Baby steps

[CaptJay]

So..I got into the e-cig thing about a week ago - not really time yet is it for me to say its any kind of success?
I have the Joye510 and a couple of blank carts, pre-filleds, extra juice bottles (most with 0 nic and one with 24mg nic) and a PT which I've only jsut started to use.
I haven't found any major issues with the 510 itself - although Im not sure I'm filling the blank carts right (they have hte pyramid tbag things in, and I drip about 5 drops in there cos its so tiny and I dont want it leaking out).
I was smoking ultra light cigs before all this - I smoked around a pack a day - sometimes 2 packs. My nose felt stuffed all the time, I think i was keeping Kleenex in business with all the nose blowing I had to do daily. The morning cough/clear out had become the night waking cough, and the morning gasp/cough and I just didn't feel 'right'.
Since I came over to the US I've excercised a lot less, and at first I thought that was the reason - but I think it was only partly to blame and now I felt tired, ill, and like I had a permanent cold all the time. When i did get colds they were bad, sometimes included sinus infections, and stayed a while. Every day I had to clear my throat constantly because it felt like I was drowning.
But I never tried to give up smoking - I;m not an addictive person - Ive cut out all sorts of things from my life without too much issue and not gone back so why not smoking? It was my sole crutch is the answer - and I;d come to rely on it for every little stress-out I ever had.
Angry? have a smoke.
Hungry? Have a smoke.
Stressed out? Have a smoke.
Upset and emotional? well you can guess..

I got to the point, which I'm sure you all have, where smoking really was more a habit than a relaxing enjoyment. Half the cigarettes I smoked didn't even taste good, and I didn't actually WANT them, plus I was feeling more ill as each day passed and starting to worry that I might get a heart attack or lung issues as my wake up call.
Then I was in a mall one day and saw one of 'those' salepeople for 'that' brand of ecig. Intrigued I decided NOT to buy but come research on the Net.
Since I found you guys, and all the info here, things have been a little different.
I've gone from the 1-2 packs a day to between 2-8 analogues a day - I don't feel like I have a perma-cold any more. My chest feels a whole lot better, although i still cough and occasionally have hte throat clearing thing, its not CONSTANT. Its not so often I think I'm going to die.
There IS an alternative that involves blowing smoke and inhaling but although its long term dangers are still uknown they aren't giving me the side effects cigarettes did. They don't give me constant phlegm and chest tightness.
I've gone from 2 packs to LESS than half a pack per day and to me thats nothing short of a miracle. Wil I be able to give up the remaining 2 - 8 ciggies per day? I don't know but right now I don't actually care as much as the fact that I already HAVE given up more ciggies than that. I even try to vape with low low nic strengths (and Im finding my analogues now taste a bit strong for my liking) and concentrate more of flavors.
Honestly I can't manage to convey in words the whole 'this is me jumping up n down and yelling OMG can you BELIEVE this?' but I hope you get some sense of my amazement at how well this, using e-cigs, has/is working for a smoker who never thought they'd be considering life without cigs.
This is me, taking baby steps

[sherid]

So..I got into the e-cig thing about a week ago - not really time yet is it for me to say its any kind of success?
I have the Joye510 and a couple of blank carts, pre-filleds, extra juice bottles (most with 0 nic and one with 24mg nic) and a PT which I've only jsut started to use.
I haven't found any major issues with the 510 itself - although Im not sure I'm filling the blank carts right (they have hte pyramid tbag things in, and I drip about 5 drops in there cos its so tiny and I dont want it leaking out).
I was smoking ultra light cigs before all this - I smoked around a pack a day - sometimes 2 packs. My nose felt stuffed all the time, I think i was keeping Kleenex in business with all the nose blowing I had to do daily. The morning cough/clear out had become the night waking cough, and the morning gasp/cough and I just didn't feel 'right'.
Since I came over to the US I've excercised a lot less, and at first I thought that was the reason - but I think it was only partly to blame and now I felt tired, ill, and like I had a permanent cold all the time. When i did get colds they were bad, sometimes included sinus infections, and stayed a while. Every day I had to clear my throat constantly because it felt like I was drowning.
But I never tried to give up smoking - I;m not an addictive person - Ive cut out all sorts of things from my life without too much issue and not gone back so why not smoking? It was my sole crutch is the answer - and I;d come to rely on it for every little stress-out I ever had.
Angry? have a smoke.
Hungry? Have a smoke.
Stressed out? Have a smoke.
Upset and emotional? well you can guess..

I got to the point, which I'm sure you all have, where smoking really was more a habit than a relaxing enjoyment. Half the cigarettes I smoked didn't even taste good, and I didn't actually WANT them, plus I was feeling more ill as each day passed and starting to worry that I might get a heart attack or lung issues as my wake up call.
Then I was in a mall one day and saw one of 'those' salepeople for 'that' brand of ecig. Intrigued I decided NOT to buy but come research on the Net.
Since I found you guys, and all the info here, things have been a little different.
I've gone from the 1-2 packs a day to between 2-8 analogues a day - I don't feel like I have a perma-cold any more. My chest feels a whole lot better, although i still cough and occasionally have hte throat clearing thing, its not CONSTANT. Its not so often I think I'm going to die.
There IS an alternative that involves blowing smoke and inhaling but although its long term dangers are still uknown they aren't giving me the side effects cigarettes did. They don't give me constant phlegm and chest tightness.
I've gone from 2 packs to LESS than half a pack per day and to me thats nothing short of a miracle. Wil I be able to give up the remaining 2 - 8 ciggies per day? I don't know but right now I don't actually care as much as the fact that I already HAVE given up more ciggies than that. I even try to vape with low low nic strengths (and Im finding my analogues now taste a bit strong for my liking) and concentrate more of flavors.
Honestly I can't manage to convey in words the whole 'this is me jumping up n down and yelling OMG can you BELIEVE this?' but I hope you get some sense of my amazement at how well this, using e-cigs, has/is working for a smoker who never thought they'd be considering life without cigs.
This is me, taking baby steps

That was a lovely testimony.

