happy anniversary

Just as there's a time frame for withdrawal symptoms from stopping tobacco, there's a time frame for reaping some great health benefits. Keep these points in mind, especially during the first weeks and months of stopping.

Within:
- twenty minutes your blood pressure, heart rate and temperature in your hands and feet normalize.
- eight hours oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in your blood normalize.
- one day your likelihood of having a heart attack decreases.
- two days your senses of smell and taste improve. Nerve endings start to regrow.
- two weeks to three months your circulation becomes better and your breathing improves. Walking becomes easier.
- one to nine months coughing, sinus congestion, shortness of breath and fatigue decrease. You have more energy.
- one year your excess risk of heart disease is now less than half what it was a year ago.
- five years your risk of cancer of the lung, mouth, throat and esophagus is half that of a pack-a-day smoker.
- ten years your risk of dying from lung cancer is similar to that of a nonsmoker.
- fifteen years you are no more at risk of heart disease than if you'd never smoked.

in the last year i've not smoked 2080 cigarettes and saved at least $728. my breathing has markedly improved and my sense of smell is freakishly sensitive. i don't have that annoying "throat gurgle" anymore. now that i've finally reached the one-year mark, i'm ready to proclaim i'm officially a non-smoker again. go me!