WelleXceed™

Personal Health Coaching

CASE STUDY: Smoking Cessation and Diabetes

After smoking for 48 years, Liddie has proudly switched to toothpicks. “I started when I was 13 years old- when I had to sneak around and smoke at lunch time,” Liddie said. “Used to be I could buy a Coke, a candy bar and a pack of cigarettes for 50 cents.”

When she began having trouble with emphysema a few years ago, her doctors tried everything from the patch to a nicotine inhaler to help her finally give up the habit. “First they put me on the nicotine patch, then the pill- then the two of them together,” Liddie recalled. “I thought nothing would work.”

That is until she met her personal health coach Cindy McKinney. “Cindy was there to support me and wasn’t expecting me to fail. In the past, when I’d tried to quit, it felt like my friends and family were just waiting for me to fail,” Liddie said. McKinney says the close support is what makes this program different from the methods Liddie has tried in the past. While they now communicate about once a month, at the beginning of the program the contacts took place at least every two weeks.

“In the past she had tried to do things without a lot of support,” McKinney said. “What I can do is check in - make sure we’re not letting the ball drop. I think finding a Website was also a big key for her. She could find support there from people who are in similar situations.”  

Now the previous two-pack-a-day smoker has gone four months without a cigarette- thanks to some helpful websites, a lot of direction and encouragement from McKinney, and their secret weapon of sorts. “She keeps me on toothpicks,” Liddie said. “Every time I want to smoke, I just reach over and grab a toothpick to chew on instead. I haven’t smoked since May 18th. This is longest I’ve ever quit.”