October – the month that welcomes in the cold, dark, winter nights that we all dread. Until now…two large campaigns that take place during the month of October enable us to seek some positivity this month.
Firstly ‘Stoptober’; this is a Government campaign promoting people to stop smoking for 28 days throughout October and similarly, ‘Go Sober for October’ encourages us to give up alcohol for the month. ‘Go Sober for October’ is a campaign that MacMillan Cancer Support devised; therefore if you participate you’ll be contributing to a fantastic cause and aiding the lives of those suffering from cancer. Both are brilliant schemes to encourage us to overcome bad habits that have detrimental effects on our health. Committing to a certain time period seems more manageable, hence (hopefully) more successful than going completely cold turkey.
STOPTOBER
For all of those people who constantly say that they WILL give up smoking but always give excuses, well now is your chance! Today you can join over 226,000taking part in one of the largest stop smoking campaigns, the best bit about it? Due to the expanse of ‘Stoptober’ so many of your friends, family and colleagues can join in so that everyone can motivate each other, reducing temptation of puffing on others cigarettes.
The benefits that you will reap from a month off smoking are staggering. Not only will your breathing and fitness improve, you will be able to taste properly as well as enhancing the appearance of your skin and teeth. Even your fertility levels will improve! If you manage to stop smoking for 28 days, you are five time more likely to stop for good.
Think of all the money you could save; on average people save £150 pounds a month when they stop which equates to almost £2000 a year. Another holiday could be on the cards if that’s the case! Furthermore, after five to ten years of no smoking, the risk of heat attacks and lung cancer fall to about half of those who smoke.
Stamp out those butts today and sign up here: https://stoptober.smokefree.nhs.uk/registration-c
GO SOBER FOR OCTOBER
If you’re not a smoker or you just feel like your body deserves a month off alcohol then why not sign up to MacMillans ‘Go Sober for October’ campaign instead. The sense of achievement that you could get would be amazing from not only helping yourself (and your liver) but also from helping others who are facing cancer to gain energy, support and control back into their lives.
Imagine a month free from that awful hangover that just gets worse each time, you could feel more upbeat with a clearer head and hence get more proactive. Cutting out alcohol can also aid weight loss as you’ll be eliminating the high calorific content that alcohol provides. On top of that the time and money that you would usually spend on drinking could be used on other activities such as joining a gym or classes which would enhance weight loss even further – a win-win situation! On top of that, why not try our SlimSlim diet pills with the money that you’d be saving; this October could be your most successful month of weight loss yet!
Go sober this month for a great cause here: http://www.gosober.org.uk/
How else you can join in
If you’re not a smoker or drinker, but fancy joining the hundreds of thousands of people giving up something this October and like the idea of testing your will-power against a bad habit, we’ve come up with a few suggestions below:
- Fast food – if you’re a fast food junkie, you’ll be consuming a lot more fat, salt and calories than your body requires or wants. In moderation this is fine however if you think you are having more than you can handle, give your body a break for a month and ditch the takeaways.
- Sweets, chocolates, crisps, cakes, biscuits etc – if you have a weakness with one or two of these packaged goods test your self-control by giving them up for a month. Look out for our ‘Healthy Snack Suggestions’ article next week for choices on what you can swap these with. You may end up shedding a few pounds and feel so much happier with yourself.
- Social Networking Sites – On Average people spend 15.5 hours a month on social networking sites. When we communicate, only a small percentage is through verbal words, the rest we pick up through non verbal cues such as body language, eye contact and tone of voice. Using all of these provides us with higher quality communication and satisfies more of our social needs. Therefore, less time spent social networking will allow you to spend more time with friends providing you with greater benefits from the social interaction. If you do choose to give up social networking sites for October, make sure that in November you get back onto our Facebook and Twitter pages which update you with all of our exciting news!