Diet soft drinks are soooo much worse for you than regular soft drinks with sugar. Google "diet soda and gulf-war." You'll find a million articles that talk about how dangerous this stuff can be. Not only is it dangerous to your brain and CNS in general, it also makes you gain more weight than regular soda. I remember this professor in one of my college classes for being one of the fattest people I've ever met. Not even in terms of sheer size, but the disgusting shape of his body was horrible to look at. Sure enough, every single day he would walk in with a diet coke and then crack open another half way through the lecture.

PLEASE PEOPLE FRIGGIN EDUCATE YOURSELVES!!!

I know I know,,,,,, back in 1987-88 I was drinking the stuff like it was crack!!!!!! Man I don't know what was in it but it was good. But then as no one suspected,,,,,,,,,,,,, THE SPANISH INQUISITION! showed up at my door and broke me of it.... But that stuff had something in it I'm telling ya...

Frozen Custard and cheeseburgers are my guilty pleasures, but not every day...

I average 1.75 hrs per day on bike so not really any noticable effects from my indulgences.

There are so many deleterious effects when smoking and exercise and smoking are combined, a few of which are....

1) Cigarette smoke contanis carbon monoxide, this binds to the oxygen sites with a much stronger attraction than the oxygen molecule and so ties up oxygen binding sites and reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the red blood cell.
2) Cigarette smoke contains carbon dioxide, again harming respiratory effort.
3) Smoking will raise the blood pressure and heart rate while constricting peripheral arteries, diminishing blood flow to the periphery.
4) Stress on the heart increases.
5) Risk of coronary is increased.
6) Bronchospasm can occur reducing the ability to breath effectively.

The list goes on.
Here's an interesting fact- within 24 hours of quitting smoking, your chance of a fatal heart attack is reduced 50 %.

Cheeze-its. I'll eat a box in one sitting. I'll snort them or even main line them. I'm a real junkie.

No alcohol, No cigarettes, No soda, No dairy, No meat, No fastfood, No caffine, No sweets...I could probably continue with the non existant guilty pleasures.

Oh wait. I had crab puffs with artificial crab and cream cheese from the Tai food place today.

artificial crab,,, thats white fish.... it's good for ya

I would laud you for this, discrimination has no place in matters of employment, housing, or sex.

Yeah, I know, lol.

Thats about as "guilty" pleasure as it gets for me.

I quit smoking cigarettes in 1986.

As for drinking, I'll have a beer tomorrow.

so will I. in the meantime, i'll have some tonight too.

I have terminated the employment of two people (one man and one woman) for not being able to come to work without their clothes smelling of cigs. It was annoying my other employees so it was documented multiple times and addressed. Same stance as telling someone to stop wearing perfume that is making co-workers nauseous. They eventually were told to not come back for hygienic reasons and it was H.R. approved.

Have one for me and don't drive anywhere.

I should also note that I, in my time have been in vehicles (much younger) where the drivers were smoking while driving and they were either distracted from the act itself or when a stray ash flutters around and lands somewhere in the car. Damn near lost control on one occasion... but go ahead and live in D'nile. I hear its lovely all year long.

There's one notable difference between cigarette smokers and drinkers - generally, cigarette smokers won't kill anybody but themselves (hardly anybody ever smokes indoors around non-smokers anymore in my experience, at home or in public, so that second hand smoke argument is kind of moot these days). Drunk drivers kill other people every day.

Drinking in moderation is fine. If you're incapable of the moderation part of that equation, you can either stop drinking or die drinking. From the latest news headlines, it does appear as if Charlie Sheehan prefers the latter. Hey, more power to him. At least he'll die rich.

In my experience I find smokers to regret smoking more than drinkers do. No doubt, "it takes all kinds"... but lets be real here. A pack a day smokers will tell you they feel like crap @ a younger age than a pack a day drinker.

Never smoked and never will (ok, I've had maybe half a dozen over the course of my life, but not in years).

As far as alcohol: oh yes, although my tolerance has gone way down as my cycling mileage has gone up so a four or five glass week is a lot. I've been working on a single Samuel Smith oatmeal stout for hours now. Getting wine down is easier.

Being fit is turning out to be a guilty pleasure.

Most alcoholics find it difficult to use drinking and moderation in the same sentence.
My grandfather was crazy about drinking. He just could not stop.He passed a way about a year ago due to nervous system failure(due to alcohol).

Chocolate

I have many pleasures, I feel guilty about none of them. I've got a limited time here on earth and I'm going to get weird with it. All you squares have fun with your long tedious lives of monkish self-denial and struggles with soda addiction.

no worries! we're in blizzard conditions. my street won't be passable until thursday.

Cigarettes, no.
Sour Apples/Peaches Candy, YES.

You should try googleing "Diet soda and Jamestown." Shows the danger of putting too much faith in something "some guy told me."

That'll depend what your definition of a "pack a day drinker" is.