The Great American Smokeout

Today is the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. A day to encourage smokers to give up smoking for 24 hours.

Two reasons to bring this up: First, as a member of Team in Training, I am raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to fight blood cancers (and hope that you'll consider a donation... shamless plug over). But more importantly, and more personal, as a former smoker, it was the Smokeout in 1999 that lead me towards quitting smoking permanently after 13 years.

At the time I quit, I was 6 months shy of my 30th birthday, and while I wasn't the poster child of health, at around 175lbs, I would have thought myself unhealthy. How wrong was I. At that moment in time, I was what could be considered as a "skinny, fat man." I didn't eat right, I didn't exercise, all I had was smoking that keep me from eating too much. Shortly after quitting, I gained a lot of weight and over the course of 3 years went from 175 to nearly 220lbs in weight. It was at this point that Sarah and I started our journey towards overall healthy living.

Next Saturday (November 29th) is my 9th year anniversary of being smoke free. Thinking back on the process, there is striking parallels in that journey and the one I am currently on. For years before I quit smoking, I told myself countless times that I needed to quit. Had you asked me, I could have rattled off any number of reasons to quit, but I wasn't in the right mindset to commit. Deciding to change a lifestyle to lose weight and be healthy is just the same. Before Sarah and I started, when I was 220 lbs, I could have told you any number of reason why I should lose weight. Same thing about running a marathon, finally I find myself in the right mindset to undertake this challenge and look forward to it.