Smoke Free- The year in review

All day today I was thinking about the ways in which my life has changed in the last year, since I quit smoking. Now there is the physical things, my skin, which was once pale and grayish, is now pink and healthy looking. My hair is shiny and much healthier, I was at the very beginning stages of having gum disease and had a lot of pain in my mouth because of this - my teeth are now totally healthy. Of course the biggest changes are on the inside. I no longer wheeze after a weekend of chain smoking, I no longer feel exhausted at the end of the day, and of course I was able to run a 5k a month ago, which was nothing more than a dream last year. Today at the gym my workout was definitely something that I never could have done a year ago. Here is what I did:

- 1/2 mile walking warm up on the treadmill.
- the step machine- the equivalent of 30 flights of stairs, non stop
- step up cycle where I had to do exercises on the step, and jump over and then do kicks and modified burpees in between and throw a medicine ball.
-boxing - 100 reps each of, jab, then cross, then jab cross, hook, and finally uppercut. (yep, that is 500 reps!)

I thought I was done at this point but
- the step machine again - equivalent to another 30 flights of stairs. (I stopped a few times to catch my breath this time)
- and then mat work. 60 crunches.

At the end of this I was absolutely drenched in sweat! The best part is that my breathing was not an issue, my legs ached and my face was red, but I never actually was out of breath, and that just wouldn't have been possible 1 year ago.