Smoking and Exercise?

I wasn't a heavy smoker to begin with (probably one or two cigarettes every 3 or so months) but I decided to take a break...(im not that sure if I'm totally quitting for the rest of my life but I probably will because I got tired of not being able to breath). So far it's been about 2 months since I had my last cigarette and I've been good and I feel much better when I'm jogging, sometimes I keep waiting for me to start getting out of breath and I'm finding myself more and more being able to sustain longer periods of time without feeling like I'm about to fall over from shortness of breath.

I have been smoke free for 14 months and in that time put on approx. 20 lbs because I did not exercise. It was hard to quit but is almost as hard to loss the weight. If you are quitting do what you can in the exercise catagory. It will definetely make quitting easier and eventually exercise easier. I know you can do it.

I quit cold turkey about 5 months ago. I'd been smoking about a pack a day for well over 10 years. I definitely had a smoker's cough and a smoker's laugh...you know, that weezing sound that comes out that turns into a cough by the time you are done. For the first few weeks it was hard... but to tell you the truth, I don't really miss it anymore. Yes, there are moments - like when I'm around my friends who still smoke. Sometimes I still think it smells good. Weird, I know. But for the most part I've kind of forgotten what it feels like to be a smoker or to have that need for a cigarette. About a week after I quit I started the C25K running program. The first couple of weeks I was really struggling. After I finished running I would definitely cough quite a bit and struggled to breath. Part of it was my general lack of fitness but mostly it was because of smoking. Now I can run for about 35 minutes straight and breathing is so much easier - I don't cough at all and I just have greater lung capacity while running. I do other types of cardio too - Zumba, elliptical machine, biking... and I feel like they are all much easier after quitting. Oh, and food tastes better too, which is a definite plus.

I give myself a break on the weekend. I smoke usually on fridays or saturdays when i go out, but i try not to smoke so many cigarettes. I dont smoke during the week because my fitness levels come down and i dont have as much resistance as i do when i dont smoke. I do spinning, running and rope jumping, if i smoked during the week i couldnt do any of my workouts. My goal is to quit for good though.