If you have not figured it out by now, I believe strongly in the idea that vigorous exercise can help you to overcome a smoking addiction.

In fact, I think in many cases it can (and should) be the primary strategy for beating cigarette addiction.

Physical exercise helps you in so many ways, and it also helps you in the short term, the long run, etc.

A couple of key points here:

* Keep in mind that when we talk about exercise as a means of smoking cessation, we are talking about vigorous exercise. It has to be something that actually gets your heart rate up and gets you huffing and puffing a bit. If you are not sweating or breathing hard then you will not get most of the benefits that we talk about here. If you are already in good shape then you will have no problem in knowing how to achieve this level of workout. If you are NOT in great shape then you can probably achieve this intensity simply by walking briskly for a good 30 to 45 minutes.

* Your goal should be vigorous exercise for 45 to 60 minutes, every day of the week or nearly every day.

* You should establish this habit of vigorous exercise BEFORE you quit smoking. During your quit week it is too difficult to establish a new exercise routine. In fact it is all but impossible. That is why you must establish the exercise routine beforehand.

* Exercising before you even quit will make it easier to put down the smokes. This is because of the endorphin rush and feel-good chemicals that flood your brain when you work out. It will make you crave cigarettes less.

* Exercising during your quit week will help to reduce cravings, but it will also help to distract you, as well as to help flush your system out faster. Those who do no exercise will have metabolize the remaining nicotine more slowly than someone who is working out vigorously every day, sweating profusely, and re-hydrating.

* Exercising after you have quit will help give you insurance against relapse. This is accomplished on at least two different levels. On one level, you feel good after working out, and will have less need each day to self medicate with nicotine. On another level, you will become happy and proud of your new fitness level, and will become very unlikely to want to risk that new found health on a smoking relapse. Your healthy exercise habit becomes insurance against relapse.

Unbelievably, after explaining these details to a current smoker, they have argued back with me: “Aren’t you just trading one addiction for another? Smoking for exercise?”

What? Are you serious? As if a regular exercise habit is unhealthy or something?

Or that there is some risk in using exercise in order to quit smoking cigarettes? Like it is a dangerous way to go about it or something?

I am truly flabbergasted that smokers would have this sort of logic going on.

I guess I would advise you to talk with your doctor, or to talk with several doctors. Ask them if it is healthy to start exercising and quit smoking. They will likely raise their eyebrow at you and think you are setting them up for some sort of dumb joke.

I am sure it is possible to over-do the exercise and get carried away with it, but even if you did, that is a much healthier risk to take then continuing to smoke.

The benefits of regular exercise are so far reaching and so pervasive that the things I have outlined here merely scratch the surface. You get all sorts of other benefits from exercise, such as:

* Disease prevention.
* Increased confidence.
* Increase mental clarity (exercise is like meditation for most people, once you are in good shape).
* Better sleep, more restful, fall asleep quicker each night, etc.
* Healthier eating, as you exercise more and more, you adapt your diet to give you better fuel for exercise.
* More energy on a daily basis that you can actually feel and notice.

It is impossible to fully describe all of these benefits and how profound they are unless you actually get into good shape and experience them for yourself.

When combined with quitting smoking and eliminating the cigarette habit, the resulting change to how you feel on a regular basis is very profound.

Get into shape and quit smoking. Those two changes, combined, will transform your life in a way that you probably cannot predict.

In a word, it will be AWESOME!