It’s that time of year again, Christmas is fast approaching and while you’re busy making plans for the big day, as well as furiously wrapping presents, have you given any thought to what your New Year’s resolutions are going to be yet?
New Year’s resolutions are a fantastic way of reflecting over the past year to see what we’ve done well and what we haven’t done so well. We can identify areas for growth and self-improvement. We can set resolutions for the coming year that could be health related such as to improve wellbeing, to cut down on alcohol consumption or quitting smoking.
They could be career related for example we might have a particular job goal we’d like to complete. They could be to do with getting fitter, losing weight or any other goal we would like to fulfil.
If you’re a smoker who’s been meaning to quit for years, or maybe you’re a smoker who has no intention of quitting, why not consider it?
Health benefits of quitting smoking
There are many different health benefits to stopping smoking and you will start to be able to see improvements within hours. Carbon monoxide and nicotine in your blood are reduced by half 8 hours after your last cigarette and oxygen levels return to normal. After 72 hours, breathing becomes easier as your bronchial tube starts to relax.
Over time you will start to notice you have more energy and your circulation will improve. Breathing problems such as wheezing, and coughing will lessen. As well as this, quitting smoking will mean your risk of developing 12 different types of cancer, including lung cancer, will be reduced.
People who smoke are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer than people who don’t smoke. The more years you have smoked for and the higher the number of cigarettes you have per day, has a direct correlation on your level of risk of developing lung cancer. It is also possible to get lung cancer from second hand smoke, so you can also help to prevent people around you from developing cancer too.
Quitting steadily
Smoking is addictive and a hard habit to break. If you feel you’re not able to quit smoking overnight, then there are steps you can take to achieve the end goal of quitting smoking.
If you feel like you’re not able to quit smoking overnight, it might be useful to make a plan to begin gradually reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke in a day. It can be useful to use medications which can include nicotine patches, gum, lozenges amongst other options. Click here to find out more about some of the most popular aids to quitting smoking.
Another method that could help you to cut down and eventually stop smoking altogether is to put limitations on yourself. This could be things like only smoking during certain hours of the day or only smoking outside and not in your home or car. A plan like this can really help to decrease your chances of failing.
It’s never too late to quit
Gordon felt perfectly healthy when he was called for a lung cancer screening, he had no symptoms at all. Luckily, he made an appointment and had the screening, which detected stage 1 lung cancer. He had surgery and a year on he’s cancer free. Read his story here.
Andrea had been smoking for 18 years when a cancer scare gave her the motivation she needed to finally quit. She found our Quit Support forum while browsing online for help. Click here to read her full story.
By stopping smoking you can add 10 years or more onto your life expectancy compared to if you continue to smoke. If you decide to start early on your journey to quitting, you can begin to take advantage of all of the health benefits that come with this, as well as being able to increase your Christmas budget with the money you’ve saved from buying less tobacco products. This should also mean you will go into the new year feeling positive and motivated to quit!
