So... I quit smoking just over 2 years ago now...
I've been trying to work out what's changed in my life, I still have the same girlfriend (who incidentally is still awesome and still has a lovely bottom). I have the same job, same car, different bike (cycle), my boy is 2 years older.
In my initial quit the cycling was really good, you could feel and time the improvement as you realised your lungs were working better, my cycles to work got faster, my recovery times got shorter, my recordings (which I do with a helmet cam) were quite telling with the breathing, the wheeze is gone. I'm tempted to upload a new video of me going flat out just so you can hear me heavy breathing in a very sexy way... and by sexy I mean not at all sexy... in fact it's more like I'm about to vomit... which I think could actually be pretty sexy if people like puke... but... I digress...
But...
The difference aside from all the kind of obvious stuff (breathing better, taste better, smell better etc.) is that I don't worry about it, I don't worry about where the next smoke is coming from, I went to Mexico recently, it was an 11 hour flight, I didn't even consider when and where I could smoke or plan out before I get on the plane, when I get off, and where and what I'm going to do. Everything is easier, no stock piling before Christmas just in case a shop isn't open, no desperately trying to 'borrow' a smoke from someone, no trying to light a cigarette with your last match and if you fail you're going to have to drive 100 metres to the shop because it's too much effort to walk. Huddling in corners or under your coat trying to light a cigarette on a windy day, huddling under a tree with your smoking buddies on a rainy day.
So for all those people planning on quitting, do so, it makes your life a truck load easier.
Oh and bizarrely when you pass a group of smokers, you just feel pity, not envy.