Life After Cigarettes: Why Women Smoke and How to Quit, Look Great, and Manage Your Weight

Women started smoking in huge numbers in the mid-20th century, thanks to massive campaigns by the tobacco industry. The result has been generations of smokers whose health has been compromised and whose lives have been shortened. This book helps women understand why they smoke, how to quit, and how to make sure they don't start again. Smoking cessation expert Cynthia Pomerleau emphasizes proven strategies that demystify this most potent and pervasive of drugs. She explains the effects of quitting, how to do so without gaining weight, and the use of support systems and the latest drug therapies. Featuring photographs and illustrations, the book is divided into four sections: What Every Woman Who Ever Smoked Should know (covering the why); Managing Weight and Looking Great (personal transformation after kicking the habit); Special Concerns (dealing with relationships, depression, and other causes for concern); and A Lifetime Perspective (inspirational tips for maintaining a smoke-free life). Additional readings and resources help keep readers on track.

Cynthia S. Pomerleau, Ph.D., worked in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry from 1985 to 2009 as a research professor and as director of the Nicotine Research Laboratory, where much of her research focused on the impact of smoking on women (e.g., menstrual cycle effects, postcessation weight gain, depression). She is the author of more than a hundred articles and book chapters on smoking and a contributor to the 2001 Surgeon General’s Report on Women and Smoking. Prior to training in psychology and neuroscience, she had a varied career characterized by a long-standing interest in women's issues. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on autobiographies of English women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries at the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently directed an Oral History Project on Women Physicians at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She lives in Ann Arbor and Empire, Michigan, with her husband and collaborator, Ovide Pomerleau.