Owners of ‘Overflow Crossfit’, Jerry and Lorina Papali’i spend their weeknights and Saturday mornings training and coaching members. While sport has always been in their blood, they admit that their health journey looks a lot different now. Lorina, who has represented New Zealand and Samoa in both rugby and rugby league, admits that she started smoking as a teenager in high school. Husband Jerry also started socially smoking as a teen which resulted in a fifteen-year habit.
Lorina quit smoking after finding out she was pregnant with her son, NRL star for the Parramatta Eels, Isaiah Papali’i. “While I was pregnant…that was one time I quit, but as soon as he was born, I smoked again” explains Lorina. Eventually she gave up the cigarettes when a challenge was issued by her sister, “‘Let’s quit before we’re thirty”.
To help her practically, Lorina read Allen Carr’s self-help book ‘Easy way to quit smoking’ but avoided the final ‘action’ chapter. “I was thinking, I am not going to read that chapter because I am NOT going to quit”.
After participating in a consumer’s research event which surveyed smokers for potential smoking advertisements, the images caused Lorina to quit cold turkey. “They were making a commercial and they paid us $50 to show us images and then they were asking, ‘would this help you quit?’ and I thought, how gross, I’m making excuses. So, I quit and chucked a packet of smokes in the bin straight after that. It was so random; I didn’t know that I could quit...I was happy as!”
Jerry says, “One of the main reasons that I quit was because Lorina stopped, I wasn’t much of a heavy smoker but when Lorina quit, it influenced me to stop”. Another reason Jerry was able to quit the habit quickly was because he noticed that his friends were asking regularly for cigarettes, “I had some good friends at work that used to take a lot of my cigarettes…which was another reason I wanted to stop, because I was supplying for other people. I stopped hanging out with smokers, that helped my decision.”
Since quitting in 2005, Lorina says that she doesn’t miss being out in the cold, “as smokers you always have to remove yourself to smoke outside. I’m also calmer, when I was smoking, I used to panic that I wouldn’t have enough time to smoke, now I have more time.” Physical effects that she noticed since quitting was that her skin was brighter, her fingers were not yellow from the nicotine, and she wouldn’t have to get her teeth professionally cleaned as often, “the smells are not in the house, not in the car, and as smokers we would get stinky breath. When smokers cough, your cough is deep, heavy, and sore. Also, it creates more time, I have more time to enjoy my food, people and occasions.”
Jerry says that since he has kicked the habit, his sense of taste and smell is better. “I was afraid that I was going to gain weight when I stopped smoking but then it wasn’t a thing.” shares Jerry. “We stopped smoking before we came across CrossFit, but I would guarantee that my training wouldn’t be anywhere near what it is now, my recovery time and training would be staggered. It’s not as hard as it seems, just surround yourself with those who are in good habits, the more you’re around people that are smoking, it’s harder for you to get out.”
When asked if they have any final encouragement, both Lorina and Jerry mentioned that they didn’t see themselves ever quitting. Lorina shares, “I just thought I was never going to give up. Give it a go, to feel the benefits.”
