Tag Archives: smoking

Quit smoking, get diabetes

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Image courtesy of m.a.r.c. on flickr

Ok, seriously…Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up in the air and give in to the inevitable tide of “nothing you do is good for you anymore.” Seems like every time we get our heads around the right way towards healthy living someone has to come along and throw a monkey wrench in the works. It seems as though the list of food and drink you should or should not consume fluctuates wildly week to week, and sometimes the exercise du jour turns out to be more damaging to your body than beneficial. It’s maddening!

One thing we can all agree on, though, is that smoking is bad for you and that if you smoke quitting the habit is probably the best thing you can do for your health.

Right?

Not so fast, sparky.

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Are you addicted to junk food?

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Original image courtesy of r3v || cls

Original image courtesy of r3v || cls

I started smoking when I was sixteen years old.  At the time I was convinced that I was young and invincible, despite the fact that I had proof of the dangers of cigarette smoking living with me in the form of my lung cancer ridden Grandmother.  Truth be told the reason I started smoking is even stupider than the act of smoking itself. I liked a girl. She didn’t like me back. She hated smokers and I was convinced that I would “show her” by picking up the habit. Apparently being stinky, having yellow teeth, spending money I didn’t have, and significantly increasing my chances of dying due to any number of horrible diseases was the perfect way to get revenge. I’m surprised I didn’t follow up by huffing spray paint.  That would have really showed her.

I have, in the course of the last twenty years, stopped smoking several times.  The last time I did so was in February of this year, and while I have slipped up and had a few cigarettes in the months that have passed on the whole I have remained smoke free.  Regardless of the fact that I’ve gone through it several times, though, quitting has never been easy. There are many situations in which I simply want to smoke, and there are physical symptoms of withdrawal that I go through as well. Those symptoms have included the inability to concentrate, shakes, extreme headaches, and intense irritability (the latter being so extreme that in several cases my significant other and I got into fights that almost led to the end of our relationship during periods in which we were both suffering from nicotine withdrawal).

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The recession is a good thing!

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charlie_chaplinThe economic recession that has crippled the world economy for the last few years is, according to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, “likely” to be over.  We won’t know for sure until well after the fact, but the indicators are currently pointing towards a growth in our Gross Domestic Product.  Unfortunately for those of us who don’t have lots of money in the stock market, the unemployment rate is going to remain high for a long time – possibly years.  Unemployment is always a “lagging factor” during a recovery and is the last economic indicator to show improvement.  This time around they don’t think the unemployment rate is going to come back quickly at all, so those of us who are out of work or stuck in a low-paying  job and unable to find anything else are going to be mired down for a while.

I’ve  mentioned before how difficult it is to maintain a healthy diet when you are poor due to the high cost of nutritious food, so imagine my surprise when I read recently that despite the fact that things, in general, tend to suck during an economic downturn the populace on the whole tends to get healthier.

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I don’t wanna brag and I don’t wanna boast…

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Thumbs UpThat’s a lie.  I do, actually.

Earlier today I was thinking about how busy I’ve been recently, and it occured to me that I’ve done a lot so far this year.

  • I was in a record breaking production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile with the folks at the Jobsite Theater
  • I took on a huge amount of new responsibilities at work
  • I’ve lost 14 pounds and gotten back into the habit of exercising at least five days a week
  • I quit smoking
  • I took three classes towards my B.S. in Technology Management and I believe I have A’s in all three of them
  • I started a business with six of my friends and can officially add Chief Executive Officer to my list of titles
  • I took a major step towards getting my finances back under control by consolidating several of my higher interest credit cards into a loan from my employers
  • I managed to score 38 Studios and Cartoon Network as guests for this years Dragon*Con MMORPG track.

That’s all I can think of at the moment, but…wow!  I’m pretty impressed with my list of accomplishments so far this year, and it’s only May!

Oh, and for the record….I do like toast.