The first puff of a cigarette I had was on a dare at the age of 12. I smoked a cigarette here, one there until I was 17. Then I started buying a pack for myself. At first it was a pack every week, but by my 18th birthday, I was at a pack a day. Now the good news is that for the next 32 years, I would smoke about a pack a day, sometimes more, once in awhile less. About 15 years ago, I started noticing that I wasn't in as good shape as I had been. I couldn't do 10k runs anymore without having to jog or walk the last mile or so. So I started thinking about quitting. First up was hard will and determination. Cold turkey lasted about 6 weeks for me, until I went to a bar one evening. I thought, 1 or 2 won't hurt me...next week, pack a day, right where I left off.
So I didn't think too much about quitting again that year or the year after that. Started getting a bit more difficult to even jog for a mile or two without getting winded, so I decided to give the nic patch a try. While wearing the patch, I reduced my cigarette consumption daily by...2 cigarettes. That's it. After 6 weeks of that, I realized that I really didn't want to spend that much money on both a patch and a pack, so one had to go. The tobacco was a bit cheaper, so I kept it. Failure #2.
Later the same year, I decided maybe the nic gum would work. Pretty much the same results as the patch all the way to the end game. Tobacco was cheaper and won the contest. Failure #3.
Went to my family physician about 6 years ago and told him my experiences in the past with smoking cessation. He prescribed WellButrin and told me that if I did smoke while using the pill, it WOULD make me sick. So, I filled the prescription, went home, put the smokes on the table and took a pill. 6 hours later, I couldn't stand the nic cravings and lit one up. Got sick, sure as he said, but it wasn't that bad. I struggled with that for a couple of months (had a 3 month scrip) and lowered my daily analog use to 15 cigs a day. Big reduction. Failure #4.
3 or 4 years ago, I met up with an old high school friend through Facebook. Hadn't talked to him in about 30 years, but we picked up right where we left off. So what does that have to do with kicking the habit??? Watch this... We had both been struggling with trying to find ways to quit over the years and both with the same result. 2 years ago, this buddy of mine decides to try vaping and he started with eGos, I believe. I had done some research at that point on e-cigs and figured that I would go the cheaper route and started with Blu cig-a-likes. He was successful at weaning himself off the analogs gradually, I got down to 4-5 analogs daily myself. But, I ran into a little snag. I really didn't care for 3 out of the 5 flavors available with the Blu for starters, and for second, the vapor just wasn't comparable to analogs. I made it 3 months at 4-5 analogs a day before I shelved the Blu and went back to my beloved Marlboros. Failure #5.
Meanwhile, my high school friend has kicked the habit for good and has been strictly vaping, all the while "hounding" me to try the eGo. So I started doing a research on them and other tank systems. Realized that the eGo was not too much more than the original Blu was when I bought it, but I was still having flashbacks about all my previous wallet draining failures. For the next year and a half, I used inhalers in the morning and in the evening, just to keep the hacking down to a limited amount.
February 7, 2014 was not much different than any of the previous days...inhaler in the morning, once at work, and a couple of times in the evening. Went to bed and could not get to sleep. I had the worst coughing fit I had ever had and it was hurting real bad. Worse, the inhalers weren't helping anymore. I prayed to The Lord to get me through the night and if I did make it, I would put down my cigs, go to the vape store and buy the eGo kit the next afternoon. Well, I got up that morning, but I hacked so bad that I got sick to my stomach. Breakfast gone, I lit up a cig and headed out the door to work. I didn't take a smoke break that day like usual and as soon as I got off work, I went to the vape store and bought the eGo kit and 2 bottles of ejuice. Smoked a cigarette on the way home, it would turn out to be the last cigarette I smoked, even though I still had 4 left in the pack. I sat the pack down in front of the ashtray that sits next to my laptop, cleaned the ashtray out and plugged in the eGo to give it it's first charge...took about 15 minutes because they came with a pretty good charge on the batteries. Meanwhile. I'm looking up directions on Youtube because the eGo kit didn't have any. Figured out how to get everything set up, and an hour after I left the vape shop, I was vaping a flavor called Real Cig. The guy at the store asked me what type of analogs I smoked and upon hearing the answer, suggested 12 mg/ml juice. So, that's where I started...not 18 or 24, but 12. Could have been a recipe for failure if not for variable voltage. When I got really strong cravings, I blasted that poor eGo to it's upper limit and pulled hard. You know what, it worked. I still had the 4 cigs in that pack after 10 days of vaping. Gave them to my wife day 11 because at that point, I had a pretty good feeling I wasn't going to be needing them as a crutch.
Longer story short, I've done what most vapers do on their quest to remain analog free. Bought another eGo kit so I wouldn't run out of charged batteries when I was on the go. Bought Kanger Tanks to replace the CE4 style plastic tanks that crack too easy with certain liquids. Bought better Kanger tanks including the Aero. Bought a Vamo APV (second best purchase to date) to deliver more power to my better tanks. Learned how to brew my own juice. And finally this last week, bought my first and definitely not last RBA, an ehpro Kayfun 3.1 clone (best purchase to date, in case you were wondering).
