Smoking..Healthy or Not?

joecollins9385

Someone posted on a thread yesterday something to this effect. "Smoking on your way to and from the gym means that you are not healthy."

I am a smoker (about a pack a day). I am 6' tall, weighed in today at 185 lbs. (5 lbs. from my goal). I work a physically demanding job. I lift weights. I play sports. I eat healthy. I drink pretty much just water and protein shakes.

Since I started my new weight lifting routine, I have seen changes in muscle size, strength and stamina. So today, I decided to put myself to a test. After my 90 lifting workout (upper body), I got on a treadmill at the gym and started running at a moderate (6 mph) pace. I told myself I would keep going until I could not go anymore or when I got to 60 minutes. When I got to 60 minutes, I still felt pretty good so I kept going until I got to 10 miles (1:28:53).

For me smoking is not a question of my willpower. I kicked my heroin addiction and cigarettes are not nearly that bad. I simply do not want to quit at this time.

I smoked a cigarette on my way to the gym this morning and the Newport I fired up on the way out tasted like a little piece of heaven.

So what do you think? Am I healthy or not?

melaniecheeks

You'd be healthier if you stopped smoking!

Well done on beating your past addictions, though.

AlyssaJoJo

Thank you! I smoke - not as much - but I still do. This working out and eating right is something that I'm slowly getting used to and starting to really love but I gave up a lot of unhealthy habits already. I see a doctor - my tests are better than good besides my weight - but I'm just not really ready to give up smoking yet. It's very hard to have some people make it seem like because I smoke my working out and my eating better dont count when I feel like they do. Walking around town is easier, doing work outs that I used to not be able to do are easier, and because of changing what I eat slowly the scale is showing a lower number.

Plus - in all honesty - as soon as I'm done working out I have a cigarette and I think it's possiblly the best cigarette ever.

drmerc

At least you'll look swole when you die of cancer

BrettPGH

I smoke on the way to and from the gym. Clearly it's not healthy. I hope to quit. But I don't kid myself that it's a good habit or anything.

It just keeps me from killing large groups of people is all.

joecollins9385

At least you'll look swole when you die of cancer

eh, i plan on dying of liver failure, not cancer.

auroranflash

You'd be healthier if you stopped smoking!

Well done on beating your past addictions, though.

^ All this. I also still smoke but since the 1st of the year, I have not smoked a single cigarette while at work. I'll smoke after work once I get home, but it's progress. I used to smoke around a half a pack a day before 5pm. I look forward to quitting entirely and I am gradually bringing myself to a place mentally to be able to do that.

Best of luck.

jcstanton

You'd be healthier if you stopped smoking!

Well done on beating your past addictions, though.

^^^Agreed. No one has said that you can't be healthy while smoking. However, there is mountains of clinical evidence that shows how smoking affects your health in the LONG TERM. It may not be affecting your health now, but you are still relatively young. My cousin has been a smoker since his early teens, and at only 45 years old, he was just diagnosed with COPD and chronic abscesses in his left lung. He also suffered a collapsed lung several years ago. His doctor told him that, had he quit smoking years ago, he would not be having these problems now. My grandfather was a pipe smoker and lung cancer killed him in 1985 at the age of 58. My other grandfather suffered from heart disease brought on by years of smoking. If you have a strong family medical history (not alot of heart and lung diseases or cancers), you may be okay...but most likely, in the long run, it will take more from you than you get from that temporary feeling of euphoria you experience when you light up. It's a gamble, and the odds are not in your favor if you keep smoking.

joecollins9385

For the record, I do plan on quitting smoking once I reach one year of sobriety. So I will smoke my last cigarette (hopefully) 4/21/2013.

Everend

1/2 a pack a day here, sometimes more. I am in fairly good shape and I work hard at it. Yes I would like to quit but I would also like to avoid jail time for mass murder. Smoking keeps me from hurting people

auroranflash

For the record, I do plan on quitting smoking once I reach one year of sobriety. So I will smoke my last cigarette (hopefully) 4/21/2013.

