I started smoking when I was 15 years old around 1966. At that time smoking was cool but most of all I really like smoking and I still do to this day. I really would prefer that I had never started and I wish I disliked it enough to quit. . I encourage everyone else not to smoke , it is expensive, not healthy, and it stinks.
But I am going to lay out some facts here and my intention is to possibly whiplash your thinking. I do not recommend you live, eat, and smoke like I do, that is not my intention.
But I do intend to shock you a bit with some facts that you have probably not heard before. First a bit about me.
=for about 45 years I have smoked about a pack and a half a day. On a long and busy day I will smoke 2 packs. I am talking Canadian packages of 25 cigs, not those little American paks of 20. At home I also smoke a pipe and go through a pound of high quality select blend pipe tobacco a month. Once in a while I have a cigar, but not more than 1 or 2 a month.
=I am pretty much retired now and have cut back on coffee , but for about 40 years I drank 10 to 20 cups of coffee a day. I am talking big cups , and I put at least 3 to 4 heaping teaspoons of sugar in each one plus a triple shot of cream. I am talking real cows cream. None of that counterfeit coffee whitener crap.
=I love bacon and eggs and eat at least 4 to 6 eggs a day and often 6 strips of bacon. I try to eat at least one steak a day and I prefer one with some fat on it nicely seared. Usually potatoes and vegetable with it.
=I only buy whole milk , never skim milk, to me skim milk is white water. I buy cereal cream for my coffee and cereal etc. I buy only real creamery butter. There has never been a tub of margarine in my house.
=I do not exercise or work out at a gym, or jog or ride a bike or diet. I am fairly active, like outdoors and yard work etc.
=I never eat wieners ,cheap sausage, bologna, processed meats , highly processed foods , chips , junk food, artificial sweeteners, simulated bacon bits , counterfeit coffee whitener, egg substitute, or margarine. The previously used hydrogenated vegetable oils used to manufacture margarine will kill three times more people than all the smoking combined.
=Next year I will be 60 years old , I am 5' 11" , weigh about 155 pounds , my waist is 31 to 32 inches, and my shoulders about 3 feet across. As far as I know I am in good health. My yearly checkups show perfect cholesterol levels , blood pressure like a teenager, perfect blood sugar range. Every year my doctor gives me heck for smoking of course.
=I could die tomorrow , or when I am 93 years old. It does not matter because they will put on the autopsy that I died of smoking related causes. If I had never smoked I would have lived to 96 they say. They tell you that if you do not smoke you have nothing to worry about. It is the smokers who are headed for trouble right?
=The physical smoke and tars are harmful to lung tissue but the nicotine itself has many benefits. Nicotine boosts a persons problem solving IQ by 15 to 25 percent. Nicotine has the medical effect on the brain to filter out negative stimuli from life encounters. That is one reason people find it hard to quit. They cannot handle the negative stimuli and it seems to them everything is going wrong and they are easily irritated. Research shows many smokers are sensitives and need the curtain of protection the nicotine provides. It is a form of self medication. The nicotine itself is not considered harmful but rather beneficial.
Now let me mess with your head by presenting the following facts.
=the major killer in North America is breast cancer and heart disease in women.
=the greatest majority of lung cancers found in North America is in 51 year old women who have never smoked or been around second hand smoke.
=factual legitimate studies have shown that second hand smoke does not harm people's health. Some of the countries around the world with the highest rates of cigarette smokers have the lowest rates of cancer of all types.
_______________________________________________________________
I encourage everyone not to smoke and it bothers me to see children start. I always try to talk them out of it. As a christian I am ashamed that I smoke but I think in Gods wisdom he maybe leaves that dirt on my exterior in plain view for the whole world to see. You cannot hide it. I find it humbling. I am greatful for all the other things the Lord cleaned up in my life many yeasrs ago.
I smoked 4 cigarettes typing all this. I am not Catholic but I feel like I have been at confessional :)
I do not for a minute think I will live to 93.
Instead, I plan to live forever.
Best regards
Martin.
