Having a wish list for the new year is just an annual ritual for many of us. People list a number of goals and dreams, which they hope, given enough goodwill and a bit of luck, will come true.

I never had a wish list. Instead, I made one ardent New Year's resolution. The difference between the two is while the wish list accentuates the hope that something good will take place, the resolution underlines the spirited resolve that one will need to make it happen.

Resolution makers are prone to put diverse items on their lists, many of which have to do with healthy living.

I had only one resolution to make this year, one that is health-related but daunting enough to warrant my steadfast attention and willpower.

Yes, you got it: quit smoking.

I am one of those habitual smokers who got hooked young. I remember taking my first puff on university campus as I thought it was the mark of a man to have a cigarette dangling over the corner of the mouth.

To me and my friends, the image of cigar-smoking Churchill was the ultimate in lifestyle. We were literally puffed up with pride. I craved to look smarter and more sophisticated.

It can be just that easy for a cigarette aficionado to get started and get addicted.

However, it's disturbing to read reports that teenagers today try their first cigarette four or five years earlier than their peers did in 1984, down from the age of 22 to 18 for boys and from 25 down to 20 for girls.

I will hate to see them make smoking cessation their annual New Year's resolution just as I have been doing all these years.

I have in fact lost count of the number of attempts I have made to kick the habit. But I can say for sure that I've broken this resolution as many times as I've made it.

But this year, I hope some external factor, coupled with my faltering resolve and willpower, will help me stop smoking.

Starting January 1 this year, Hong Kong, where I live and work, has enforced a sweeping ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces, restaurants and bars as well as beaches, stadiums, parks and playgrounds. Offenders are subject to a maximum penalty of HK$5,000 ($649), one of the heaviest in the world.

The only place which remains out of the ambit of the banned areas is the privacy of one's home. Well, home, too, is a forbidden place for me. My wife and kid have made it a strictly no-no zone.

I thought it high time I made a choice once and for all a choice for good. To get myself prepared for the painful change, I stocked up on a whole variety of melon and sunflower seeds that I figured might help keep my hands and mouth busy when I feel the urge to light up. It is said that cracking seeds can be as addictive as smoking.

Well, this sort of addiction doesn't kill, does it?

So far, it seems to have worked, successful in the sense that my daily tobacco intake has scaled down to four cigarettes from about 10. In the past, I have tried nicotine replacement therapies, but none worked as well as this seed-nibbling treatment. The only side effects seem to be the blisters that long hours of seed cracking can cause to your lips and the tip of your tongue. That is a price I can afford to pay, compared with further exposure to the deadly diseases that smoking can trigger.

Having said all this and munched enough melon seeds, hopefully, bidding adieu to smoking will not be on my next New Year's resolution list.

Email: zouhr@chinadaily.com.hk

(China Daily 01/12/2007 page10)