QuoteReplyTopic: Smoking, drinking, and dieting Posted: June 02 2003 at 2:20am
Hi everyone, I am wondering if smoking and drinking have a place in dieting...I mean I know their unhealthy for you, but as unhealthy as fast food...I do both in extreme moderation and when I smoke I feel I don't have to eat as much and when I drink, I can control my food consumption better.
Your thoughts?
demodoll
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I used to smoke and was much thinner. You substitute a smoke for a snack. I don't think smoking can ever be considered good though. I quit for good 7 years ago and will never go back. My Dad is dying of cancer and although he only smoked for a few years as a teenager over 55 years ago, his doctors told him that could be part of the cause! I wish I had never started! Don't smoke if you can possibly help it!
"It is better to look marvelous than to feel marvelous" Billy Crystal
Jennifer
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Smoking also severely restricts your blood vessels, which is very bad. Thus, it will probably make exercising harder for you. Thin is not healthy if it's accomplished by nicotine. Much, MUCH better to be slightly heavier with a healthy heart, lungs, blood pressure, and well-functioning organs than to be thin with diseased organs.
Jennifer
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Oh, about drinking. Alcohol *slows* down your metabolism, which is like fooling your body into thinking it's eating more than it really is! Thus, it's very, very easy to gain weight with alcohol. Plus, alcohol is extremely caloric. A 4oz glass of wine can be 200 calories!
Of course, you don't have to be a tee-totaler to lose weight, but for best results, alcohol should be consumed very seldom for weight loss because of the calories and its effect on metabolism.
It may be true that smoking decreases some people's appetites. But, at what price? I lost my mom, a sweet, beautiful woman, 7 years ago from smoking-related lung cancer. She was 51 years old and had a bright future cut short.
Smoking can help make you thin and dead. Not to mention, wrinkled and stinky. And broke. No good can come from it.
Over the last year, I have had wine with dinner or at parties occasionally, anywhere from one to three glasses and it didn't affect my diet at all. I also had the occasional mixed drink. I factored the extra calories into the day's calories. I think that in moderation, it's fine if you can handle it. For me, not depriving myself of this small pleasure helped me to stay on my diet in the long run. Only you know if this works for you.
Elissa
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Jennifer
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Elissa, I am so, so sorry to hear about your mother. That is so tragic.
I've never smoked in my life so I have no idea how difficult it is to quit, but with all the information and education we have today, I simply do not understand why anyone would ever start in the first place. It's completely stupid. Like you said, who wants to be stinky and wrinkly?
Thanks, Jennifer. It was indeed a terrible tragedy.
Incidentally, quitting cold turkey was one of the hardest things I've ever accomplished (I was a 10-year pack and a half a day smoker). I will do anything I can to support friends (or strangers, for that matter) who need help or advice on quitting. No family should go through what we had to.
Elissa
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princessmonica
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Monica, does your mom exercise? That can make a huge difference, not only in her weight, but how she feels about herself.
she used to. she just can't get motavative to exercise again. for awhile we didn't have a car so she was walking a lot. she still wants to try to keep walking but with the heat starting it gets to hot to walk around. i feel i'm he one that got her started smoking again. she quit when she found out i was pregnant but then i had a miscarrige my mom still stop for alittle bit. i feel if i didn't have a miscarriage she wouldn't of started smoking at all.
Monica, she's an adult and you are not responsible for her smoking. It's normal to feel badly that her smoking appears to have started again after that event, but each of us alone is responsible for what we put into our bodies.
I long ago accepted that my mother died at 51 because she chose to smoke. It was her life and her choice. I am not angry at her for it (most of the time!) because it was her life to do with as she pleased, not mine.
So please don't feel like it's your fault, because it isn't. You're not being fair to yourself.
Elissa
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demodoll
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Smoking is a weird and insidious habit. It is all tied up with emotions as well as physical addiction. It is easy to tell yourself that you can have just one and when that one isn't enough, you can con yourself into believing that cigarettes aren't hurting you. Afterall, lots of skinny stars smoke. Remember though, you are making the choice to do it. You can also choose not to.
I could quit for years and then something awful would happen in my life and I would just HAVE to smoke. Often, that HAVE to would turn into several years of smoking every day.
I work in healthcare so I know exactly what a horrible toll cigarettes take on the human body. On my 40th birthday, I decided to quit for good and I have done just that. It really wasn't that hard since my husband wouldn't let me smoke in the house or car and at the office they had thrown all the smokers outside (in the cold) so there weren't many places left to smoke in comfort. I have gained 20 pounds but that could also be attributed to middle age too. That is what my doctor told me.
My 17 year old daughter smokes. I throw her cigarettes away whenever I find them but she always manages to get more. I have tried to get her to quit but with a kid that age, the more you nag, the more they want to do it. I am hoping that she will want to quit on her own soon.
Smoking is just one of the worst things you can do!
"It is better to look marvelous than to feel marvelous" Billy Crystal
Congratulations on quitting and your firm resolve to stay quit. You are right, smoking is an insidious and deadly addiction. You are a winner!
I agree on not pushing your daughter. From what I remember, only one out of ten who smoked as teenagers actually became long term smokers (from my high school group.) Unfortunately, that one was me! Fortunately, next October will be fourteen years since I quit.
Congratulations again!
Elissa
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princessmonica
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thank you. i know deep down it's her choice. when i first met my husband he smoked. he could smoke 2 packs a day. then he would smoke just a little. finally one day he quit altogether.
Elissa I'm sorry your mom died in middle age but there really are no guarantees for any of us. I lost my dad when he was 48 so I know it hurts to have a parent die prematurely, even though I wasn't that close with my Dad, he didn't live with us. You never know though, there are so many ways to die. You never know when or how you will die,-( even though we all want to live healthy and long of course). My Dad died violently in a shootout that was basically his fault, he was intelligent and charismatic but he was unfortunately also a criminal, he got shot robbing a store.. ....but that is in the past, on to other things!
Thanks Elissa. My Dad choose to live the way he did. Live by the sword, die by the sword. He could have lived and died differently. He had a rough live, was raised poor and so forth , but that's no excuse for some of the things he did. He wanted to be an outlaw.
...but as I said, that's past now. On to other things.
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