Why Quitting Is Important. (Part 2)

I don't think I need to go on. Just read my past post, Why Quitting Is Important. My husband, Doug, quit smoking on Saturday, September 21st, of 2001, just seven months after we married. He just hit one decade of being smoke free.

If you quit RIGHT NOW:

• In 20 minutes...your blood pressure will return to normal
• In 8 hours...the carbon monoxide levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal.
• In 48 hours...your chance of having a heart attack will begin its long decline. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of taste and smell will return to a normal level.
• In 72 hours...your bronchial tubes will relax, and your overall energy level will rise.
• In 2 weeks...your circulation will increase, and it will continue to improve for the next ten weeks.
• In 3 to 9 months...coughs, wheezing, and breathing problems will dissipate as your lung capacity improves by 10%.
• In 1 year...your risk of having a heart attack will have now dropped by half.
• In 5 years...your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non smoker.
• In 10 years...your risk of lung cancer will have returned to that of a non smoker.
• In 15 years...your risk of heart attack will have returned to that of a non smoker.

If you smoke, it takes fifteen years for your body to recover! If you quit right now and you're in your early to mid thirties, by the time your body repairs itself from smoking, you will be in your fifties, and you still have a chance of a long and healthy life. If you're in your twenties, even better. You will reach your mid thirties (my husband will be 39 when his body is completely recovered from smoking), teens, if you quit now, you will have a long and healthy life.

Quit today. I have a 33 year old friend who has COPD. I've been very sick and my cough sounds better than hers. That should tell you something.

If you want to talk about quitting, please talk to me. I'll do what I can to help. I will get you in touch with the right people. You can talk to my husband about his experience during his years of smoking and after the process of quitting. (Once he eliminated the very first cigarette of the morning, it was easy for him.) Just comment on this blog, or send me an email at sahtownsend@yahoo.com.

Quitting is not as difficult as other smokers will tell you, I promise.

Thank you for reading. I hope your journey as a quitter begins now.

It Needed To Be Said...

THE “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes. I frequently read confident statements like, “when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli …” or “it’s more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald’s than to cook a healthy meal for them at home.”

This is just plain wrong.

As a student, it can be extremely easy to fall into the trap of buying foods from the cafeteria and other fast food vendors, given the ease and availability. At the end of the day though, what we make ourselves is more often than not cheaper and healthier than anything that you could get from an outside source, packaged and ready to serve.

*What the writer failed to mention about the prepackaged, ready to serve foods is the fact that most of that junk comes to the fast food restaurant frozen. I worked at Wendy's when I was younger. The patties are frozen, the fries are frozen, the chicken nuggets are frozen, the chicken (grilled or fried) that goes on the sandwiches is frozen, and the fish that goes on the sandwiches is frozen. The only thing that Wendy's makes fresh are their salads, which includes slicing the vegetables. (I'm sure the McDonald's lettuce is frozen and they only offer ranch dressing, the most fattening dressing available at 350 calories a serving. Fat Free Ranch has 35 calories for serving.)*

*Not only are these foods prepackaged, cooked elsewhere and then frozen to be sent to the fast food restaurant of your choice, they are all loaded with sodium, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and sugars. (The sodium for a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese is over 1000.) Some of those prepackaged foods even contain appetite stimulants. (A bag of Oreo cookies contains 23 appetite stimulants. So do most potato chips. Lays wasn't lying when they said, "You can't just eat one," but they did cheat.) I like cookies, chips, and french fries as much as the next person, but if you value your health, these types of foods really shouldn't be eaten on a daily basis.*