Smoked Salmon Another Reason to Stop Smoking

The Great American Smoke Out

How to stop smoking is the question plaguing the minds of smokers the world over. We all know what the major side effects of cigarette smoking are. What's always interesting is what gets over looked in the world of smoking related illness and long term side effects. We tend to focus on facts about lung cancer, emphysema, throat cancer, and heart disease. These are the most common side effects of cigarette smoking. But there are plenty of other complications that smoking can bring forward.

I'm going to take a look at one of those underrated side affects of smoking. It's something that tends to get overlooked. However, I'd like to do it in a rather unique and interesting way. Hopefully, if you smoke, your imagination will carry you from interested to inspired. If the coming visual works for you and you don't smoke, please send this on to someone who does.

If you're ready to stop, I have written a book about how I stopped and how you can too. I also managed to stop smoking without quitting?

Intrigued? Confused? Cold Turkey too. I haven't had a cigarette since mid 02 and have not used the gum, patch or that vapor water e-cigarette crap either... no, I'm not a fan. There's only one way to really stop smoking. Cold Turkey, one day at a time. But you got to have you're head straight or you'll be headed to failure in the worst way.

My book and this article is here to help you get your head straight. I like to do it in a way that's creative and motivating. This article may also have a "sucker punch" like affect. Main thing though is to find ways to see smoking differently and have a little fun going through a very serious topic.

How to Smoke Salmon

Just humor me here for a second, OK?

1. Start with some fresh Salmon fillets.

2. Cut them up into strips and keep the strips about an inch thick.

3. Mix up some brine. (Brine: Water saturated with or containing large amounts of a salt, especially sodium chloride.)

4. Chill brine mixture down to 38 deeze greeze.

5. Submerge Salmon in brine.

6. Put the brine and salmon in the fridge to marinate the fish for anywhere from 30 minutes up to 3 hours. The longer you let is sit, the saltier it will taste.

7. Take the salmon out of the fridge and out of the brine mixture.

8. Gently, rinse off the brine.

9. Now, put salmon on rack to dry out. Keep temp at 35 - 40 deeze greeze. Keep it this way for 6-8 hours.

10. Take out salmon for 1 hour and let it set at room temp. This will form a pellicle. (Pellicle: a thin skin or film [Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Zoology] the hard protective outer layer of certain protozoans, such as those of the genus Paramecium) The Pellicle will hold in moisture while smoking.

11. Put salmon in the smoker. "Use wood chips in the smoker that match your own taste, there are many flavors available." (Thank you eHow)

12. Smoke for 6 to 8 hours. When the temp is at 160 degrees, smoke it for at least 30 minutes at this temperature to kill all bacteria and parasites. From there you can smoke it as long as it takes to get the desired flavor.

Total time to prepare smoked salmon is about 24 hours. The average time it takes to smoke a cigarette is 4 minutes. 18 packs of cigarettes is roughly the volume you'd need to effectively match the time under smoke in your mouth. So for the most part, you've smoked your mouth and gums like salmon in under a month. If you're a pack a day smoker that's 18 days. 2 packs a day? Heck, you're the smokehouse here, you do the math!

Your Mouth

Smoking is one of the leading causes of Periodontal Disease. That brine I was talking about? Take a look at a standard brine recipe. Water, Salt, brown sugar, water, soy sauce, herbs. Now, from Yahoo answers, look at this, "Brining promotes a change in the structure of the proteins in the muscle"

NEXT!

Salivia: "Saliva is a component of oral fluid. In mammals, saliva is produced in and secreted from the three pairs of major salivary glands, and hundreds of minor salivary glands. Human saliva is composed of 98% water, while the other 2% consists of other compounds such as electrolytes, mucus, antibacterial compounds, and various enzymes. As part of the initial process of food digestion, the enzymes in the saliva break down some of the starch and fat in the food at the molecular level. Saliva also breaks down food caught in the teeth, protecting them from bacteria that cause decay. Furthermore, saliva lubricates and protects the teeth, the tongue, and the tender tissues inside the mouth."(Thank you Wikipedia)

Notice anything similar? Your spit acts like a kind of brine for the food you put into your mouth.