[Sign-Man]

[eGeek]

Excellent, amazing story and there are so many of them. Really pleased for you.

[kjj]

I've gone from the 1-2 packs a day to between 2-8 analogues a day - I don't feel like I have a perma-cold any more. My chest feels a whole lot better, although i still cough and occasionally have hte throat clearing thing, its not CONSTANT. Its not so often I think I'm going to die.
There IS an alternative that involves blowing smoke and inhaling but although its long term dangers are still uknown they aren't giving me the side effects cigarettes did. They don't give me constant phlegm and chest tightness.
I've gone from 2 packs to LESS than half a pack per day and to me thats nothing short of a miracle. Wil I be able to give up the remaining 2 - 8 ciggies per day? I don't know but right now I don't actually care as much as the fact that I already HAVE given up more ciggies than that. I even try to vape with low low nic strengths (and Im finding my analogues now taste a bit strong for my liking) and concentrate more of flavors.
Honestly I can't manage to convey in words the whole 'this is me jumping up n down and yelling OMG can you BELIEVE this?' but I hope you get some sense of my amazement at how well this, using e-cigs, has/is working for a smoker who never thought they'd be considering life without cigs.
This is me, taking baby steps

Excellent start! Be proud of your progress so far and don't worry so much about quitting before you are ready.

My story was very similar. I went from two packs a day to less than a half pack in under a week, and it was so easy I barely noticed that it was happening. And then a few days later something came up that helped me finish quitting. The first day sucked. I spent several hours that day crazy with the need to get a real cigarette, but snus helped me get over that hurdle. You might want to look into it and be ready to get some if you need it when your day comes.

Concentrate on the 75% progress that you've made already, and let the rest happen when it happens. Don't despair if you aren't ready in a few days, or weeks, or months, you've still done more than you ever thought possible.

Thank you for posting this, and keep coming back to let everyone know how you are doing. These stories are the most important thing on these forums. New people come here all the time and read them, your story might be the one that makes someone sit up and say "Hey! This guy is just like me, and look what he did! Maybe I can do it too!".

[bettyboop]

I totally agree !!Yes e-cigs makes quitting suck less..LOL

[aschmidy]

I know how you feel. My ecig was first honest thought after 34 years of smoking that there was even a possibility that I maybe could one day not smoke and not die because of cigarettes. It took me 3 months to give up my last 10 cigs per day. I just had to be sure the ecig was going to be there for me like my cigs always had. Once I was totally off the smokes I was surprised how much less hooked, or dependent I felt on them. It is a great feeling.

[420GypsyGirl]

Congrats and keep going. VP's are life prolongers and it can work. You, I and many like us are walking proof that PV's can get people off smoking cancer causing regular cigarettes.

[tbl35]

I;d come to rely on it for every little stress-out I ever had.
Angry? have a smoke.
Hungry? Have a smoke.
Stressed out? Have a smoke.
Upset and emotional? well you can guess..

I got to the point, which I'm sure you all have, where smoking really was more a habit than a relaxing enjoyment. Half the cigarettes I smoked didn't even taste good, and I didn't actually WANT them, plus I was feeling more ill as each day passed and starting to worry that I might get a heart attack or lung issues as my wake up call.

Man does THIS ever sound like me. I was hating the cigarettes but kept on doing it anyway and any sign of stress made me run for one despite the breathing issues and generally feeling like crap most of the time.

Keep it up & thanks for sharing!

[CaptJay]

Still going with my little 510 - still not smoking more than 10 ultra lights a day - and most of those are late night ones, I try hard (and succeed 9 times out of 10) to make my first puff o'the day is PV and not analog.
Just thought I'd add: having the e-cig is really a LOT like having a baby's dummy (what you yanks call a pacifier, rather more apt) which I suspect is what many people use analogs for without realising it. I'm pretty sure I did. It's replacing THAT pacification habit with THIS one that takes some of us a little time (and theres evidence of some alkaloids present in tobacco smoke, over and above the nicotine, which are NOT present in ejuice, that can have an addictive nature, and make analogs harder to give up).
My surprise is how easy it was to cut out over half the anologs I smoked before (one and sometimes 2 packs a day) down to between 2 to 10 analogs. I'm also finding that analogs don't taste as good as they sued to and when I DO have one, its for the 'hit' (can't describe it better than that) and ceratinly not the taste (oh and after I smoke one my mouth and tongue taste horrid); it does require some willpower on my part as well because the craving for that hit comes more often than I give in to it (yay me) and I go suck on my PV instead.
I did have one little mishap that involved raspberry flavoring that I found in the supermarket; figured I'd share it with ya. It had PG in its list of ingredients so I thought yay - I can smoke it (yeah I'm sure some of you are chuckling right about now, it's ok, go ahead ) - so I added a drop or 2 to my cart and BOY what a wonderful flavor it was SO raspberry and nice - then i came here and see a post from sun vapor saying bascially 'oh and don't smoke those flavorings from the store that have COLORING IN THEM'
I panicked and stopped vaping it - threw the cart away but the taste lingers over pretty much everything in that atty I've tried cleaning it out (hot water, overnight dryout) but yeah..lesson learned..now what am i gonna do with all this raspberry flavoring....