Going to be OTD, but worried about my health

I'm not a truck driver yet so I can't speak about what to eat on the road but...

STOP SMOKING! My dad smoked for 30 years and now has emphysema and his lung capacity is 30% of what it used to be. You can hear him breathing from across the room. Not to mention the rotten teeth, fingernails that have to be cut with wirecutters, and the money that went up in smoke, literally.

 

Eat the kind of healthy food on the road that you would be eating at home. AVOID fast food. Keep fruit and veggis in the truck to snack on. AVOID sodas. Pack sandwich items. It will depend if you are able to have a fridge or a micro in your truck. Make (or have your wife make) healthy items and portion them out so you have a healthy homecooked meal instead of the processed, high-sodium pre-made meals. But those are still better than fast food.

 

Get in the habit of drinking water. Not that you need hydration, but rather to ween yourself off the stuff contained in soda and coffee.

As far as food goes, fresh is the key, and make it yourself. Wally world food centers are your best friend. Salad with chicken will beat a Big Mac any day.

 

What they said about the food, BUT......(and I know you dont want to hear this) if you are a "stress related" smoker, which is just a cheap excuse, then you better get a handle on your stress before you go out on the road being an over the road trucker, because if you think you have stress now, you will find lots more out on the road. weather the situations are or not is all in how you perceive them. So smoke all you want (dont) but if your mental health is such that you "have" to smoke because of stress then something should be changed because you will just be asking for trouble once you hop in a big rig, and dont take this personal but I dont want to be running next to the guy that's all wigged out because he got held up 30 minutes at his last stop or he's gonna be late for his next stop etc...........

 

agreed, health is about more than just food

 

As long as you have your plan to quit, stick with it. My friends who have quit successfully were the ones who picked a date and planned for it. They told themselves for quite some time before that date that they wouldn't be smoking anymore after XXXXX. It worked for them. One friend recently found success and and extra boost of help from a RX.

 

As for smoking, I only want to say, I smoked for quite a while and finally quit about 10 months ago, thank god it's gone.
Being 21, now is the time to quit as it will be much easier now than in 10 or even 20 years as the addiction is much stronger then. Get out while you can.
If your 250 pounds now, you will weigh a lot more than that if you go trucking, no two ways about it. Diet is important and many have explained those options in other posts in this thread so you have heard already. Truck driving is a very non physical lifestyle and it will take its toll as a result.
Go out there for a year and see what happens, if you don't like what you see you will be 22 or 23 then and it will still be plenty early enough to make some kind of plan to make the change. You may decide trucking is not for you lke so many young people do these days anyway. Forget about being home and chasing girls, that's over when you start trucking.
Trucking will become your wife.,,er I mean life....
Think about it real hard dude.