Smoking tobacco, dries the mouth and relieves the mouth of the ability to properly begin digestion.

Gum tissue: Your gums are part of the soft tissue lining in the mouth. Your gums cover and surround your teeth. They also provide a seal around them. A good amount of your gums are tightly bound to the underlying bone which helps resist the friction of food. Healthy gums are usually pinkish. What else can you think of that's pinkish? Salmon, perhaps? When might the color change? Increased redness? Tendency to bleed? Inflammation? Plaque? Smoke?

Gingivitis: Untreated, gingivitis leads to periodontal disease. Periodontal disease leads to bone loss, receding gums, loose teeth and eventually tooth loss.

Fixing this sucks.

Read this about smoking meats and then think about what's happening inside your mouth and too your gums when you smoke:

"Smoking is a preservative because smoke contains chemical compounds that retard the growth of harmful bacteria. More than three hundred components of smoke have been identified. Carbonyl compounds in smoke contribute to the distinctive flavor and aroma of smoked meat, while the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide help produce the bright red pigment. Phenolic compounds in smoke play a role in protecting fat from oxidizing and turning rancid, which is no doubt a major reason why fatty foods, such as herring or pork, were (and are) so often smoked. The composition of the smoke changes as the temperature of the fire rises, with the best quality smoke produced at a temperature of 650° to 750°F. Control of humidity in the smokehouse is also important since high humidity favors deposition of smoke on the surface of the food and absorption of the flavor. High humidity also assists in the rendering of fat ."

Think of your gums as salmon...

This Doesn't Have To Be You

Listen folks, people worry about lung and heart disease but let's face it, your grill's at risk! So if you're heart's going to give out because your one good lung can't absorb enough oxygen and you're going to drop dead, don't you want to go out with a nice set of choppers?

But I digress.

Bottom line here, you got one heart, one set of lungs and one grill. Thanks to modern science, you can actually get new ones of all of these things. So don't worry about it. Smoke up! Right?

I digress again. Hopefully, you're insurance is up to date and they are a forgiving company. People that get hearts and lungs get them because the one's they came with don't work so well. Yours, the smoker heart and lung, is defective because you choose to make it so.

The good news? They repair themselves for a lot less than transplanting a new one?

The Last Word

Up above here is my website.  Who's smoking? You? Your spouse? Your buddy? Sibling? Co-Worker?

Help them help themselves or simply step up and help yourself. It's time to stop. And if not for you than for the one's that love you. And if not for them, then do it for me!

To all those smoker's who are terribly cool out there... you do not not have to give up any piece of you or your identity to become a (as I put it in my book) a smoker who doesn't smoke. I have found a way to not smoke and remain terribly cool and you can too.

Look, if you, like me, realize that smoking is not how you have to identify yourself, stopping suddenly becomes more manageable.

And notice I say stop. Don't quit. It's too difficult to quit and quitting is something we try. We all know there is no try. "Trying" something is weak. Come into it from a position of strength and just stop.

For more words of wisdom and food for thought, get the book, check out the blog, leave a comment, let me know how I can help you stop.

Also, if I've ruined smoked salmon for you, please accept my humble apology.

A Tip To Reduce the Urge to Smoke: How to Stop Smoking with Oysters

Coping With Cravings

How do you reduce cigarette cravings? How do handle the urge to smoke when you're trying to quit? Is it even possible to beat cigarette cravings? What is the right mindset to handle nicotine withdrawal? I mean, what if your perception was the difference between success and failure?

I've Got You Under My Skin

Let's say you're on oyster... How does an oyster make a pearl? And is it possible to use this knowledge to break a habit like smoking cigarettes?

Now, stay with me on this because it'll be worth it. I promise. If you're an oyster, you produce your own shell. You have an organ known as the mantle that takes what you eat and converts it into your shell. The inner lining of your shell is called nacre. It is also produced by the mantle. As an oyster, you're mostly made up of muscle and organs. Your skin is your shell. It is there to protect you from the elements.

