and cravings, and a friend comes with a cigar or smells of cigarettes, you will not be able to control yourself anymore. The interviewee used to find himself in this kind of situation. At 33 years old, it has become hard for his wife, who is a smoker, to conceive children, and he is coughing a lot, so I convinced him to see a doctor.

Increase in weight in both genders to the extent of being obese builds a lot of insecurity to the social and relationship life. A healthy dieting plan is recommended by a nutritionist to avoid such scenarios from happening. That is why the first interviewee was so insecure about her life making her forget about her dream and living an introverted way of life. She sacrificed a lot and ended up defeating the challenge by changing her behavior. In addition, a lot of people globally have tried to quit smoking with no breakthrough an example being the second interviewee who is seen to be making all efforts possible but end up losing the battle.

In conclusion, all the interviews basically focus on two individuals who have been struggling to change their behaviors. The interviews were not gendered bias since they were focused on both male and female. They elaborate the struggles these individuals face when trying to cope with a different behavior. From the above discussion. it can be seen that the transition from the ordinary lifestyle the individuals have been used to all the way to another lifestyle is difficult and requires a lot of commitment and sacrifice. Moreover, some people manage to change their behaviors completely and enjoy the positive impacts of the new lifestyle while others struggle with the new lifestyle.

References

Evans, C. C., LePard, K. J., Kwak, J. W., Stancukas, M. C., Laskowski, S., Dougherty, J., … & Antonopoulos, D. A. (2014). Exercise prevents weight gain and alters the gut microbiota in a mouse model of high fat diet-induced obesity. PloS one, 9(3), e92193.

Alkerwi, A. A. (2014). Diet quality concept. Nutrition, 30(6), 613-618.

Arcila, M. E., Drilon, A., Sylvester, B. E., Lovly, C. M., Borsu, L., Reva, B., … & Ladanyi, M.    (2015). MAP2K1 (MEK1) mutations define a distinct subset of lung adenocarcinoma    associated with smoking. Clinical Cancer Research, 21(8), 1935-1943.

Blog, A., & Blog, A. (2018). Why do people start smoking? Top 10 reasons. Addictionblog.org.    Retrieved from http://addictionblog.org/top-10/why-do-people-start-smoking/

Common Withdrawal Symptoms After You Quit Smoking – QuitSmokingSupport.com. (2018).    Retrieved from http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com/withdrawal.htm

Kennett, J., Matthews, S., & Snoek, A. (2018). Pleasure and Addiction. Retrieved from    Smoking Peer Pressure Facts. (2018). LIVESTRONG.COM. Retrieved from    https://www.livestrong.com/article/245384-smoking-peer-pressure-facts/

Stämpfli, M. R., & Anderson, G. P. (2009). How cigarette smoke skews immune responses to    promote infection, lung disease and cancer. Nature Reviews Immunology, 9(5), 377.

Partridge, S. R., McGeechan, K., Hebden, L., Balestracci, K., Wong, A. T., Denney-Wilson, E., … & Allman-Farinelli, M. (2015). Effectiveness of a Health lifestyle program with telephone support (TXT2BFiT) to prevent unhealthy weight gain in young adults: randomized controlled trial. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(2).

Muktabhant, B., Lawrie, T. A., Lumbiganon, P., & Laopaiboon, M. (2015). Diet or exercise. The Cochrane Library.

 

 

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