Many New Year’s resolutions involve vowing to give up bad habits and replace them with better ones.
Many will be ready to turn over a new leaf in 2025, with people choosing New Year’s resolutions as a starting point.
The most common habit people want to quit is vaping or smoking, according to number crunchers at JeffBet, an online gambling site. JeffBett analyzed the average number of Google searches each month on a global scale for the past 12 months for terms associated with quitting habits, such as “how to stop overeating” and “how to quit vaping.” Smoking and vaping combined averaged nearly 160,000 hits.
Other habits people want to leave behind this New Year include poor eating practices, overspending and procrastination.
The ranking for the most popular habits to stop was determined by those with the highest average monthly search volume:
1. Vaping - 87,070 average monthly searches
2. Smoking - 72,750
3. Drinking - 40,100
4. Eating sugar - 28,600
5. Caffeine - 22,260
6. Nail biting - 17,140
7. Oversleeping - 8,400
8. Overeating - 8,250
9. Procrastinating - 8,230
10. Lying - 6,990
Making changes
Experts offer some advice for changing habits. To stop vaping, smoking or mindless eating, know your triggers and the routines that go with them. Whether you go for a vape after a meal, during a night out, or based on your emotional state, it’s important to recognize the patterns. Consider talking to a doctor and your loved ones to get resources and support with your journey. You can also use nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, sprays, and inhalers to help relieve the withdrawal symptoms. If going cold turkey feels intimidating, try to decrease it gradually.
With any bad habit, if the need comes from negative emotions, consider picking up a new hobby to keep your hands and mind busy, journaling to get your feelings out, and keeping an open line of communication with friends and family about how you’re feeling.
Staying away from places and people you associate with bad habits, as well as keeping the things you are avoiding out of your home, can also help. Try exercising as a way to help the urges.
To kick the habit of eating sugar, read labels of foods you consume to see how much sugar they contain, which will help you keep track of the amount you consume. You can also sweeten foods such as Greek yogurt and oatmeal yourself so you know just how much you are having.
Drinking water, eating a balanced diet, and getting enough sleep are a few more ways to help with the sugar cravings.
It’s important to drink water if you’re quitting caffeine, as staying hydrated will help with withdrawal. Also consider alternatives such as decaffeinated tea or coffee, herbal teas, or even sparkling water.
Getting enough sleep is also key as it could help reduce the need for caffeine and will leave you feeling better and more refreshed throughout the day.
On the other hand, to help you with constantly oversleeping, you can set an alarm for a reasonable time and turn off the snooze button. Additionally, making plans and having obligations can help with getting out of bed.
Sunlight can help regulate your sleep as well as doing regular exercise. If you live with others, ask them to help rouse you, as this could force you into getting up at a reasonable time.
A spokesperson for JeffBet said, “Having bad habits can be detrimental to both your physical and mental health. Setting resolutions for the new year can be a good way to start your journey to being better.
“It’s also a really admirable thing to do and whether you start small or throw yourself in at the deep end, just by starting you are doing a great job!”
Source: JeffBet.com