So what if you got something under your skin? Frank Sinatra used to sing about it. However, when Old Blue Eyes was crooning, it was a good thing. If you're an oyster, this is a problem. As a human, you can relate. Ever get sand in your pants?

Now as an oyster, if you get a little sand under your skin or some other foreign object that starts rubbing on you and grinding on you, what do you do? What if this irritant winds up in your mantle?

Well for an oyster, he/she/it will make a pearl. The oyster will have the mantle start cranking out nacre to surround the "irritant." Eventually what forms in there is a beautiful pearl.

The Prestige

So, like any good magic trick, there are three key elements. The setup, the performance, and the prestige. The prestige is where you pull the rabbit out of your hat.

What? From pearls and oysters to rabbits and magic?

No. To the prestige. The end. The point where it all comes together.

So you've decided to stop smoking. Now what? You've tried before with little or no success. You tried, succeeded (kind of) and then started again. But this time, you declare, will be different.

But what is the one thing you dread? What is it that makes it so hard? Why is it so hard to quit? Well, in my opinion it's impossible to quit, so why bother? For a deeper understanding of that, take a look at my book, How to Stop Smoking Without Killing Anyone available on Amazon.com

For many, including myself, the hardest part about getting off cigarettes is the withdrawal phase.

The urge, desire, craving, to smoke pokes at you, grinds on you, burns you up. It's like having sand in your pants. A Lot of sand. What other kind of sand is out there that pulls out the craving? Some jerk at work, too much work, traffic, spouse problems, family trouble, money problems. The world is full of sand. What get's under your skin? What is your sand?

So now you're irritated. Normally, you smoke.

But now you're an oyster. What are you going to do?

Why make a pearl of course!

That's the Prestige.

How to make pearls

I was listening to Mantra: A Practice for Power, Peace & Prosperity by Niurka and Larisa Stow. In it, Larisa talked about oysters and how they make pearls and I was so inspired by this analogy. I instantly thought of making pearls to stop smoking and how simple and powerful this wisdom is.

An oyster, as you know, covers the irritant with nacre. This makes the irritant smooth and round and less irritating, in fact probably not irritating at all. Remember, you produce your own shell. You are in charge of protecting yourself.

But you're not an oyster. How do you make a pearl? How do you create your shell?

What is the pearl actually? Well in this case it's better lung function, lower chance of cancer, stroke, heart attack, etc. You know why smoking's not a good idea. That's your pearl. So is being free from the pains of nicotine addiction.

In my book, you'll read that releasing myself from the bondage of nicotine was a chief motivational factor and frankly, that was more my pearl than anything.

Another pearl was the ability to exercise better, harder and faster. I train with Russian Kettlebells. You can't smoke and Swing and Snatch a Kettlebell at the same time.

You start making your pearl and building your shell every time you make the conscious decision to not smoke. There's the urge, the grinding, the rubbing, the craving. Normally you go smoke and release yourself of the discomfort, but instead, you're going to breathe deep, recognize what's happening right now and then make the decision to not smoke.

If you're smoking now and just thought to yourself, but it's not that simple , take a moment and just be with that thought for a second. What if it is? What if it is that simple? Keep in mind, simple doesn't mean easy. More often than not we confuse simple with easy. That confusion can slow down our progress dramatically. Think about it.

Going through this phase is part of growth and development. Look at growth and look at birth for that matter. It's a traumatic experience. In your life, it is usually the hard times and challenging moments that produce the greatest results later. Have you ever been thankful after a traumatic event? Did that moment, incident, experience change you and change you for the better? While you're in it, it's a dark tunnel, but as you emerge through the light you come out stronger, reborn, renewed.

Elenore Roosevelt taught us that no one can hurt us without our consent. Viktor Frankl showed us that between stimulus and response is our ability and obligation as humans to choose.

Continuing on this path will shape and form a beautiful pearl.

If this is your journey, get yourself a copy of How to Stop Smoking Without Killing Anyone as it can be your road map to finally living a smoke-free life.