Better Health & Living
Ditch Your Worst Habits
These websites can help you quit smoking, kick junk food, and even get out of credit card debt
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Some bad habits are dangerous to your health. Others annoy the heck out of friends, family, and co-workers. Some keep you from reaching your health and financial goals. They’re all hard to break without help, but these websites can come to your rescue.
Quit Smoking
www.smokefree.gov was created by the National Cancer Institute with the help of other organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society. The site lists reasons for quitting and gives you step-by-step instructions for how to do it and stay smoke free. Click on “Get Expert Help” for links to other websites, instant messaging, and toll-free numbers for groups that offer help. For more motivation, read the online booklets, such as “Forever Free,” for smokers who have recently quit, and “Clearing the Air,” for all smokers who want to kick the habit.
www.quitsmokingsupport.com is a butt-kicking community that has been online since 1989 providing advice, information, and support with more than 300 pages of articles and tips. The site addresses everything from the immediate benefits of quitting to withdrawal symptoms. You can sign up for the free newsletter and read the helpful blog entries. Since there’s no medical supervision of the site, check the advice with your doctor before starting any program.
Stop Drinking Too Much
www.niaaa.nih.gov is the official site of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and features news and research. Read the pamphlet “Cutting Down on Drinking” or visit one of the age-targeted sites for college students and teens, including www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov, which has a link to a blood alcohol content calculator that lets you determine how much is too much based on your weight, the type of alcohol you’re drinking, and how long you’ve been drinking. At www.thecoolspot.gov, animation and quizzes offer information for middle-school and high-school students.
www.hazelden.org is the site of one of the premier substance abuse treatment centers in the country. Look for its online alcohol screening test to determine whether you’ve crossed the line from social drinking to abuse.
Get More Sleep
www.sleepfoundation.org, the site of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), offers hundreds of tips for better sleep. Recent studies suggest that sleep deficits (which affect many of us) can lead to health consequences such as heart disease, diabetes, and premature death. The NSF also sponsors www.sleepforkids.org, a site for youngsters.
Trash the Junk Food
www.cspinet.org, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, can help if you’re looking for good reasons to give up junk food. Sometimes dubbed the “food police,” the organization exposes the fat and unhealthy side of everything from movie popcorn to Chinese takeout. Check the Nutrition Action Healthletter for a list of the 10 worst foods as well as the super foods you should be eating.
How-tos for Other Habits
www.wikihow.com is a collaborative writing repository with more than 23,000 articles written, edited, and monitored by people all over the world. Search for many habit-breaking tips, such as how to quit smoking, stop biting your fingernails, or stop cracking your knuckles. Advice on not biting your nails, for example, includes having manicures or covering your real nails with artificial ones. The information is edited by members of the community, but the site isn’t sponsored by medical professionals, so check the advice with your doctor.
www.ehow.com explains how to do almost everything, including overcoming those bad habits. Use the search box to find tips on specific habits; for example, searching “how to stop procrastinating” brings up tips such as breaking a task into smaller, easier pieces and giving yourself a set time period, such as an hour, to work on it. Desperate to quit maxing out your credit card? Search “how to get out of credit card debt.” Tips include budgeting and prioritizing your expenditures and paying more than the minimum payment on the highest-interest card and the minimum monthly amount on the lowest-interest card.
Maximize Online Help
Use your computer, an online calendar, or a Web journal (such as www.livejournal.com) to track your progress each day by entering notes on your successes or challenges. Sign up for support groups for encouragement and tips.
Eileen Buckholtz is president of Technology Concepts, a Web design and e-marketing company; a professor of e-business for the University of Phoenix Online; and the author of more than a dozen computer books. She enjoys demystifying the Web for her readers.
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