John's teenage mistreatment of his body and later quitting smoking and running (c. 1993-2005)
story · status: told 5× · last event: mentioned (2026-02-15)
John has told how he treated his body badly when young, smoking from 14 into his late 20s, up to 30 or 40 cigarettes a day, and refusing to exercise. He quit smoking with nicotine gum, the gum being the harder habit to drop, and by 2020 he ran even though he had once used a joke about jogging as a reason not to exercise.
About: tobacco smoking, Nicorette
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-08-30 | told | John says until recently he felt better than 10 or 20 years ago, largely because when younger he treated his body terribly, smoking and refusing to exercise. | My Body Is a Broken Temple 00:00:46 |
| 2019-03-26 | retold | Asked how he quit smoking, John says with nicotine gum; the hard part was quitting the gum. | Optimism and Spider People: Question Tuesday from the Looking for Alaska Set 00:01:27 |
| 2020-02-11 | retold | As a kid John took a comedian's joke, that jogging extends life by exactly the minutes spent jogging, as a reason not to exercise; now, even if it were true, which it isn't, he'd still run. | 1,100 Days: A Mental and Physical Health Update 00:03:24 |
| 2024-06-11 | retold | John says he used quite a lot of tobacco when he was younger, though he understood the serious health risks, because smoking was cool. | BEEF DAYS 00:01:56 |
| 2025-06-24 | retold | John started smoking at 14 and smoked compulsively until his late 20s, 30 or 40 cigarettes a day, even waking at 3 a.m. to smoke to calm himself down. | Am I Cigarettes? 00:00:05 |
| 2026-02-13 | mentioned | John says he once thought smoking cool and earnestness the worst thing to be; now he thinks smoking the lamest thing, handing money to tobacco companies, and earnestness super underrated. | Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! 07:14:39 |
| 2026-02-15 | mentioned | John says he still has Instagram on his phone though he does not want to; he knows it is bad for him, like cigarettes, which he smoked for a long time and took a long time to quit. | Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! 04:34:38 |
What is said about it
11 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2020-02-11 · 1,100 Days: A Mental and Physical Health Update — John describes a helpful shift in how he imagines himself: he never thought of himself as fit or healthy and defined himself against fitness, a nerd, not a jock; a mind person, not a body person. — 00:01:56
- 2024-06-11 · BEEF DAYS — John says norms feel permanent, as smoking's coolness did to him in high school, but they can change, and when they do it can be really powerful. — 00:02:58
- 2025-06-24 · Am I Cigarettes? — John: After quitting smoking John chewed Nicorette compulsively for about five years, 50 to 60 pieces a day, which his doctor said was about three packs' worth of nicotine daily. — 00:00:29
- 2016-08-30 · My Body Is a Broken Temple — John recalls that at boarding school, at about 16, he ate only nacho cheese Doritos and drank only Mountain Dew for eight days straight. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
- 2016-08-30 · My Body Is a Broken Temple — John says he once saw his body as a burden required for consciousness, separate from and even opposite to the mind, an adversary to be placated. — 00:01:13
- 2016-08-30 · My Body Is a Broken Temple — John calls that view seductive but flawed, because there is no distinct line between body and mind. — 00:01:38
- 2016-08-30 · My Body Is a Broken Temple — John says that after he began treating his body better, quitting smoking in 2002 and running a mile in 2005, he got better at reading and writing. — 00:01:44
- 2016-08-30 · My Body Is a Broken Temple — John says treating his body less terribly in his 30s let him feel young for a decade, but now he is old and can't inhale without pain. (playful) — 00:01:56
- 2016-08-30 · My Body Is a Broken Temple — John offers as the only moral that your body is a temple: don't fill it with Doritos, nor with beer on your 39th birthday, or you will hurt yourself. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:08
- 2019-03-26 · Optimism and Spider People: Question Tuesday from the Looking for Alaska Set — John's favorite Catholic saint is probably St. Francis, but Sister Corita Kent would be his favorite if canonized, as a recent Art Assignment video explains. (hedged) — 00:01:57
- 2019-03-26 · Optimism and Spider People: Question Tuesday from the Looking for Alaska Set — announcement: John: Asked whether he'll ever write a new book, John says he hopes so. (hedged) — 00:02:26