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There's no better time to quit than Weedless Wednesday

Byline/Source: ALAN FERRIS MERCURY STAFF
Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Photo: DAVE CARTER, GUELPH MERCURY

Being able to stay indoors on a cold day is one incentive to quit smoking tomorrow on the annual Weedless Wednesday. Photo If you've broken your "quit smoking" New Year's resolution already, tomorrow is another day. The annual Weedless Wednesday is a second chance at a puff-free life, and the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit has an added incentive to butt out for good. You can treat tomorrow as a training session for the Ontario 2005 Quit Smoking Contest, which is being promoted by local health units. The contest will see someone in the province win a 2005 Ford Mustang. But giving up smoking isn't straightforward.

"The important thing is to kick the smoking habit without picking up another one," said Dora Eaglesham, who directs the tobacco-use prevention program for the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit. "Many smokers who have tried to quit report the tendency to replace smoking with eating. "If this becomes part of your daily routine, this kind of ongoing snacking can become excessive. You may have quit the bad habit of smoking, but you have replaced it with another bad habit -- overeating." A brisk walk or some stretches can fill that "activity" time that smokers use, Eaglesham suggested.

Carrying a bottle of water can give you something to do with your mouth instead of smoking. If food becomes your cigarette substitute, you should eat a balanced breakfast, then have available snacks like carrots, other vegetables, popcorn and pretzels to fill the gaps during the day, she said.

Matt Lowe -- who gave his age as "not 50 yet"-- said he has tried to stop smoking before and has given up. "I started when I was 15 and I tried to stop twice. It didn't last," the Guelph smoker said yesterday. "With every place you work being smoke-free, it's really bad in winter because you have to go outside to smoke. I used to work at a hospital and I'd see patients taking their intravenous carts outside with them so they could smoke. It's tough to stop."

Jill Binder is a coach who loves being on a losing team. As "Canada's Stop Smoking Coach", she sees this year's Weedless Wednesday as an opportunity to help people quit smoking while raising funds for tsunami victims in south Asia. "I'll be here all day for people who want to quit," she said. People are being asked to donate the $8 they would have spent on a pack of cigarettes that day to the Red Cross or another similar charity to aid victims and survivors of the Dec. 26 disaster. For more information, visit www.quitforaday.com. Binder said "cigarettes are not the problem" with stopping the habit.

"Making resolutions, especially for New Year's, is a really bad thing to do. If they don't make it, they have something else to beat themselves up over. If they actually do it for themselves and set a date, there isn't that kind of disappointment and discouragement," Binder said in an interview from Toronto. "It's important to really want to quit. Life throws stresses at you. Those who started smoking as a teenager don't know how to deal with life without smoking. They need to learn how to deal with stress and what the roots of their distress are."

Binder said anyone can quit smoking, even if they haven't been successful on previous attempts. "No matter how many times they've tried before, they have to start fresh. They have to believe that this is the time that it is going to happen. "There's no half-way with this, because if you do, you are just setting yourself back every time. People always tell me why it's a bad time to quit. When is a good time: never?

"Do it and stick to it." The Ontario Quit Smoking Contest runs from Feb. 1 to March 1. Each participating smoker must register and will require a "smoking buddy" -- 19 or over -- who will testify that the "quitter" stuck to the rules.

Those eligible for a prize must take a urine test to prove they stopped smoking.

Entry forms must be received by Jan. 31. In addition to the Mustang, there are seven home theatre prizes available, one for each region in the province. "Buddies" are also eligible for prizes.

For more information on the contest, contact Eaglesham at 821-2370 ext. 2349. The contest attracts around 380 participants each year.