14 DAY TRIAL // Everyone knows that smoking is a really bad habit, even most smokers agree with this, but only a handful of them are willing to really leave behind this wont. Some say they'll lay off tobacco but, after trying for a few days or even weeks, start again saying it's impossible to renounce something they feel to be a “necessity.” Others manage to leave behind this toxic practice for months or even years on end, yet in the grim light of unfortunate events seek refuge in the past and rekindle the nicotine torch. There are, however, the lucky ones who resist the temptation all the way and forsake this vile activity.
The methods used to eliminate what after all is nothing more than a despicable act of poisoning your body and contaminate those around you vary sometimes from individual to individual. What they all share in common is the volition, the will to step away and never look back. The numerous aids that can accompany and help strengthen the resolve are varied, and can even take a digital form. If you feel you need advice, motivation, a teacher and a trainer to keep you on the right path, you may find all of them in Stopbuddy, a software whose motto, I think, say it all: “Stop smoking, before it stops you.”
Ease of use is a key factor in both the program's installation and employment, so you can start regaining control over your health and life immediately, guided not by amateurish advice but by facts proven and backed up by statistics and years of research. This utility plays multiple roles in showing you meters, counters, offering tips and pieces of advice, and most importantly providing you with educated answers to difficult questions. The interface is rather simple, no bells and whistles, no fancy menus or shiny skins and buttons, just four modules and a Settings tab decorated with old, yet nice icons.
When you first run the application, it will ask you to provide some basic details about your habits, such as the number of cigarettes smoked each day, and the amount of money and time “invested'” in this nauseating activity. Based on the data you input, the counter that tells you for how long you have ceased smoking, the exact date and time when you started this habit, as well as how many minutes of your life and money you have saved will be displayed in the main window. Just in case you're interested in this gloomy statistic, clicking on the smiley in the lower left corner will reveal the number of smoking-related deaths that have occurred after you have chosen to “divorce” tobacco.
You will find this tool useful even if you have already stopped smoking, as it will display all your health details, taking into account the time that has passed since your last cigarette. This way, you'll receive a substantiation that you have made the right choice, and you will see just how much your health improves with each smoking-free day that passes.
The next module you'll be faced with when starting to explore the software is the health-related one. The nice virtual doctor will tell you what is the current status of your health, and will guide you throughout the process by answering any questions you may have about the impact of your decision on your organism. Consequently, there is a “Body Monitor” that displays several meters related to the most important indicators, namely blood pressure, the level of oxygen and carbon monoxide in your blood, lung capacity, sense of taste and smell, energy levels and blood circulation. When you start the journey towards a cleaner, healthier body through a nicotine-free life, the bars will be at their lowest level, more precisely that of a smoker, and will ascend towards normality in time.
There is more to discover in the “medical” area of Stopbuddy, for it will enable you to view how much your chances to get life-threatening diseases have been reduced as time has gone by and you have refrained from smoking. The risks of having a heart attack, a stroke, cancer and common sickness are taken under consideration at this point. Soon enough, these perils will become more and more reduced, thanks to the confinement in the consumption of toxins boxed in cigarettes.
Renouncing this bad habit is by no means deprived of secondary effects, on the contrary. If you feel reluctant at any time and consider they are too much to handle, you should pay a visit to the “Withdrawal Symptoms department” that explains most, if not all of them, in order to help you better understand and accept them. Also, there is a great concern that quitting smoking will bring about a gain in weight. This matter has its own dedicated area, where you'll be able to find out the truth with regard to this problem. Just remember, as the doctor says, the health benefits of stopping smoking are far greater than any risk of a small weight gain that may come about.
Stopbuddy comes with another very useful module that has been designed to allow you to learn many things you probably didn't know about what smoking can do to you and the reasons that turn normal people into avid smokers. The “professor” is also willing to give you numerous and efficacious tips to assist you in your attempt to overcome the temptation and emerge victorious in the battle against nicotine and its drug-like effects. In this section, you will find the answers to two paramount questions that arise when trying to better understand what such a platitudinous custom as smoking is really about: what health problems does it cause, and what does it do to your appearance. The picture is not pretty at all, as you will see when browsing these topics.
The courageous undertaking of ending all relations with nicotine can falter if there is nobody to cheer you up, as the information alone is not enough. For this purpose, Stopbuddy brings forth your personal coach, who is given the task of supporting you mentally and emotionally end-to-end. This special module will back you up in dealing with the emotions involved, and give you the advice needed whenever you feel the psychological burden becomes too heavy to bear. Here, you will find both assistance and counseling that will guide you through the entire process. Furthermore, there is a particular section that will allow you to back yourself by writing down your personal reasons for quitting smoking.
The software's Options section is the least “populated,” as it consists of only two check boxes that enable you to add Stopbuddy at system startup and protect it with a password. In this configuration area, you can still find something very useful like the export feature that is meant to help you print the stopdata, if you want. The Help section can be accessed from the Options module, or better said should be accessible, because during testing it has failed to open. Perhaps an offline help system would be welcomed, even though you won't feel the need for one because all the features are very easy to understand and also well explained in their respective sections. Because, after all, it is a piece of software, the resource consumption should be noted, but in the case of Stopbddy it is barely noticeable, so thumbs up here too.
The Good
The meters and counters are a nice touch that complements the written subject matter and add to the ease of understanding what the wretched habit does to your health and how difficult it is to regain nothing more than normality in terms of mind and body.
The Bad
The Truth
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
