You know that smoking is bad for you. Maybe you’ve forgotten how good life can be when you’re tobacco-free. Need some incentive to quit? Here are 10 reasons to quit tobacco for good.
If you quit smoking, you will be taking steps to:
- Improve your health right now and for the rest of your life. Within hours of quitting, your heart rate and blood pressure will drop, and the carbon monoxide level of your blood returns to normal. Along with those changes, your risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke begins to decline. That decrease continues as long as you don’t smoke.
- Breathe easier and have more energy. As your lungs heal, they will begin to work better. You may have less coughing and huffing and puffing on stairs.
- Have more money to spend on things you enjoy. Tally up how much you spend on cigarettes each month. You may be shocked. Then think of what you can do with that money instead. Quitting may also help you save on health and life insurance.
- Smell better to other people. No more cigarette odor in your clothes, hair, house and car – plus you won’t have tobacco breath.
- Have sharper senses of taste and smell. You may be able to delight in subtle flavors and aromas you missed while smoking.
- Have whiter teeth and cleaner fingers. You can also cut your risk of gum damage and tooth loss from smoking.
- Help protect the health of others. The smoke that curls up from the tip of a cigarette contains substances that can cause disease and death in nonsmokers. The risks are especially great for infants, children and pregnant women.
- Avoid the social stigma that is sometimes attached to smoking. Smoking is less accepted by society now than ever before. Tobacco is commonly banned or restricted at restaurants, bars, schools, libraries, places of employment and even hotels and apartments. Many public places restrict smoking. Smoking could even limit your relationship choices..
- Set a better example for the children in your life. Very few people want their kids to smoke. But children learn from what you do, not necessarily what you say. If you smoke, it’s more likely they will smoke, too.
- Have more control over your life. Beating an addiction can give you a renewed sense of power and pride. Why not start now?
