4th Inning:
Right Before Your Quit Day
Build a Support Team
Let friends, family, teammates, and your athletic trainer know
you're quitting.
- Warn them that you may not be your usual, wonderful self for a week or two after you quit. Ask them to be patient.
- Ask them if they'll be on hand to listen and encourage you when the going gets rough.
- Suggest ways they can help, like joining you for a run or a walk, helping you find ways to keep busy, telling you they know you can do it.
- If they've quit, ask them for tips.
"I'd call up guys who had quit on the phone and ask them
for advice." (Norm Charlton, Reds)
- If they use dip or chew, ask them not to offer you any. They don't have to quit themselves to be supportive, but maybe someone will want to quit with you.
"Two years ago, a friend and I quit together, so we helped each other. We both went cold turkey and kept on each other." (Brad Robinson, former minor league player)
Getting Ready for Quit Day
The night before your quit date, get rid of all your tobacco.
Be sure to check your locker, your car, your equipment bag--any
place you might have stashed a tin or pouch.
Stock up on substitutes. Try gum, hard candies, cloves or cinnamon
sticks, toothpicks, or nontobacco look-alikes that contain herbs
or ground mint leaves. A lot of guys like sunflower seeds, made
famous by Reggie Jackson.
Keep tobacco substitutes in the same places you used to stash
your dip or chew.
What About Nicotine Gum?
Nicotine gum releases a lower dose of nicotine than chewing tobacco
or snuff, making it easier to wean off nicotine and your tobacco
habit. Because it contains nicotine, it helps to ease withdrawal
reactions like irritability and tension, yet the gum has none
of the cancer-causing chemicals that are in smokeless tobacco.
You may use the gum for 2-ó months starting on your quit
day. You need to see your doctor or dentist ahead of time for
a prescription.
For the gum to work, you must use it properly.
- Quit all tobacco products the night before you start the gum.
- Starting on the morning of your quit date, use one piece every 1-2 hours. Add more pieces when you feel tense, irritable, or impatient.
- Do not use more than 30 pieces a day.
- Chew each piece SLOWLY--not like regular gum--until you feel a tingle in your mouth. Then stop chewing and hold it between your cheek and gum until the taste or tingle is almost gone. Then chew it again.
- Throw each piece away after 20-30 minutes.
- Carry the gum with you all the time. Don't run out. Ask if your trainer can keep a backup supply.
- Chewing the gum too fast or too long can cause hiccups, nausea,or gas. If this happens, take out the gum, wait 15 minutes, then chew a new piece slowly.
- Don't let nicotine gum be your only smokeless substitute, and try to avoid gum rituals. If you find that you always use the gum when you enter the clubhouse, get into your car, or relax after a game, stop using it at these times. Switch to using one piece every 2-3 hours instead.
- Weaning off the gum is a lot easier than weaning off chew or dip because you're getting less nicotine. Start to cut back after 3-4 weeks. Work towards stopping in 3-ó months.