Doesn’t it sound lusty? SLERTT stands for Sex, Laughter, Exercise, Relaxation, Talking & Touching. These are the ways nonsmokers trigger the release of the neurotransmitters called endorphins. Endorphins do three important things: they make you feel good, make good feelings last, and cover up pain. Cigarettes also trigger the release of endorphins. This method is so quick and sure that your brain forgets how to do it naturally. That’s why you want a cigarette after sex or a good meal, your body has forgotten how to feel good without nicotine to flip the switch. It isn’t a joke, it’s actually pretty sad.

In the first few days after you quit smoking, you may feel the lack of endorphins as what I call the "grays." Nothing seems like much fun. Things that always made you happy are blah now. This is especially tough because the grays make it hard to hold on to your motivation. On gray days it’s easy to think everything would be so much easier with a cigarette. Be ready. If it helps, put up a note that says "Cigarettes aren’t the friend that can make me feel better, they’re the enemy that makes me feel like hell."

This gray period is short, just a few days for most people. I prescribe lots and lots of SLERTT to kick-start this friendly function. Whenever you want a cigarette, remind yourself that they have been cutting the top off your joy just as they cut the bottom off your stress. Now you get to feel all of your juicy life. The grays will pass, like every other withdrawal symptom they are temporary. Only the good stuff is permanent. The pride, control, freedom from fear, healing-all of these are lasting.

So this week, memorize SLERTT (Sex, Laughter, Exercise, Relaxation, Talking, and Touching) and start treating yourself better than ever by putting more SLERTT in your life. Notice the smoking triggers around SLERTT and know that when you are over the mountain SLERTT will be better than ever. One of my friends said "If God made anything better than smokefree sex, She kept it for Herself."

In your first smokefree days, you’ll be exercising your SLERTT muscles, like a wheelchair-bound person has to exercise the leg muscles before they work on their own. When your natural endorphins kick in, you’ll have reached your first major milestone. SLERTT some more to celebrate!

The mountain climb that is quitting will take about a month, no matter how smart you are. You are retraining your body as well as your brain, and the smartest among you probably won’t have it any easier. If you could reason yourself out of smoking, you’d have quit a long time ago, right? So get ready for a month of putting yourself first, putting being smokefree as your top priority. If you were diagnosed with lung cancer you would wonder what all those little things were that kept you from quitting. Nothing is as important as this. Quitting could have saved 1100 American lives today (and every day.) It is a huge and heroic act, and your life is worth this heroic act. Keep looking, planning, stacking the deck. We’re all in this together. Next Thursday is quit day!