I was what you call an active smoker. I started in my early mid-teens... ...the exact year is escaping me as that part of my life is starting to run together in my head at times, but it had to be at least half of a decade. I've always been one of those skinny kids with that unshakable cardiovascular system. Seemed like no matter what I put my body through, my resting pulse stayed at 60-70 BPM and my blood pressure was always on-point. I was just constantly moving and putting my lungs to work. I wasn't going insanely heavy on the cardio, but I was SOLID with that shit. I felt great doing it. When I graduated, I was doing physical labor full time out in the Florida heat. For fun, I was skateboarding and doing all forms of cycling (especially anything MTB.)
And even by then, I could feel it holding me back. The tightness. The dull, creeping pain. The occasional and unexpected difficulty recovering. But man did I go! I always felt MORE energized after an hour of moderate cardio. I used to jog in sugar sand just to have an excuse to go to my favorite park, man. The workout wasn't even a thing to me. I'd kill a morning out there just running and hiking... ...just going uninhibited by a damned thing and not thinking a thing of it.
By the time I quit in my early twenties, I was doing 15 mile runs on my bike in 45 minutes... ...several times a week. One of my favorite routes took me over two half-mile, 80 foot bridges. I'm not really bragging, it's not really something to brag about... ...anyone my age could get there in a year or so, but that's pretty good for a 2PAD smoker. Point is, I smoked and this is the kind of shit that was normal for me to do.
Now, did it start to take the piss out of me every single time I did it? Hell yes. After spending ten minutes catching my breath when I got home, I would have to sit hacking up clear, chunky gook into a cup. Usually 2 shot's worth of fluid would come out. Sometimes, that was the most exhausting part of the workout!
I also couldn't sleep on my back because it felt like someone was sitting on my chest and I would just wheeze all night long. I could always kind of feel that in my chest. Every waking moment. Nostrils randomly plugging up got old fast, too. Getting sick every time something came through town was a problem. One year, I used all of my sick days in 6 months because of it... ...and I was truly physically devastated.
By this point, my blood pressure was gradually and consistently rising. My tolerance for that sort of exercise was declining. I was being careful not to push my limits. I did all of the right things when it came to diet and recovery. I know what real burnout feels like and this was different. I was trying to extend my limits, not push through them. And suddenly I was getting to a point where I was feeling it quarter way into routine work outs. Hell, walking a half-mile in the summer time was enough to accelerate my breathing. I was sliding backwards... ...more quickly by the month! Muy es no buen.
That was kind of one of many wake-up calls. I couldn't help but think, "Oh hey, I'm only 21 and this is already starting to fuck me up." From there, I made the connection... "where will I be in 10 years if this is already doing this to me now, even being in my prime and maintaining this otherwise long-standing healthy lifestyle?" It just started making less and less sense to me.
I noticed the changes within two weeks of full-time vaping. Week by week, it was all coming back to me. By the end of the first year, I had upped the intensity beyond anything I had ever withstood. And it never felt so natural to do that. Not once did I feel like I went too far. I actually started holding back, because I felt like I could go further right when I had just gone the furthest I'd ever gone!
The reality was that although I was doing pretty well for a smoker, I was nowhere near the peak of my physical potential. Some of that is probably just my body maturing. I'm almost 26 now and I feel like I'm hitting a different plateau where I can't really seem to get further as quickly, but what I can do keeps getting easier. But I think that's a separate issue.
I think my regular doctor was the one who really solidified what I was experiencing when I switched. The first thing he asked me when he first listened to my breathing after several months off of tobacco was "So, when did you quit smoking?" The funny thing, is, by then, I couldn't give him a straight answer because I couldn't remember. I hadn't felt like a smoker in a long enough time that I had completely stopped counting the days.
I guess its kind of hard for me to say where my lungs were at when I smoked. I tend to notice it more in the things that I can do now than I do in the things I couldn't do then.
I tend to think that what I had going on was relatively minor. I mean, my lungs were basically still functioning beyond your typical healthy person's and the cough was still productive. It wasn't too hard to get past in my day to day... ...just kind of something in the back of my mind. I think there wasn't a whole lot of real damage done. They were just perpetually inhibited by the acute effects of chain smoking. Once I stopped that, things went back to normal very quickly for me.
Maybe it's simplest to just say that I wasn't doing too badly as a smoker, but I've never felt better than I have now, with it several years behind me. I attribute my outcome mostly to luck/genetics and slightly less to having the framework for good health already in place. I basically had just one constant health burden to lift. It was like stepping down from a hot, stagnant attic into a well air-conditioned room. Glad I quit while I was still ahead. Even knowing the dangers, I'm still surprised at how much one can actually lose to the habit in such a short period of time.