This is a guest post by Andrew Thalmann. If you want to guest post or contribute your story, please read our submission guidelines.
1 breath. 2 breaths. 3 breaths. I can’t believe I’m still breathing. I just finished the first 2.5 mile non-stop run in my entire life. I’ve been a smoker since I was 18 and I smoked intermittently between the ages of 11 and 14, so I was never a big runner. On June 27th, 2010 I became a non-smoker. Since then the journey has been quite an adventure. Over at my own blog which I built for the primary purpose of helping others learn how to stop smoking, I’ve written about things I CAN do now that I’ve stopped smoking. Here at Quit Smoking for Good Blog though I’d like to talk about some things I was able to STOP doing after I quit smoking.
1.) Snoring
I know I still snore sometimes. Usually after drinking a few to many beverages containing alcohol. But my normal, sober sleep, is much less plagued by snoring. Often I’d simply stop breathing for a minute or two. That really scared my girlfriend. All in all, it’s definitely a major benefit in my opinion. Nobody likes to hear others snore afterall!
2.) Sleeping All Day
The truth is, sometimes I still sleep all day. I just enjoy it. When I was a smoker though (especially in college), I often slept all day because I just felt to crappy to get out of bed. In large part this miserable feature of my life faded soon after I stopped smoking. I can’t complain. I like seeing the sun rise and feeling healthy and alive.
3.) Hacking up a lung
Not every smoker I know has a really bad cough, but I most certainly did. After getting out of the shower, while sleeping, walking to fast, running, going up stairs… You get the point. Basically any physical activity or movement lead to a terrible coughing fit. Sometimes it would come while I was just sitting there. I got used to it eventually, but every once in awhile I’d be left spinning and teary eyed from the intensity. I was shocked at how fast it went away after I stopped smoking.
4.) Wasting Money
This one is pretty straight forward. I don’t think any one who smokes actually ENJOYS spending money on cigarettes. It’s a habit that must be fed though. The moment a $20 bill lasted a few extra days longer because I wasn’t spending it on cigarettes was the moment I knew I had made the right decision. I started saving whatever I could! Soon perhaps I’ll use it for something exciting.
5.) Ignoring Other Bad Habits
Conquering one bad habit is like stumbling through a small little doorway, and into a world of limitless possibilities. After I had some success in my quest to stop smoking, I immediately began trying to prune other bad habits from my life (and build better ones!). It became a new kind of addiction. My lifestyle began to change quite a bit, which I did not really expect when I threw down that last cigarette. I was just trying to get healthier. Who knew what amazing changes it would lead to!
If you’ve stopped smoking, what are some things that you don’t have to do anymore? If you still smoke, what are some things you WISH you didn’t have to do?
Author Bio: Andrew Thalmann is the author of the blog Killing the Habit : How to Stop Smoking. His goal is to help his friends, and anyone else who has the desire, stop smoking. Andrew became a non-smoker on June 27th of 2010.
