Congratulations, you finally kicked the habit and quit smoking, I cannot say enough words to praise the effort and work you’ve done to get back onto the healthy lifestyle road. I know you’ve climbed quite a hurdle and continue to do so until the cravings leave your system, but just to help you stay on the whole quit smoking side of things, I’m here to share with you the wonderful effects of your endeavors. As you may know smoking has really worked your body and done quite a bit of damage over the time you’ve been ingesting fire, if I may be so dramatic, however when you quit smoking your body will slowly heal which will help you further your ideals of a healthy lifestyle. 

Better blood pressure – Smoking causes your blood pressure to shoot up, and quite frankly nobody wants high blood pressure, it is the doorway to a ton of other diseases. When you quit smoking, shortly after your blood pressure and pulse return to normal, which is hopefully something that isn’t high. Keeping your blood pressure at regular values is one of the key factors of a healthy lifestyle and a definite benefit that you receive when you quit smoking.

A healthy lifestyle following the end of your smoking habit will do much more wonders to your body.

Nicotine is removed from the body – As we all know, cigarettes carry nicotine and when you smoke it enters your bloodstream. It is an active and addictive ingredient in tobacco and is one of the leading reasons for high blood pressure and possible heart issues when smoking. Removing it from the body is one of the major pluses when you quit smoking, since you no longer have a source of the additive. Needless to say a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have room for nicotine and the longer you are away from it the easier it is for you to continue down the road of quitting, so the sooner you quit smoking, the sooner you can be free from it’s grips.

Carbon monoxide leaves your body – I don’t know about you but I don’t want carbon monoxide in my body. It is a toxic gas that is absorbed by the body when there is a cigarette in the immediate area, this bonds with your blood cell making it difficult for it to work well with oxygen thus leading to heart problems. After you quit smoking, the body will cleanse itself of the carbon monoxide in the system, this will allow you more oxygen into your body, which in turn will help you lead a healthy lifestyle option instead of the smoke engulfed option of smokers.

Reduction of coronary artery disease – Smokers have been studied to be more prone to coronary artery disease which is a heart disease, again not something one would want if you want a healthy lifestyle. When you quit smoking, the chances of you getting a coronary artery disease reduces by quite a bit, this also works hand-in-hand with a lowered chance of a heart attack. Imagine all these things you pretty much get as soon as you quit smoking, makes you wonder why you ever started smoking in the first place.

Your taste and smell have returned – After you quit smoking, you’ll notice a great change in smells and tastes, that’s because the nerve endings will start repairing itself. This will really change the way you eat and live, when you were smoking you could barely taste or smell things but now that you’ve quit smoking, it’s like your sense of taste and smell have been resurrected again. Take the time to appreciate the change and know how this is a game changer for a lot of people. While not connected to the healthy lifestyle, it is good to know you can really appreciate several types of food now that your sense of taste and smell are back.

Nausea, irritation and much more – Sadly I have to report that not all good things happen when you quit smoking. You may experience nausea, irritation, depression, headaches and much more a few days after you quit smoking. This is the addictive substance, nicotine being completely purged from your body and it is a sort of withdrawal symptom you can expect when you have quit smoking. While these are only temporary, please be prepared and don’t worry that they will not hinder your ideas for a healthy lifestyle in the slightest.

Don’t fret about nausea and such. Your body goes through a process of removing the toxins caused by smoking.

Blood circulation has returned to normal – After you quit smoking, the body has now allowed blood circulation to be improved by quite a bit, this will make it easier for your body to get oxygen into your system. This will make it easier to exercise without being too winded, which leads you to an easier time to get into the healthy lifestyle. Getting back in shape after you quit smoking is a bit of a challenge, but with your body healing up this will really make it a bit more realistic to really get back into shape and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Heart disease chances decrease dramatically – A smoker is twice as likely to have a heart diseases as a non-smoker and in a year or so, your chances of a heart diseases decreases dramatically. As you can see from the other benefits listed above, when you quit smoking your body begins to repair itself, notice how I said repair and not improve, smoking really ruins the natural balance of your body and it needs time to get back into working condition. So if you are after a healthy lifestyle and want to get healthier, keep at it, when you quit smoking you did your body a huge favor and soon enough you will reap the rewards.

Decrease chances of a stroke – Another scary disease that comes with smoking: stroke. When you haven’t smoked in a long time, your blood vessels will return to normal, when you smoke the blood vessels tend to narrow increasing the chances of a stroke. This is a long time coming for those of you who quit smoking, it is estimated to happen from 5 – 15 years after you quit smoking, so that’s quite awhile for your body to fully get rid of the nasty substances smoking gave you.

Chances of lung cancer decrease greatly – Lung cancer, the big c and it should scare the living daylights out of you. The polar opposite of a healthy lifestyle is what you can get if you don’t quit smoking, the number of sicknesses that really increase in chances when you do smoke is staggering. Don’t forget that smoking can cause a ton of other cancers as well, but lung cancer is the more common for this habit. Be smart, quit smoking and stick with it.

There it is, the glaringly important list of things why you need to quit smoking as soon as possible. When you are looking towards a healthy lifestyle, you need to know that it won’t work while you are smoking and you can see the reasons above. You’ve already quit smoking, this will further your resolve to avoid another cigarette, I know it has convinced me to stay even further away from the stuff. So one more time, if you already quit smoking or if you are planning to, please do it right away, you and your family deserve a better life than one filled with smoke. Stay healthy!