Keep us updated, we're rooting for you. :flowerforyou:

ally1130

For me it's not a question of how I look, how fast I run, or anything of that nature. It's about whether or not the things you do for your body are good or bad. Smoking is bad for your body period. I smoked for several years, never worked out, and ate whatever I wanted. I was skinny, tan, and pretty but nothing close to healthy. The fact that you work out and eat well means that you are doing healthy things for your body but you are also doing unhealthy things for your body. I don't want to do anything that could possibly lead to me leaving this Earth, my daughter, or future grand children any sooner than I have to. That's why I don't smoke. It depends on what your goals are, everyone is different. If you think it's okay for you to smoke and you believe that you feel as good as you can then go for it, it's your life.

linz1125

You may be healthy now, but who knows what will happen after 10+ more years of smoking. There are immediate and long term effects of smoking, and though you don't feel the immediate ones now, you are still at risk.

I watched my mother in law die of lung cancer, and now my father in law's arteries are hardening and he is at risk for heart attack, stroke, and many other things because he won't quit. You can't convince me that cigarettes aren't unhealthy.

Here's what I don't understand - you are doing so much to put yourself in a great place health-wise...why destroy most of your efforts with smoking?! Yes, you ran 10 miles...do you think if you didn't smoke you could improve your time or even go further?
I don't get how you can be so health-conscious about being at a good weight, lifting, and doing cardio when you are still smoking. I know I will probably get flamed for that.

If you have no desire to quit, that's fine...but I wouldn't make the argument that you are very healthy. You have elements in your life that are healthy, and some that are not...as do I.

Congrats on kicking the other bad habits/addictions - I know that is a big accomplishment. Hopefully one day you will have the desire to quit smoking too.

_Timmeh_

For the record, I do plan on quitting smoking once I reach one year of sobriety. So I will smoke my last cigarette (hopefully) 4/21/2013.

Best of luck to you. And congrats on the sobriety.

Brizoeller

One year of sobriety...didn't you say you planned on dying of liver failure? I'm confused. Sober from just heroine or in general. This is the curiosity in me, sorry

WendyTerry420

1/2 a pack a day here, sometimes more. I am in fairly good shape and I work hard at it. Yes I would like to quit but I would also like to avoid jail time for mass murder. Smoking keeps me from hurting people

:laugh: :smokin:

kingofcrunk

For the record, I do plan on quitting smoking once I reach one year of sobriety. So I will smoke my last cigarette (hopefully) 4/21/2013.

Just do that then. It doesn't matter what other people think you should do or what other people think is best for you, its what you want to do.

joejccva71

OP, you are at a much higher risk of CVD and CHD regardless if you eat clean and workout over someone that eats McDonalds every day but doesn't smoke.

hughtwalker

I gave up smoking 16 years ago - if I ever lose the 3 stone I put on I'll feel SO MUCH better - so I lost 1 of them.

jcstanton

For the record, I do plan on quitting smoking once I reach one year of sobriety. So I will smoke my last cigarette (hopefully) 4/21/2013.

Best of luck to you. And congrats on the sobriety.

Says the guy with the bottle of booze as his profile pic. LOL :laugh:

RainHoward

All these posts sound so familiar to me. I smoked for 20 years. A pack a day or more. I justified it just as you all do. Told myself and the people around me all the same things. May kill me but it keeps you alive, I can quite whenever I want, it's not affecting my health that much. None of it's true though. You may not feel like it's affecting you much right now but I can tell you from personal experience, once you've quit them for a while you will notice a remarkable difference. Subtle at first, but after a couple months you will see a huge change.

I quit for me, my kids and my account balance. But I had to be at a point in life where I WANTED to quit, and I did. Mostly. I smoke one or three a month instead of 20 or more a day and I can't count the ways I feel better and different. But it's a choice only you can make.