Journal - Smoker to ExSmoker

OK, now the rant about the 3rd biggest lie has been said, let's get down to business. To understand where I am and where I am going, you need to understand where I have been.

As a young person I could eat a horse. I could not put on weight. I weighed a little over 100 pounds and I was 5 foot tall on my 16th birthday. I played sports but mainly ice hockey and I was at least OK at it. On my 17th birthday I was almost 6 foot tall and I weighed about 140. That year of amazing growth sidetracked a promising hockey career. The reason I tell you this is so that you will understand that as a young person I was gristle and bones, maybe a little muscle. I could not put on weight. Around 18 I smoked a little to fit in socially, hey, back in the 60's it was the in thing.

I went away to university and by then hockey was no longer my life's passion, girls and cars and so on...I continued to smoke lightly through university and slowly built the habit up to a pack a day. I put on a little weight but was hard pressed to pass 165 at almost 6 foot tall. This continued for 15 years. I overate, overdrank, underexercised and stayed at about 170 and 6 foot. I was getting out of shape but then we bought a farm to race standbred horses and suddenly all my spare time was spent on chores around the farm. That continued until I was 38. I smoked about 2 packs a day, drank too much but I was in good shape at about 175 and 6 foot.We sold the horses and the farm and moved to Georgia in 1985.

We bought a house in Roswell a suburb of Atlanta and the level of my physical activity just about disappeared. 5 years later I worked a job at strange hours and joined an industrial league for ice hockey. I played regularly and got back into shape. I still smoked about 2 packs but my weight stablized at about 175 and I was about 5 foot 11 by them. Gravity sucks. This continued off and on for about 8 years until another shift in employment brought me to residential contruction.

Working by myself initially, I installed roofing felt for builders to dry in new houses as the roofers were very busy and difficult to schedule. This was a very profitable business and I was overwhelmed with potential business. I worked so hard physically that I got in very good shape. I still smoked 2 packs a day but I was as fit as I ever. My wife joked about my job as I started to hire help; she said I should call it Nassau Fitness - I had a Nassau tan and not much body fat at all, running around roof tops carrying rolls of felt, always at some level of danger due to the roof pitch, and working long hours without real breaks. Hey it was tough but rewarding. She thought I should charge people to work for me, not pay them. This continued until about 2000.

I was too successful. As I expanding into framing and trim work, I spent all my time running from job to job and spent little if any time working with my hands and my back. I smoked at lot, ate fast food and my health started to deteriorate. First my breath went. I couldn't run around the roof tops anymore, I had to take it slow. Second my weight started up, 180, 185. My doctor started to bitch at me about smoking and drinking too much. One day I just stopped drinking alcohol as I usually did, no more drink until a major buzz. I might have the odd beer here and there but nothing like the power drinking of the old days. I still smoked, now only 1 and half packs per day. By 2002, the local construction business was challenging because of the influx of spanish speaking labor. I did not speak Spanish and I was tired of the rat race of dealing with subcontractors and employees. I packed it in and looked to my computer for a new career.

That's great and it has been very rewarding financially but it certainly did not solve my physical health issues: weight gain and smoking. OK, that brings you up to speed as of the Spring of 2005. More later.