Motivation to stop smoking

Smoking is something that keeps millions of people from working out, improving their fitness and becoming healthy. If you smoke, you're unlikely to exercise because heavy breathing is hard to do with smoke-damaged lungs. Also, many people mistakingly believe that quitting smoking will automatically lead to weight gain. This does happen sometimes, but not if you replace bad habits with good ones. But, besides the health costs, the financial costs associated with being a smoker are ridiculous...

From MSN Money:

The high cost of smoking

If the threat of cancer can't convince you to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.

The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance and lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits.

Researchers at Duke University found that the total cost of smoking -- the cigarettes, lost earnings, impact on insurance on mortality, even the impact of secondhand smoke -- runs about $40 per pack for the average 24-year-old. The Centers for Disease Control estimates 46.2 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. The economic burden of smokers totals more than $75 billion per year in medical expenditures, and $80 billion per year from lost productivity.

Yet large-scale economic statistics may not prove any more convincing than large-scale cancer statistics. Better to add up the tally on your own.

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