I smoked for a number of years starting from about age 17. I started out on Winston — but quickly evolved into quite the ‘Marlboro Man’.
I would sneak around in my High School — where gym class was a go to the locker room and smoke cigarettes event — and I engaged in the habit for a long time throughout my young adult life.
It was about 20 or so years ago when I started awaking at night being unable to breathe … or so it felt.
It did not take many of these episodes to motivate me to quitting cold turkey and I put them down and never picked them up again.
Today has been designated ‘The Great American Smoke Out’ and has been set aside by the American Cancer Society on the third Thursday in November to help smokers quit smoking — as well as the use of other tobacco products — for at least one day in the hopes of completely quitting.
Originating in 1971 by Arthur Mullaney from Massachusetts, it is a day for raising the awareness regarding the dangers of smoking and effective ways to quit smoking permanently. His idea entailed donation of the money smokers would have spent on tobacco to a local high school.
The American Cancer Society carried the event to the national stage in 1977 and has held it annually since then.
If you are a smoker who is unhappy with the habit; I do hope you’ll consider the ramifications of smoking to your aerobic capacity.
Smoking damages a lot more than just the lungs and it does not provide any health benefits — aside from being an effective stimulus barrier … which is dubious at best.
Tags: Health, Observances