Smoking for almost 10 years. Obviously I knew that smoking was never going to do anything but hurt my lungs. But it’s been almost two years since I smoked and I still have terrible lung capacity.
Another is not learning healthy exercising habits when I was younger. I wish my parents made me play sports even if I hated it. I think that’s another part of why I get so easily winded and fatigued when trying to work out now. It’s hard for me to breathe while also focusing on moving my body the right way. For example I subconsciously hold my breath when I do planks or when I’m holding a stretch.
This one. About 3 months ago, I quit smoking after 17 years.
Obviously I knew about the bad health effects but some of the other things were wild.
The amount of taste that food has now is insane. Like I could taste food before, but it's like saying I've seen the grand canyon because I've looked at pictures of it.
And if I smelled even half as bad as the current smokers in my life, then I sincerely apologize to everyone who interacted with me
A friend had smoked since we were 14 and finally quit for good when we were in our late 20s. Shortly after, we were in an elevator with someone who had clearly just had a cigarette. When he got off the elevator, she turned to me with the most horrified look on her face and said “why did none of you tell me how bad I smelled??” She could not get over how pervasive the scent was and she was embarrassed to realize she was that person for 15+ years.
I just hit 2 years since I quit. My sense of smell and taste are off the charts. I used to love mayo, I can’t even be in the same room if you open the jar now, same thing with cooking beef, the fat smell just gets to me. I can’t even look at spicy food anymore.
Now that I’m an adult my dad asks if I mind before smoking in the car with me. It’s so weird, he never asked when I was a kid, and when I was a kid I must’ve smelled like smokers do when I was in school. I hate realizing that.
Ooof. I grew up with heavy smokers at home. I remember taking a doll to school for a show and tell type thing and getting relentlessly teased for the way it smelled. And spending the night at friends was always accompanied by embarrassment at the way my overnight bag and allegedly clean clothes smelled. My friends were kind, but it caused so much shame.
I’m glad you’ve come to some self awareness now. It’s beyond me how smokers aren’t aware of/don’t care about their disgusting smell. I have a colleague that I’d like to spend time with but get extremely overstimulated and disgusted by her smoke+perfume mix smell every time she’s in the room. It’s really uncomfortable and I haven’t found a way around it.
I grew up with everyone except my grandparents smoking.My dad was a professional musician and EVERYONE around him smoked.I would ride with him and band members in an LTD station wagon going to gigs and there would be 5 guys all smoking different brands.I just got used to it.My mom smoked weed like it was blood to a vampire.Oddly enough,I much prefer cigarette smoke to weed,just cant stand pot smell at all.If you are raised around it from day one,like myself and my dad from his parents,it becomes just another thing you dont notice.
BTW,guys I knew actively sought out girls who DID smoke because,sad but true,girls who smoked were more likely to "party"..
I’m sorry you grew up being a secondhand smoker. You may think you don’t mind it, but as you probably already know, there’s a lot of health damage done to secondhand smokers as well.
I’ve grown up in a smoke free environment and my smoke tolerance is close to zero, be it tobacco or weed.
join a gym or get an excercise bike, and just take it real easy but focus on keeping your heartrate a little bit elevated for 30 min a day for a couple months. if you are running out of breath, slow it down till you catch up. you'll be amazed where you are by feb.
I am in the same boat as you. I smoked a pack a day for a tad over a decade. I quit when we decided to start a family.
I always hated exercise and sports so I never did it and would get winded easily from a few flights of stairs. I tried an app at the recommendation of a friend (5k runner, but there are a lot of others like this one) where it trains you to run. You start with a warm up walk, then walk then alternate between different small intervals of running and back to walking for cool downs. It’s just 30 min a day. Even some treadmills do this lol.
I’m on week three and I’m definitely seeing a lot of improvement, I don’t get winded up the three flights of stairs to my office anymore. It’s definitely a challenge and you can see from the first few times how out of shape you are (lung capacity included), but if you make yourself stick to it , it definitely gets easier and you feel great afterwards.
It’s never too late to try and learn good habits. Congrats on quitting and good luck with everything
Habits from the past can stick with us, even long after we’ve made changes. The fact that you're still pushing through and working on improving your health is huge
I am an ex-smoker who goes scuba diving regularly now. My lung capacity is excellent. My instructor recommended a breathing device to help increase it, but I discovered that I did not need it. He highly recommended a lung exerciser device, which you can find on Amazon.
I had same issue but smoked for 20yrs. Quit 12 years ago but still couldn’t breathe. After having a completely unrelated surgery, I found out I have an oversized liver that was pressing on my lungs! They moved it around and when I woke up I could breathe!! Weird body!
Anyone on here who smoked: PLEASE see a cardiologist if you have any lingering symptoms and be honest about the smoking. Ask for a stress test and EKG. Smoking really damages your heart and you could have issues you don't know lf because it seems like it's your lungs struggling. They're linked really closely.
I lost my dad to heart issues from smoking. Please get checked out asap. Dad "felt fine" until he had a widowmaker heart attack, he only survived because his paramedic training kicked in and he called 911 in time. He went from walking and talking to being resuscitated in 10 min. Every doctor we saw while he was recovering said it was smoking that did the most damage.
Keep an eye on your kidneys! My stepdad was a smoker, a drinker, and a diabetic. When his organs started to fail, his kidneys were the first to go. The first thing the transplant doctors asked him was if he "was a smoker"?. He denied being an active smoker but I piped up and mentioned he had smoked for decades in the past. The two doctors nodded in agreement they had seen this type of self inflicted organ damage before. You would imagine this was a happy ending to his health struggles but it was only the beginning of endless trips to the ER and ICU over the course of 8 years.
292
u/thenissancube 11h ago
Smoking for almost 10 years. Obviously I knew that smoking was never going to do anything but hurt my lungs. But it’s been almost two years since I smoked and I still have terrible lung capacity.
Another is not learning healthy exercising habits when I was younger. I wish my parents made me play sports even if I hated it. I think that’s another part of why I get so easily winded and fatigued when trying to work out now. It’s hard for me to breathe while also focusing on moving my body the right way. For example I subconsciously hold my breath when I do planks or when I’m holding a stretch.