former smoker

katarina005

I smoked for many years in the past and now being 40 and trying to get into shape I feel it. While I know it takes time, I feel like my stamina for high intensity things like running sucks. Is this just being old? I see other people older than me going strong and I know that smoking hurt my cardiovascular.
I want to know how to improve that and gain more energy. Is there a certain type of cardio?

Juicing? My diet I think is ok.. also I'm a vegetarian and eat fairly healthy.

canary_girl

First, congrats on quitting smoking. Good for you!!!

I smoked for many years, quit around ten years ago. Cardio hurt for a while, but now not at all. In fact it takes a lot for me to be out of breath. You'll get there, it'll just take time. I run HIIT and spin.

callsitlikeiseeit

i quit a year ago and am 37. i first started working out in january- could barely do 10 minutes on the elliptical, now can do an hour without much effort and have started branching out to other equipment as well. For me, i felt it was more being fat and inactive and unhealthy that made it hard, than being a former smoker. LOLOLOL

theres a woman in my zumba class who smokes and she kicks MAJOR butt in there (and does several classes a week, i believe)

katarina005

ladies thanks for your encouragement! I was thinking I just need to push through it. I did have a breakthrough and was able to get myself on the stairmaster the other day..love that!

I ate a lot of crap before (baking and too much carbs)..and really trying to be healthy now

scottb81

As a former long term smoker I ran a 20:06 5K , 1:35:25 1/2 marathon, and 3:32:12 marathon over the age of 50.

Your lungs will recover in a few months as long as you don't have COPD.