There are many different ways to quit smoking these days. There are patches you can buy, and there are different drug treatments you can buy, and there are certain therapy treatments that you can buy.

And while I'm sure that all these different things work in many cases, the fact remains that they are all very expensive and there are simply no real guarantees that they will work at all. And if they don't work, you're out all the money that you paid and you are no closer to quitting smoking.

I quit smoking almost eleven years ago and I've never had a cigarette since. Not even one. I quit several times before that, but every time I did, It never lasted more than a week or two at the latest. It wasn't until I developed a system to quit that it worked for good.

The system I developed is really simple when you think about it. And what's even better, it's completely free!

To give you a little background first, I want to tell you how much I smoked before. I was NOT a casual smoker. I smoked at least two packs a day AND I owned a pipe that I really really enjoyed.

I had been thinking about quitting smoking for a long time, but it wasn't till one day when I woke up and had the urge to smoke my pipe (which wasn't unusual). I kept it on my nightstand, so I simply reached over and grabbed it while still laying in bed. I lit it and began to smoke.

An hour or two later I woke up again, my smoldering pipe laying amongst my blankets. I had began smoking and then fallen back asleep!

My smoking habit had become dangerous not just to me, but everyone around me as I could have easily burned the house down! That's when I decided to quit once and for all.

Enough talk, let's get right down to my methods.

First, as far as I can tell (I'm no doctor!) there are two issues to deal with when quitting smoking. One: cravings. Two: nicotine levels in your blood.

Many stop smoking programs don't deal with both of those issues and so fail.

So here's how I quit. I kept two large pitchers of water in the fridge at all time. Next I kept a large thirty two ounce plastic cup next to the fridge at all times. It was a big plastic fast food cup like you get for free at McDonalds with an extra large soda purchase.

Next I kept several one pound bags of twizzlers (the licorice candy) around me at all times.

Have I confused you yet? The twizzlers are for cravings. They are long, sort of like cigarettes and you can hold them in your hand like a cigarette. You eat them when you have a minor craving. You can use pretzel rods or any kind of food that is long and skinny like a cigarette (yes, I gained some weight from eating all the candy but so what). The idea is to have something to hold like a cigarette, to chew up and keep you mouth busy.

That handles the cravings. (sort of)

Next the water in the fridge. Whenever I had a bad craving, the kind that made me think (I should just smoke a cigarette) I would stop whatever I was doing and go to the fridge, take out a jug of water, and pour a thirty two ounce glass. Then stand there and drink it ALL. Without moving. Drink till the 32 ounces were gone. Then refill the water jug.

It takes three to five minutes to do all that. And chugging that much water is hard. It takes your mind off the craving and gives you a ritual to do (refilling the water, drinking the water etc). This ritual also tricks your mind into thinking about something other than the craving.

But more importantly, that WATER flushes the nicotine out of your system FAST. You drink seven or eight 32 ounce cups of water a day, you're gonna spend a lot of time in the bathroom wizzing out nicotine from your system.

In just one week of this system the cravings dropped MASIVELY. In two weeks I felt safe and could start to ween off the twizzlers. In a month I was cured. After three months, I never thought about smoking ever again.

Water, and twizzlers. It's that simple.