I rarely post - more of a lurker but felt compelled to weigh in. I started smoking cigarettes for no good reason when I was 18 or 19. There were some half hearted attempts to quit and once I lasted almost a year before picking up the habit again. Working very close to the WTC and breathing in a ton of junk also made it easy to rationalize that if anything was going to make me sick it would be from breathing that stuff in not smoking - yeah stupid rationalization on my part.
In Jan of 2007 a friend and co-worker went to the hospital due to continual headaches - it turned out to be a tumor that had spread from cancer in his lungs. I visited him in Sloan Kettering a few days before his surgery - the look on his face was enough to cause me to quit cold turkey right there. Kevins surgery was successful but he ultimately lost his battle with cancer 2 days after Christmas in 2007. Go in peace Kevin you have been missed by many. Yes Kevin smoked but he also inhaled a lot of the dust from the WTC - we'll likely never know for sure what caused his illness - he was 44 yrs old.
So I'm smoke free for 2 years and a couple of months at this point. I gained about 25 lbs but I'm feeling much better about myself. I am exercising - mostly by biking - and as I approach my 40th birthday I've decided to attempt the Montauk Century in May after 20 years of smoking and no exercise. If anyone from BF participates I'll be the fat ******* on the black/grey Raleigh m20 MTB plodding along. I'm pretty sure I can make the distance - just not sure of how long it will take...
Kevins problems put a lot of things in perspective for me and everyone has to make their own decisions in life. My sister still smokes - but I don't give her any crap about it - she knows what happened to my friend and co-worker and she knows that her niece and nephew along with the rest of our family would like for her to quit but ultimately it's her decision. If you quit for someone else you'll likely fail - you need to quit for yourself.
So for me quitting has been tremendously positive in that I'm exercising again after a 20 year hiatus. Will I regain the shape I was in when I played football and rugby - not likely but that's not my goal. I'm 255 down from 275 on my way to 220 by this time next year.