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Correcting Unhealthy Choices

Correcting Unhealthy Choices

When it comes to leading a healthy life, not everyone can claim a medal for good behavior.

But if your past is checkered with bad habits and unhealthy choices, never fear. The Early Show Medical Correspondent Dr. Emily Senay shares some ways to repair the damage and prevent further harm.

Whether it's smoking, bad diet or sunbathing, it's never too late to change your "evil ways" and make a difference to your health, Senay says. Just stopping the bad habits is enough to help in many cases, and there are other ways to compensate for the bad choices in your past.

Quitting smoking starts a healing process. Senay says the beneficial effects are immediate, as it is shown in the following data by the American Cancer Society:

After 20 Minutes: Blood Pressure Decreases

After 1 Day: Heart Attack Risk Decreases

Within 3 Months: Circulation And Lung Function Improve

After 1 Year: Heart Disease Risk is Half That of a Smoker

After 5 Years: Stroke Risk is Reduced to Non-Smoker Risk

After 10 Years: Lung Cancer Death Rate is Half That of a Smoker

After 15 Years: Heart Disease Risk Reduced to Non-Smoker Risk

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I found this article to be pretty informative and I do encourage you to read the rest of the article from the link I dropped. I actually didn't know that what kind of effects of quitting smoking were til I read this. Of course I knew you would be more healthier, but I had no idea what all it helped after you quit smoking.

Choices Unhealthy Correcting

I read the article. I think the important thing to remember is it is never too late to start anew. One of my sisters has lived a very unhealthy life in the past and is significantly overweight and out of shape. She is now losing weight (50 or 60 pounds already) and exercising. She began exercising by just doing 1 minute on the stair stepper. That was all she could handle. She now is up to over 6 minutes. Doesn't sound like much, but if she persists, she will one day be able to do much more than that. The important thing is that she didn't quit when all she could do was 1 minute and just say this is too hard, I will never be able to do this.

I swim 1 mile 3 times per week. In the pool where I swim, this is 36 laps (72 lengths). When I began this swimming program, I could only do 9 laps. And that left me quite winded. It took me several months to build up to a mile. I added 1 lap each time I swam. I felt silly getting in the pool and only swimming 9 laps when the people all around me were swimming much faster and longer, but now, I am one of them!

Edited: tenaheff on 9th Jan, 2004 - 4:21pm

Correcting Unhealthy Choices Health & Special Psychology

Yeah! In June of this year I will mark 5 years of Not smoking!! Even when I was smoking I knew it was so wrong. Some things this article didn't give regarding beneficial effects is that after a couple of months your sense of taste improves, and your sense of smell. After a year you stop smelling of tobacco/tar/nicotine that seems to be imbedded in your pores and inside of you. You are able to fight off colds faster. Just to name a few off the top of my head.

Choices Unhealthy Correcting

Yea, I have probably been quit smoking almost 3 years now and the taste for food definitely comes back. As the time goes on since I have quit smoking, I do feel better and better.

Tena you are right, I actually found that I had more energy to excerise than when I smoked. I too thought it was hard to quit and really it took me a couple of times to finally quit all together. But the second time I quit, I started excercising which really helped to curve alot of the craving to smoke too.

Choices Unhealthy Correcting

Monday marks 9 months of non-smoking. Whew! I still can't believe I did it and LIVED through it....


Roz

Correcting Unhealthy Choices

My grandmother told me that when my mother was pregnant of me, she smoked and I was born with breathing problems ( I can smell a cigarrete from miles away!) I just cannot stand the smell, the smoke or anything that smells as cigarrette, I feel like my chest close and start getting very sick.

I corrected some of my unhealthy choices last year when I decided to become a Vegetarian, nobody can believe I did it because they knew my love for meat , I feel stronger, healthier and with more energy than ever! I cannot remember the last time I ate a meal and felt sleepy!. It feels good to eat properly.

Correcting Unhealthy Choices

Happy 9 month Anniversary FarSeer!! I used the 3 step patch, and my family sent my name in to three different Temples, so there was no way I was not going to make it. For two years whenever I smelled fresh brewed coffee I would want a cigarette. Or I would catch a faint whif of smoke and I would want one. I knew that if I had even one puff ~ I would be a goner. It does get easier as time goes on. And before you know it, you will find the smell offensive. A member friend of mine is dating a non-member. She said that kissing her bf is like licking the bottome of a dirty ashtray ~ and she told him that as long as he smokes, they will only be shaking hands!