Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things to do but to make it easier, health researcher and blogger Natalia Moore outlines a guide to stubbing out the toxic habit for good.

DAY 1

Congratulations. You are joining the majority, the people who do not smoke or have given up smoking. In seven days, you will be a non-smoker too.

First step: Throw away all your cigarettes. Now buy one pack of a brand you dislike.

Second step: From today, you are going to keep a tally on the cigarettes you smoke and how much you think you need them. Take a sheet of paper and rule up a series of columns with the headings shown below.

In the “need” rating column, write down those cigarettes you feel you cannot do without as rating “1”. A “2” rating would mean a cigarette you need but could do without. Number “3” means those you smoke without thinking.

Now wrap this paper around the pack with an elastic band. On the first day simply rate your cigarettes as you smoke. There is no need to cut out any today, but do not clean out your ashtrays tonight.

DAY 2

Keep up your smoking tally. But, if you rate a cigarette “3”, do not smoke it. Take a 20-minute walk after dinner instead of smoking. Take your wife, friend or dog with you. Keep adding to yesterday’s butts.

DAY 3

If you successfully cut down all your “3”-rated cigarettes yesterday, try to cut out most of your “2s” today. Keep up your smoking tally paper. At some time today, decide you will not smoke for a certain period: one hour for heavy smokers, two hours for moderate smokers and a half-day for light smokers.

Keep adding to your collection of butts. Keep walking.

DAY 4

Switch to another brand you dislike. By now your tally should show fewer “l”-rated cigarettes as you cut out those you really could do without. So today cut out all your number “2s”. Only smoke those you must have and rate them “1”. Keep those butts.

DAY 5

Throw away your lighter and your cigarettes. Today, if you must smoke you will have to borrow someone else’s. This action really forces you to think. Try a relaxation technique; chew gum, celery or carrots instead of smoking. At the end of the day, gather all your butts into a glass jar with a lid.

DAY 6

Today you are stopping for 24 hours. You have survived five days and proved your willpower. Getting through will be tough, but you will do it. If you get the craving, take the top off your jar of butts and breathe in.

Avoid people and places you associate with smoking. Once you have told other people that you have decided to give up smoking it is easier.

DAY 7

You have done it! Congratulations. Twenty-four hours without a cigarette. Follow all the steps of Day 6. Already your mouth will feel cleaner and your lungs too. You may cough more, but that is your body’s cleansing mechanism at work.

Written by: Natalie Moore, a health and fitness researcher and passionate blogger from LA, who works at eLearning.