The Best Ways to Stop Smoking

By Kristyn Kusek Lewis

You can quit, with these great new strategies.

Everybody knows that smoking isn’t good for you. But if you’re a woman? “Hands down, smoking is the absolute worst thing you can do to your body,” says Phyllis Greenberger, president and CEO of the Society for Women’s Health Research in Washington, D.C. In fact, new research shows that the carcinogens in cigarettes, while harmful to everyone, are more dangerous for women, who are three times as likely as men to get aggressive forms of lung cancer and more likely to develop it at an earlier age. They’re also more likely to die of lung cancer than breast cancer.

So why, oh, why do 20 million American women still light up?

Because quitting, as we also know, is really, really hard—so hard that, while roughly two-thirds of all current smokers want to quit, only 5 percent actually succeeded last year, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And women, it turns out, have an even harder time quitting than men: They seem to experience stronger withdrawal symptoms, perhaps because of hormones or the bigger nicotine dose delivered to smaller female bodies.

The news isn’t all bad, though. In spite of the challenges, some women are finding creative ways to kick the butts for good. We have four of their inspiring stories here, along with a list of some of the newest stop-smoking tricks. And if you need company to help you or someone you know quit? Visit Health.com/stopsmoking to share your story.

Liz Marr smoked off-and-on throughout her 20s and picked it up again in her early 30s. “I didn’t smoke all the time,” she says. “Usually, only while socializing with other smokers.”

But then she fell in love with mountain-biking and cross-country skiing. After all, Liz lives near Boulder, Colorado, and could literally walk out her door to go mountain-biking. “Trust me,” she says, “you can’t smoke and ride a bike up a mountain!”

Rather than stop cold turkey (“That all-or-nothing mind-set made me want to smoke more,” she says), Liz gradually tapered off by avoiding the situations that made her want to smoke. “For a while, I actually stopped hanging out with friends who smoked,” she says.Liz built activities into her life where smoking wouldn’t fit: exercising, going to smoke-free restaurants, hanging out with her son. “Within a year I naturally drifted into a nonsmoking lifestyle,” she says.

Why it worked: Liz’s tactic of cutting back is an effective way to break free of smoking routines and eventually stop altogether, according to a University of Vermont review of 19 studies. The hard part is staying committed. But Liz knows that’s doable—she hasn’t smoked in 10 years. “I used to love it, but now the smell makes me sick,” she says. “It’s not who I am anymore.”