Name Jamie Dormon
Age 31
Occupation IT consultant
Relationship Has a 16-month-old daughter, Isabella, with his partner
Goals To give up smoking and to train for climbing Mont Blanc in June
Jamie’s story
Becoming a father triggered a great desire for change in Jamie. ‘I knew I needed to become more adult,’ he says. ‘I like going out and enjoying myself, but I would be a miserable sod at home.’
He and his partner have had couple counselling this year and he can see now that his desire to ‘disappear’ is related to his unhappy teenage home life. He is learning to talk things through rather than run off to the pub.
The next step is to give up smoking. Jamie has smoked 20 to 30 a day since he was 14, with a couple of failed attempts at stopping. The most recent was when his daughter Isabella was born.
‘The stress of looking after a screaming baby for the first time pushed me back into it, but I don’t want to use her as an excuse,’ he says.
Isabella is his main motivation to quit – he smokes on his patio at home, and the turning point for him came when he saw Isabella mimicking him.
Jamie sees smoking as part of his bigger problem with retreating from his home life. ‘I physically go outside to do it, and it is another way that I can withdraw.’ It is affecting his health – he has had bronchitis twice this year – and he doesn’t even like smoking, he says. ‘It’s like heroin: a short, sharp hit.’
He would also like to train to climb Mont Blanc for charity in June. ‘I used to play football, but when I came to London five years ago, that got replaced with partying,’ he says.
Jamie hopes that exercise will help with stress relief – his job in the City is highly competitive. ‘I go hillwalking twice a year in Scotland, and a challenge like this really appeals to me because I can’t just go to the gym and exercise – I need a goal,’ he says. ‘It will also be another incentive to give up smoking.’
Personal trainer Christina Borg says
Jamie has a lot of work to do to prepare for climbing Mont Blanc in June. He hasn’t trained for a long time, and it shows. But he has trained in the past, for his football, and his body knows the exercises.
I tested his fitness. His posture, balance and flexibility are all good. When he climbs he starts to fatigue in his legs and arms, and he needs to build strength all over. We will work on big muscle groups in weight training, and endurance with cardiovascular work. For the first two months Jamie needs to train in the gym three times a week minimum, once with me, once doing weights, and once a mix of weights and cardio work. Then he can start climbing training.
Anyone who is not at a great fitness level but wants to train for a big event needs to build up gradually. So start by doing a cardio session, then take a day off – anything you do at this stage you’ll feel the next – then a weights session. Do lots of stretching on days off. In month two introduce bouts of interval training to push the fitness base up, and in month three introduce more complex weights exercises.
First steps to training for a big fitness goal
· Set yourself short-term challenges. For example, you can aim to be running a mile in eight minutes within three weeks.
· The secret with a long endurance challenge is to get the body to move more efficiently. The stronger the core, the better the other body parts can work, so work on abdominals, back and hips.
· Strengthen the lower body to assist the upper body, and vice versa. A personal trainer will show you how to maximise your body’s efficiency.
Stop Smoking hypnotherapist Monica Black says
At his first session Jamie was highly motivated. He is very stressed, almost hyperactive. We did some relaxation exercises: when you feel calm you feel better about yourself and don’t want to do anything that damages you. We then did an easy neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) technique that involves putting something that revolts you – in his case hair that wasn’t his own – into a cigarette. He nearly threw up and said he had no desire to smoke ever again.
Finally, with some hypnotherapy, we went through all his triggers for smoking (stress, boredom, escape) and his reasons for wanting to give up. We also looked for anything that might block him – for instance, some people are afraid of quitting without realising it – but there was nothing.
When he left he was very positive. I phoned him a few days later and was shocked that he had lapsed already. There were cigarettes lying around, Jamie said, and he gave in. He was angry with himself and wants to try again. Some people manage to quit after one session, some need several, but these techniques have a high success rate overall.
I got tough in the second session: does he really want to do this? He blamed claustrophobia – smoking is his way of getting away. We discussed other things he could do outside. He suggested squats and press-ups, cricket visualisations or going for a walk. He left feeling strong and happy. So I was shocked to hear that, three days ago, he had lapsed again.
He hasn’t smoked since. He can do this; he has the ability. He is being weak. We have another session scheduled – maybe that will do it. We will see.
First steps to stopping smoking
· Make a list of why, when and where you smoke. Then list substitute activities. If loneliness is a trigger, phone a friend instead of lighting up.
· Write down the benefits of stopping, including a breakdown of the money you will save.
· Smoking is a habit. Remind yourself of this often. It is much easier psychologically to break a habit than to tackle an addiction.
Interviews: Elizabeth Heathcote
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