My Dark Secret

UnworthyPapaLazaru

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

I'm a smoker.

I'm currently attempting to give up and it has now been 1 week and 1 day without a tab. Im finding it relativlely easy. In fact, I didnt plan to give up, its just kind of happening. My baccy ran out and I just thought, 'I'll not buy any more', if you dont have baccy you cant smoke can you! I was never a heavy smoker but the test for me was drinking, and I have now been out twice, once for a few beers and the other I cant remember coming home. I do know I didnt smoke though so that is a 'pass'.

I was reading some stuff today about the benefits of non smoking and one of them was 'a 10% increase in lung capacity after 3-9 months' - that is as good as a programe of EPO as far as the bike is concerned!! Bring it on!!

Anyone else giving up/given up? How did you find it? Did you hit any stages that it got difficult?

Im still going. How are the others that mentioned stopping doing??

Ive passed the three month mark and am waiting on my 10% increase in lung capacity!! :shock:

DonDaddyD

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

I'm a smoker.

Anyone else giving up/given up? How did you find it? Did you hit any stages that it got difficult?

There are years of my life lost to smoking and alcohol - I blame Kurt Cobain and my damn Alleyns school friends, oh how you infected my teenage years. Never touched drugs though, which comes as a real surprise to me - but I need not go there as there are lawyers on this site... Weirdly my friends from state school didn't drink, smoke or take even half the amount as my private school friends did - makes you think....

Riding my bike helped me quit smoking, once the shite was out of my lungs I realised what it was like to breath normally. I passed my driving test to stop drinking so when I go out, if I drive I won't drink, which helps A LOT!

I hit stages of difficulty all the time, for me its lifestyle. My friends like a drink - not binge (all the time) drinking we're a little more sophisticated than that. If I drink I'll want to smoke.

Also my job can be stressfull, a smoke was/is a great way to de-stress. But I've substituted that with cycling and other techniques.

greg66_tri_v2.0

My father smoked 20-40 day from 16 to when he retired. So I grew up in a smoking household. Even now I remember very distinctively the smells: the nasty acrid smoke from the end of a burning cigarette, the smoother quite nice smell of exhaled smoke, and the quite pleasant smell of ash.

Despite this, I've never smoked. I used to hate going ou to a pub, and coming home with a suit and a head of hair that stank of fag smoke (always the acrid variety, never the exhaled stuff). I've probably had no more that 3 or 4 cigarettes in my life, and only inhaled (thank you, Bill Clinton) half of them. Lucky me.

Ten years after giving up, my father is now pretty much housebound. He has to have an oxygen tube up his nose for large parts of the day (he can't sleep with in in place). He can't walk up a flight of stairs without sitting at the top catching his breath for five minutes afterwards. Chest infections really turn him over. It was only about 5 or 6 years ago that he was able to run around the garden with our kids when they were little. Now they're old enough to run properly, he can't walk around the garden with them, let alone run.

Moral (as if it needs to be pointed out): don't smoke.

Jay dubbleU

Gave up about five years ago after smoking on and off for about 30 years - I decided I wasn't going to put any more tax into the governments pockets and just stopped - took me about 12 months to really feel the benefits - lots of coughing in the morning but it gradually stopped as my lung started to function properly again - its definately worth it - sense of smell and taste both improve, skin colour improves and you feel generall much better. I notice I seem to have had fewer colds as well and the house and my clothes don't smell of smoke all the time. Good luck UPL - stick with it

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Thats a thing! My skin has been awful since I stopped. I have been using *shhhh* *checks over shoulder* moisturiser *sshhhh* and its not done much to help. I was belmish free as a smoker!

DonDaddyD

Greg66 wrote:

My father smoked 20-40 day from 16 to when he retired. So I grew up in a smoking household. Even now I remember very distinctively the smells: the nasty acrid smoke from the end of a burning cigarette, the smoother quite nice smell of exhaled smoke, and the quite pleasant smell of ash.

Despite this, I've never smoked. I used to hate going ou to a pub, and coming home with a suit and a head of hair that stank of fag smoke (always the acrid variety, never the exhaled stuff). I've probably had no more that 3 or 4 cigarettes in my life, and only inhaled (thank you, Bill Clinton) half of them. Lucky me.

Ten years after giving up, my father is now pretty much housebound. He has to have an oxygen tube up his nose for large parts of the day (he can't sleep with in in place). He can't walk up a flight of stairs without sitting at the top catching his breath for five minutes afterwards. Chest infections really turn him over. It was only about 5 or 6 years ago that he was able to run around the garden with our kids when they were little. Now they're old enough to run properly, he can't walk around the garden with them, let alone run.

Moral (as if it needs to be pointed out): don't smoke.

I respect you and your life experience. This story leaves me slightly uneasy.

It's not that I don't disagree with you, we should all strive to live healthy... it's just... I dunno...

My Grandfather is in a similar condition to you Dad and he doesn't smoke. Just made me think and feel sad... at the fact that we all have to grow old...

wgwarburton

DonDaddyD:

> Just made me think and feel sad... at the fact that we all have to grow old...

Growing old isn't so bad when you consider the alternative...

Anyway- you don't feel old, other people think you are, and you find that it's harder to stay fit & healthy but inside, you're just the same. A blessing or a tragedy, depending on how you look at it.

Use your health, enjoy it- it's all you have...

Cheers,
W.