Not smoked since December the 1st 2011 and am so happy that I finally made the decision to quit.
Yes, I had coughs and cold-like sniffles for the first month and was coughing shit up, but that stopped soon enough as my body got rid of the crap that was stopping me breathing. After that it got easier. Now I just don’t seem to really get colds and there is no way that I would be able to do what I do now (run, cycle, etc) as effectively if I was a smoker still.
Mind you, I hate seeing and smelling smoke, so I am about the worst possible ex-smoker.