MikeOK

So now I'm gonna have to start smoking??



Seriously though, there is a cross-state ride every year here called Freewheel. The last time I rode it there were a couple people who smoked while they rode. You could get behind one of them on a long climb and they looked like a big steam engine puffin' up a hill. It was a riot, you must really be hooked if you have to smoke WHILE you ride.

wabbit

You notice a difference in lung capacity almost immediately after quitting! I have to say I'm surprised anyone here smokes still, being cyclists, but I see these guys who ride their bikes to the cafes and then sit there smoking and drinking coffee!

I hear wellbutrin is quite effective, and has few side effects. The way it works is that it suppresses the sudden urges you get so you don't go crazy for cravings. It also can work to suppress your appetite as well, so you don't have to worry about stuffing your face and getting fat, and if you're a cyclist you don't have to worry anyways!

WHen I quit I used the gum, since I was quite a light smoker, so that was enough. It's true, you have to be really ready and decide to quit. Stories about lung cancer, etc, won't make any difference. Cigarettes are three times as addictive as crack! For me it was only bad for the first week and then after that it was much better.

Brillig

Yeah, you know. Whatever.

I quit a couple years ago and couldn't be happier having done it.

On the other hand, the sense of moral outrage people have about other people's smoking, and sudden extreme sensitivity to not just second hand smoke but now even the smell of it in people's clothing and breath is all kind of galling to me. We are turning into a country that has extremely severe restrictions on what everyone around them should be doing in order for them to be happy (too much B.O., blowing their nose to loud in the same room, clearing their throat, smelling of garlic from lunch, smelling of smoke, chewing their gum too loudly, wearing clothes they don't approve of, blinking too often,...)

I've known people taken in the prime of their lives from smoking. I've known others that have had fairly long lives but painful, ugly deaths that were still too soon. I've also known people who have lived full, long happy lives, enjoying tobacco all the way to the end.

If you want to smoke and have accepted the responsibility then go for it. If not, then for God's sake quit.

Brillig

Please...

djbowen1

my lung collapsed 3 years ago june from smoking, i never smoked another. i was in the hospital with a chest tube for a week so the first week without smoking was easy. after that i used the patch for the maximum time i could. i wanted to kill everyone that looked at me wrong and was a cranky son of a *****.

joeprim

Oh how long did it take you to quit crack?

Joe

shokhead

He did'nt,it just made him forget to smoke.

AndrewP

When people quit smoking they usually take up more repulsive habits, like bragging.

Stevet04II

Have you ever seen someone die from Emphysema? I have, my Grandfather and an old friend. Not a pretty sight and I wouldnt want to end up like that because of smoking.

uciflylow

Do what you want Don.


I quit 4 years ago, it's hard to quit but I don't miss it at all, honest. I can't imagine smoking and riding if you ride hard, now if you are one of these "wrong way riders, around here, they almost all smoke! I wouldn't try to hide it either, if you choose to smoke, be proud of it! When I was in high school all the smokers perfered the back of the bus where they could smoke in a group. Form a smokers only pace line on the next group ride, be creative!

Seriously, we just buryed my wifes uncle, lung cancer, 2 year loosing battle, long time smoker. I have to see one of my coworkers mother dwindle away, lung cancer, long time smoker.

I thought my wife would NEVER quit! She is having bariatric surgery at the MED next Tuesday, for weight loss. She was forced to quit smoking, or they wouldn't do the surgery. Once she knew she had to quit, it was no problem and she was very good about it, only a little bad mood for a few weeks.

ollo_ollo

I'll just pass on the promise that my dad's doctor gave him. Dad was a pack a day smoker in his 40s. Doc told him he'd gaurantee 10 more good years in his old age if he quit. He did it cold turkey & never slipped back. Dad passed on a couple years ago at age 83. Doc was right. Don

stapfam

No, let all your mates know you smoke. I've been smoking Most of my life. Why worry about heart disease and Cancer, it hasn't caused you a problem yet. I've been smoking most of my life, mid fifties and The Byapss I had 5 years ago and the Cancer of 3 years ago didn't stop me riding. It has stopped me smoking though

Avalanche325

Smoking is just amazing. I watched my Dad die from lung cancer. My Mother watched him too. She smoked while she was doing it though. She still refuses to admit that smoking had anything to do with it. But, you should see the fear in her eyes if she has to have a chest x-ray. Again, amazing.

