The thought of giving up weed can be pretty scary, and in some ways may feel like you are losing a mate. Life can feel a bit empty and boring when your main leisure activity has simply disappeared, which is why it’s so important that you plan how to cope with these feelings if you are serious about giving up smoking weed.

Making plans to be busy in the first few weeks after you quit will drastically reduce the time you have to think about weed, so long as most of the things you do are interesting or exciting enough to hold your attention.

Healthy things to do instead of smoking cannabis

Here are a few suggestions of things you can do as an alternative to smoking weed. Weed cravings generally don’t last more than about 20 minutes, so having lot of go-to distractions to hand should help beat any temptation down before it gets a hold. Here’s the list of some healthy things to do instead of smoking pot:

1. 1. Pick up a hobby or pastime you used to be into before sm oking weed. That could be anything from sketching or singing to a sport of learning a musical instrument. Make sure it’s something that intrigues or excites you – fun is the priority here.
   2. Plan a challenge. Could you rope a friend into joining you on a semi-wild camping trip? There’s nothing like having to fish for dinner to wake up your senses.
   3. Teach yourself, or take lessons in a practical skill that uses your hands. Things like knitting, crochet, woodworking, pottery, and card making are just a few of the hundreds of creative things that can keep your mind and hands busy.
   4. If lessons are not your thing try other busy-hand challenges like doing a jigsaw or making a model. You can frame or display the finished result as a bonus.
   5. Pick a few random recipes to make from cookbooks. (You can borrow some from the library, or use free online recipe sites.) This is a good activity to do with friends too.
   6. Focus your brain by doing a crossword, wordsearch or sudoku puzzle.
   7. Learn a musical instrument. If cash is an issue look for a cheaper option, like a kazoo or harmonica.
   8. Get to grips with a foreign language. Brush up on one you studied at school, or go for something completely different. There are lots of free resources online and at libraries.
   9. If you miss the mouth feel of smoking weed try vaping instead. Nicotine free E-liquids are available if you prefer them, and you get the benefits of pseudo-smoking while keeping your hands occupied.
   10. Try something like meditation, yoga or Tai Chi. They are all great for emptying your mind and creating a sense of inner calm. If you don’t fancy a class there are lots of free instructional videos available on YouTube and similar sites.
   11. Try things that give you a natural high. Running or any fast-paced exercise will work, but so will challenging activities that raise your adrenalin, like rock climbing or abseiling.
   12. Make a list of all those things you never get round to, then enjoy crossing them off one by one. Typical tasks you could tackle include cleaning the oven, deleting old emails, sorting your computer storage to free space and save important photos and docs, sorting out the junk drawer, or valeting your car.
   13. Get into playing cards – with a real deck. There are several versions of solitaire you can try, as well as playing poker and blackjack with friends. (Or learning if you don’t know how.)
   14. Plant something to nurture in your garden, or even in a pot.
   15. Chew gum, and try different flavours to keep it interesting.
   16. Start keeping a record of your family tree – it’s a great way to reconnect with family too. After all, everyone loves to talk about themselves and show you pictures.
   17. Visit a street market with friends and see who can bag a bargain for under a set amount of cash. (Keep it low so it’s fun.) The second part of the challenge is to sell that item on for a profit.
   18. Indulge in some marathon sessions of your favourite video game.
   19. Binge on TV show box sets. Watching a good program back to back is a lot of fun.
   20. Meet new people. Networking sites like MeetUp.com are a great place to start to find interest groups based all around the world. Some are based around sharing social activities like a trip to the movies or a meal in a restaurant, others may be about connecting people with similar political views or hobbies. This is a good way to expand your friend network to include people who don’t know your background or relationship to weed.
   21. Volunteer work can be extremely satisfying. There are manual, retail, catering, animal and community based opportunities around, with tasks like litter picking, cat fostering and collecting for a food bank being just some of the range of useful things you could do.
   22. Learn something new. Check out what local education centres are offering, or take one of the many free courses available online. Who knows which roads doing such things will lead you down in the future.
   23. Organise or take part in a charity fundraising event. It could be anything from a fun run to a coffee morning, whatever showcases your skills and abilities.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s enough to provide some inspiration for sure. Don’t forget that you may not always be in the mood to do something, but it’s important to push through that mood, and keep trying different activities, rather than give in and risk boredom leading you back to smoking weed again.