Reasons to kick the habit this season

Yellow teeth, smelly clothes, spending 10 minutes out in the pouring rain because you can't smoke inside -- all reasons to put down the pack. One more reason: $8.6 million.

The money -- which Gov. Matt Blunt recommended be as part of an $11.6 million gift to his health-care initiative -- will create a smoking cessation program for people covered under MO HealthNet. For those who aren't covered, $1 million will go toward the Missouri Tobacco Quitline (800-784-8669).

The helpline serves as a stop-smoking sponsor you can call for coaching. You also get a personalized plan and a "quit kit."

The helpline is in its third year and is available in both English and Spanish. After you sign up -- about a 10 minute process -- you're assigned a Quit Coach you can call any time between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Pick up a lighter? No! Pick up the phone.

You and Coach also decide on times for him/her to call you. He/she offers tips and words of encouragement to quit. Just imagine: a free personal trainer saying "Come on, Sport! Stop that smoking!"

After the initial sign up you also get workbooks. No, not grade-school workbooks with fill-in-the-blank exercises. They just offer tips and techniques to help you stop smoking. Put one in the breakfast nook or wherever you used to keep your cigarettes, so when you instinctively reach for a stick, you find a book instead.

You and your coach also talk about the habits and patterns associated with filling the ashtray that make you want to smoke.

Cape Girardeau does offer help for those who want more than a voice over the phone line. There's no free Smokers Anonymous group, but some hospitals offer smoking cessation programs to help you with that New Year's resolution to stop smoking you just remembered.

Type "quit smoking" into a Google search engine and you get 14.2 million returns. Even clicking on the 10th O in the Goooooooooogle gives you legitimate sites to help you stop smoking.

Smokefree.gov tries to help by telling smokers to START before they quit.

• Set a quit date.
• Tell family, friends and co-workers
• Anticipate and plan for the challenges you'll face
• Remove tobacco products from your home, car and work
• Talk to your doctor if you need more help

That's millions of dollars in telephone numbers, dozens of support groups and thousands of Web sites that provide reasons and resources to quit. Name three reasons you shouldn't.

Have a quest? Features editor Chris Harris is ready to hunt down the answer. Send questions to charris@semissourian.com, post on semissourian.com/blogs under "Quest for the Healthy Grail" or c/o Quest, 301 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63703.