Now for a little rant.
Do smokers know how bad they smell? I have to hold my breath when I get into an elevator with one.

Now, in some places, that smoking is banned inside restaraunts. It has made the outside eating area the smoking lounge. Great, now I can't sit outside half the time because of someone elses bad habit.

Chris L

Frankly, I'm amazed smoking isn't banned in elevators in your part of the world. I mean, they've even managed that here in Queensland!

Just don't sit down-wind of them.

RiPHRaPH

its not the quality of your life that anyone can debate.... it's the quality of your death. horrible and slow and painful.

Harry

...or encouraging foolish people to quit.

Did you think this silly comment on your very own

wabbit

Actually, the big problem is eating. Fewer people than ever are smoking, which is good, but more people than ever are overweight or obese. We've stopped smoking and started eating!

rockymtn_girl

Of course smoking is not allowed in elevators, theaters, shopping malls and most other public places.

I think what he meant was the residual smell smokers carry around with them always. Some think they're being really cleaver chewing gum or using breath mints but that doesn't do a thing for the smell in their hair or their clothes....Yuck! Being stuck in an elevator with a smoker sucks big time!

Chris L

Point taken, although as someone who prefers steps if they're available, that doesn't happen to me very often. However, what does bug me is when people flout these bans with no disregard for anyone around them.

rockymtn_girl

I have never experienced that here. It really is amazing how society's attitude has shifted 180 degrees in just the last 10 to 15 years. Up to the late 80's and early 90's people still smoked at their desks in most offices and if you were a non-smoker, you were a minority. Today, it is quite unacceptable to light up in most public areas, except for the sidewalk. Even our bus shelters and LRT platforms (open air) are off limits to lighting up.

One gets the distinct sense that smokers are easily embarrassed by their habit and they usually can be shamed into leaving a non-smoking area, i.e. bus shelter, fairly easily.

Chris L

I'm not so sure non-smokers were ever the minority as such. I remember even back in the 80's the message from the anti-smoking lobby was that the majority have no reason to tolerate this behaviour from the minority and so forth.

*sigh* Queensland evidently still has some catching up to do. Bus shelters are still not non-smoking areas up here, we've only relatively recently got the ban on smoking in restaurants that the rest of Australia has had for years (decades in some states). And if you buy the newspaper on any given day, it's still possible to read letters along the lines of "I'm a smoker till I die!". In the past I've been tempted to reply with one or two smug comments in response, but I doubt they'd be published.

To be honest I just make a big show of moving away from them, but I don't know if people around here have evolved enough to understand subtlety yet.

Stevet04II

I hear they are going to start putting "Dieased Lungs" on cig packs. Dont you just love sitting by someone with a hacking cough and smells like a chimney?

jfmckenna

I was'nt gonna get involved w/ this thread but now it has turned interesting. They just raised the tax on cigs here in Virginia to 35 cents a pack. We have better roads and less expensive education thanks to all those smokers killing them selves. Funny how that works out. OF course the health care cost probably exceeds all of that? It's hard to convince Virginians and North Carolinian smolers how bad smoking is, a lot of them grow up with it as a way of life and it's more of a personal attack on them. I had this one little B**H ( sorry ladies but she was a B**H! ) drive by me last week and flick a lit but at me. Imagine that me a health conscience recreational cyclist threatening her disgusting, vulgar life style! Mean while I laugh and say hey thanks for fixing those pot holes...

wabbit

It's true about the smell of smokers, but what can you do? Breathing in the smell, at least, isn't dangerous, just gross. What amazes me is when people come to the gym and you can smell cigarette smoke still clinging to them. Maybe they were just in a smoky car or restaurant and weren't smoking, but either way, it's not a smell I want to breathe in while working out. Even if it's just a smell and not smoke itself. Then of course, there are the people who dump a gallon of cologne/perfume over themselves, but that's another story altogether.

ngateguy

I have allergies to a lot of scents. I will trade them for smokers anytime