Resolution List

Forget about what you should have done yesterday; think about today. Each moment presents a brand new opportunity to begin again. Don’t let another one pass without making the most important New Year resolution of your life. It’s time to take action. You know it. Give up the habit that actively works to shorten you life every time you do it. It is never too late to start anew; it is never to late to quit smoking and give up tobacco for good.

Even if you have tried before, and before that and before that, your past attempts to quit are valuable experiences. You learned what didn’t work for you. Now you’re ready to figure out what will. There are many products to help you quit smoking. The how to quit question has been answered with a variety of methods to suit individual needs. You just need to find the product that is tailored to your needs. The best person to help you do that is your health care provider.

Methods range from prescription products to over the counter products. There are online programs, ebooks, audio books, websites, support groups, both community and online. People with support systems are most successful, so go ahead and announce your resolution to your friends, family and co-workers. Enlist their support; ask them not to smoke around you, not to leave cigarettes where you can see them and to encourage your efforts.

The benefits to quitting are numerous; they begin immediately and continue every day for the rest of your life including:

• Within 20 minutes your blood pressure lowers as does your heart rate.
• Within 12 hours the carbon monoxide in your blood returns to normal levels.
• Within 2 weeks to 3 months your lung function increases and your circulation improves.
• Your breath is sweeter.
• Your teeth get whiter.
• Your clothes and your hair no longer reek of smoke.
• The yellow cast that resided on your fingertips and fingernails disappears.
• Food tastes better.
• Your nose recoups its ability to smell.
• Climbing the stairs and other forms of exertion do not leave you breathless.
• Within 1 to 9 months the cilia in your lungs begin to regain normal function and keep your lungs cleaner, which reduces coughing and risk of infection.
• An year later you have reduced danger of coronary heart disease to half.
• In two to five years you have reduced your stroke risk to that of a non-smoker.
• Five years after quitting you have reduced your risk of mouth, throat and other cancers by half.

 

You will have begun to gain years of your life back that you would have lost had you continued smoking.

And if you thought that list of benefits was worth it, you will be excited to know it is only a partial list of benefits! There are many more positive returns for abandoning this negative and unhealthy habit.

Besides your physical benefits, you have reduced the risk of illness, including cancer, for the people who live and work with you. There are financial benefits as well. The most obvious being the actual cost of smoking, and the reduction in medical fees for all the illnesses you won’t be getting. Also being a non-smoker may qualify you for discounts on your health and life insurance.

So while the New Year festivities are being planned, pause long enough to make the most important New Year resolution, the one to quit smoking. Do it and you will be around to plan the next New Year’s party, and the one after that, and the one after that, and many more after that!