What You Can Do After You Quit Smoking

That wasn't so bad, was it? Congratulations on your success in quitting smoking. Now it's time to reward yourself. You deserve it. As a matter of fact, you might have already rewarded yourself by buying nice things with the money you saved by not buying cigarettes.

Another reward is tasting how good food can be. The food you have been enjoying for years should probably be even tastier now. This does not mean you'll end up getting fat. On the contrary, when you take the time to enjoy each bite instead of eating as fast as you had to eat when you were in school but probably don't anymore, eating becomes more enjoyable and less fattening.

Here is an opportunity to try new things, exotic dishes you can afford to try now because you aren't spending money on cigarettes.

Remember to let your insurance companies, both car and health, know you are now a non-smoker. It should lower your rates, and maybe your house insurance rates too. See where else you can get non-smoker discounts. Until the senior citizen discounts kick in, this is the best way to get them.

Since you have become a non-smoker, you might have friends and relatives asking how you did it. Share the secrets to your success. The method or methods you used may or may not work for them, but it doesn't hurt to share them.

Do avoid taking this to the extreme of lecturing or becoming one of those who look down their noses at smokers. Surely you remember how annoying they could be.

As you know, you've lowered your risk of a lot of diseases and conditions, lung cancer and emphysema to name a couple. You've also made your lungs healthy enough that you might enjoy things like hiking or riding a bike more than you did before. One of the things to enjoy is the smell of that fresh air. Each of the seasons has such a delicious aroma, and now you will probably notice them more than before. Jogging and playing just about any team sport can be more fun too.

One more reward, and this one is not just for you, is that you are setting a better example for kids. Whether or not you have kids of your own, you'll be setting a better example for kids around you. Each one of them who grows up without starting to smoke will be another who won't have to deal with the health and other consequences or the task of quitting.