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Stop Smoking in the New Year

SPARTA, Wisconsin (WXOW) – With New Year's Eve just days away, the time for new year's resolutions is upon us.

For some, one resolution might be giving up smoking.

Ben Crenshaw, who's a tobacco treatment specialist at the Mayo Health Systems Clinic in Sparta, says smoking is not just a bad habit, it's a chemical reaction, which is why it's so difficult to kick.

He says each person's brain has little receptors in it.

In smokers, those receptors often respond to nicotine or tobacco, and thus tend to trigger cigarette cravings at times of the day when they tend to light up.

So Crenshaw says the key to beating the addiction, is to change up your daily routine.

"Just try to alter those triggers a bit," he says. "So if I go out and smoke on my work break, I can try taking a different break time or going somewhere different."

"A lot of people enjoy smoking after a meal," Crenshaw adds. "So they can try to make that look different, you know, by having something planned afterwards.