Breaking resolutions an American tradition

Monday, Dec. 31, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

Wayne Brown, a smoldering cigarette between his fingers, stared at the television screen in his Las Vegas living room as the final seconds of 1992 ticked away in New York City's Times Square.

"That big white ball was about halfway down the pole when I looked at the cigarette and said, 'That's it, I'm done with you,' " Brown said. "I crushed that smoke right out on the carpet."

Brown, who was 58 at the time, made it his New Year's resolution to quit smoking after more than 40 years of a two-pack-a-day habit.

"Once I made up my mind, that was it," Brown said of his resolution nine years ago. "I never smoked again and I never will."

Tonight by the thousands, Americans will pledge to leave their vices in the year past and move into 2002 with a better life. But the traditional New Year's resolution often has the staying power of the celebratory champagne's fizz.

"Every year I say I'm going to get in shape," said Bobbie Heidelberger of Boulder City. "I'll probably make the same resolution this year, and just like the other years nothing will really change."

Psychologists say that people often set themselves up for failure by making resolutions that are too broad or unrealistic.

Heidelberger said her two sons vowed to get fit and joined a gym. The two young men stopped going to the health club almost before the ink dried on their membership contracts.

According to the Gallup Poll, the most popular resolutions made by Americans are to lose weight, quit smoking and meet financial goals. But keeping them -- or doing something about them -- is another matter altogether. A recent Gallup Poll found that 59 percent of Americans say they'd like to lose weight, but only 25 percent are actively trying to lose the weight.

Although according to a recent study at the University of Washington's Addictive Behaviors Research Center, people were more successful at starting healthy new behaviors than breaking bad habits. People who spent time considering their resolutions were also more successful than those who made last-minute vows, the study showed.

Brown, who quit smoking nine years ago, said the New Year's Eve countdown marked the culmination of several months of reflection.

"I was ready to quit, that's why it worked," Brown said.

Others hope to have the same success as enrollments in weight loss programs, fitness clubs and smoking cessation programs explode around the New Year, industry experts say. At the Sports Club of Las Vegas in Henderson, there's always a jump in both new enrollments and existing member traffic, said general manager Misty Chadwick.

"We see a three-fold increase," Chadwick said. "January and February are always huge months for us."

The average age of Sports Club members is 40, and 50 percent of the 5,000 members have children, Chadwick said.

"We get a lot of new members around this time who say, 'I promised my kids to take better care of myself,' " Chadwick said. "The new year is an ideal time to kick off a healthier lifestyle."

The Nevada Tobacco User's Helpline, a nonprofit agency that operates using state tobacco settlement funds, also sees a spike in calls and program enrollments around New Year's, officials said.

The agency offers a free, one-year tobacco cessation program, said spokeswoman Telisa Clevenger-Smith.

"Most people tell us they want to quit smoking and get fit for the New Year," Clevenger-Smith said. "We tell them the two things go hand-in-hand."