Though I've heard that saying a thousand times I never really believed it to be true until fairly recently. 

I've always been an active guy and never had too much an issue in keeping my weight in check but I did smoke tobacco for 25 years and spent a great deal of the previous decade sitting on my butt. I was still relatively skinny, but I was not healthy!

About two years ago I had a doctor scare me into quitting smoking .. I asked myself if I intended to smoke for the rest of my life (to which I answered NO) and realized that I was already making a choice to smoke, I just needed to change my choice to NO. My wife, also a long-time smoker, decided to join me on my quitting quest, but she being much brighter than I understood that she needed something to substitute for the smoking or else "I'd just get really fat". She chose exercise.

Now the doctor I spoke of was a surgeon who had performed arthroscopy on my knee and so I needed to do more exercise for physiotherapy so I readily agreed and joined her in using the treadmill.

The first full run I had allowed me to go 4 miles in 56 minutes, and my lungs ached for 10 minutes after that. Within 6 months I was doing the same 4 miles in 36 minutes and my recovery time was about two minutes. 

Now, over two years later, and I can run 4 miles in 30 minutes, over 7 miles in an hour and my recovery time is measured in seconds. Even with decades of abuse, the body recovers, it is truly amazing.

I doubt very much that I would have been able to create GATE Village had I continued with my previous lifestyle ... oh, and I've not craved a cigarette for well over 18 months!