So there you have it. 32 years of smoking down the drain...and I couldn't be happier about it.
So I didn't think too much about quitting again that year or the year after that. Started getting a bit more difficult to even jog for a mile or two without getting winded, so I decided to give the nic patch a try. While wearing the patch, I reduced my cigarette consumption daily by...2 cigarettes. That's it. After 6 weeks of that, I realized that I really didn't want to spend that much money on both a patch and a pack, so one had to go. The tobacco was a bit cheaper, so I kept it. Failure #2.
Later the same year, I decided maybe the nic gum would work. Pretty much the same results as the patch all the way to the end game. Tobacco was cheaper and won the contest. Failure #3.
Went to my family physician about 6 years ago and told him my experiences in the past with smoking cessation. He prescribed WellButrin and told me that if I did smoke while using the pill, it WOULD make me sick. So, I filled the prescription, went home, put the smokes on the table and took a pill. 6 hours later, I couldn't stand the nic cravings and lit one up. Got sick, sure as he said, but it wasn't that bad. I struggled with that for a couple of months (had a 3 month scrip) and lowered my daily analog use to 15 cigs a day. Big reduction. Failure #4.
3 or 4 years ago, I met up with an old high school friend through Facebook. Hadn't talked to him in about 30 years, but we picked up right where we left off. So what does that have to do with kicking the habit??? Watch this... We had both been struggling with trying to find ways to quit over the years and both with the same result. 2 years ago, this buddy of mine decides to try vaping and he started with eGos, I believe. I had done some research at that point on e-cigs and figured that I would go the cheaper route and started with Blu cig-a-likes. He was successful at weaning himself off the analogs gradually, I got down to 4-5 analogs daily myself. But, I ran into a little snag. I really didn't care for 3 out of the 5 flavors available with the Blu for starters, and for second, the vapor just wasn't comparable to analogs. I made it 3 months at 4-5 analogs a day before I shelved the Blu and went back to my beloved Marlboros. Failure #5.
Meanwhile, my high school friend has kicked the habit for good and has been strictly vaping, all the while "hounding" me to try the eGo. So I started doing a research on them and other tank systems. Realized that the eGo was not too much more than the original Blu was when I bought it, but I was still having flashbacks about all my previous wallet draining failures. For the next year and a half, I used inhalers in the morning and in the evening, just to keep the hacking down to a limited amount.
February 7, 2014 was not much different than any of the previous days...inhaler in the morning, once at work, and a couple of times in the evening. Went to bed and could not get to sleep. I had the worst coughing fit I had ever had and it was hurting real bad. Worse, the inhalers weren't helping anymore. I prayed to The Lord to get me through the night and if I did make it, I would put down my cigs, go to the vape store and buy the eGo kit the next afternoon. Well, I got up that morning, but I hacked so bad that I got sick to my stomach. Breakfast gone, I lit up a cig and headed out the door to work. I didn't take a smoke break that day like usual and as soon as I got off work, I went to the vape store and bought the eGo kit and 2 bottles of ejuice. Smoked a cigarette on the way home, it would turn out to be the last cigarette I smoked, even though I still had 4 left in the pack. I sat the pack down in front of the ashtray that sits next to my laptop, cleaned the ashtray out and plugged in the eGo to give it it's first charge...took about 15 minutes because they came with a pretty good charge on the batteries. Meanwhile. I'm looking up directions on Youtube because the eGo kit didn't have any. Figured out how to get everything set up, and an hour after I left the vape shop, I was vaping a flavor called Real Cig. The guy at the store asked me what type of analogs I smoked and upon hearing the answer, suggested 12 mg/ml juice. So, that's where I started...not 18 or 24, but 12. Could have been a recipe for failure if not for variable voltage. When I got really strong cravings, I blasted that poor eGo to it's upper limit and pulled hard. You know what, it worked. I still had the 4 cigs in that pack after 10 days of vaping. Gave them to my wife day 11 because at that point, I had a pretty good feeling I wasn't going to be needing them as a crutch.
Longer story short, I've done what most vapers do on their quest to remain analog free. Bought another eGo kit so I wouldn't run out of charged batteries when I was on the go. Bought Kanger Tanks to replace the CE4 style plastic tanks that crack too easy with certain liquids. Bought better Kanger tanks including the Aero. Bought a Vamo APV (second best purchase to date) to deliver more power to my better tanks. Learned how to brew my own juice. And finally this last week, bought my first and definitely not last RBA, an ehpro Kayfun 3.1 clone (best purchase to date, in case you were wondering).
So there you have it. 32 years of smoking down the drain...and I couldn't be happier about it.
