With only two weeks left in 2012, people are already beginning to think about new year's resolutions and for smokers that may mean trying to kick the habit.
Since New Year's Day falls on a Tuesday this year, Northern Health population health tobacco reduction coordinator Nancy Viney is encouraging smokers to give quitting a shot - even for just 24 hours. A province-wide contest sponsored by the BC Lung Association launched earlier this month offers prizes to people who quit smoking on the first Tuesday of every month.
"Even if you're not ready to quit, you might quit for 24 hours and get some confidence to quit permanently," Viney said.
The contest, run through the website QuitNow.ca, offers five $50 Starbucks gift cards to people in B.C. who pledge to give quitting a try on a designated "tobacco-free Tuesday."
It often takes multiple attempts for someone to quit, but Viney said some people may have more success if they try over the holidays because they're already out of their normal routines and there are many natural distractions to help those quitting avoid the urge to start again.
"Breaking up your daily routine is really important, because smoking is integrated into your normal behaviour, it's an automatic behaviour," Viney said. "If you light up a cigarette as soon as you get up in the morning or as soon as you finish a meal or as soon as soon as you drive to work or as soon as you have a break, then breaking up your routine is a really good way to quit smoking where you won't miss it as much if you're doing other things."
However the holidays can also present some additional challenges, especially for those who find the season more stressful than normal. Viney said it's important to have support from friends and family to make a quitting attempt successful. She also suggested eating healthy and getting exercise can make it easier to make a stop smoking effort stick.
"If you're trying to quit smoking, watching other people smoke or smelling smoke on people can be quite a trigger to make you want to smoke," she said. "So looking at having a conversation with the people around you to see if can maybe go outside to smoke or even plan to quit together."
In order to get over the withdrawal symptoms, Viney said using a product like a nicotine patch or inhaler could help.
In 2013, Viney said Northern Health will continue with existing stop smoking campaigns such as getting all health care providers in the region to offer quitting resources to patients. Northern Health will also promote the stop smoking before surgery program, which aims to improve health outcomes by getting people to quit in the weeks leading up to a surgical procedure.
