To Parents Who Smoke

Quit.

You're going to emotionally devastate your kids as you get older.  I'm the son of a man who smoked till the age of 64.  The only reason he stopped is because he could feel himself suffocating.  Over Christmas of 2008 my dad was stricken with a bronchitis flare up so bad and so fast that it almost killed him.  His body was no longer capable of fighting off a common cold.  He even experienced some internal bleeding according to the ER doctors.  That's right, I actually had to take him to the emergency room.  He spent the next several days in the hospital while they stabilized and monitored his condition.  I was scared to death.  I almost canceled a trip to Michigan with my then girlfriend at the time.  Luckily after just a day my dad was doing fine so I continued with the Trip to Michigan for Christmas.

If you're without kids and you smoke that's one thing but if you actually have kids and you smoke it is incredibly selfish of you to do so.  A lot of my friends are parents who smoke.  I still love ya but I will never apologize for the way I feel about what you're eventually going to do to your kids.  It's not about you.  It's about your kids. You don't live on an island of isolation.  I have to live with it every day and I don't even smoke!  I have to watch my own father, who was once a very strong and capable man, struggle to breath every day.  I'm completely heart broken and angry because it was 100% preventable.  The damaged alveoli that exchanges Co2 for oxygen is irrevocable.  The damage that you do to your lungs is not reversible.  My dad is on a whole 2 Liters of Oxygen every day and night 24/7 and even still he has absolutely no oxygen reserve.  The moment he removes his oxygen feed he immediately begins to feel the discomfort of suffocating :(

Now thankfully because of Shakeology he is able to fight off sickness a thousand times better than he was before shakeology but not even Shakeology is going to bring back the functionality of his lungs because it's irreversible damage.  He didn't get a cold or bronchitis flare up this year for the first time in over ten years thanks to Shakeology.  Considering my dad only has 30% of his lungs left all it would take is pneumonia for example to kill him.  Shakeology is literally a life saver for my dad.  The first sign of a cold I have to take him to the ER because he has no lung capacity to spare!  That's our new reality now.

My dad has severe sleep apnea and severe copd.  He also has bronchitis but hasn't had any flare ups since I got him on Shakeology.  He struggles to breathe every day even with oxygen assistance.  It pains me.  My dad made the choice to have kids and smoke till the age of 64.  It's not only him who is paying the price.  It's everyone around him who cares about him.  Some days are extremely difficult for me to get through.  I'm writing this note because the past couple days have been so very hard.  Sometimes I need an extra outlet like this.  I Hate what's happened to him but I also realize it stems 100% from choice.



If you smoke and have kids, even if you don't have kids, I hope you quit.  I'm not trying to tell you what to do I don't even support government imposed smoking bans but if I can somehow tap into your moral integrity please quit smoking.  If not for yourself then for the sake of others around you because like it or not you are going to break someone elses heart and it's entirely unfair.

Tom

p.s. If I seem a bit sad at times in some of my posts it's because of a few things going on simultaneously.  This is one of the bigger things.  If it were not for my Team Beachbody business and my team beachbody workouts I would probably slip into depression and I don't wanna slip into depression.  I'm EXTREMELY thankful I acted in my best interest to pursue my dreams