Hello everyone,
I bought my first e-cig starter kit two weeks ago and I am certain now that this is going to change my life. As a half-a-pack-a-day smoker for almost 15 years, I have found it to be incredibly easy to quit smoking so far. I have the remainder of my last pack sitting on my desk and I look at it every day, but I have not had an irresistible urge to pull one out of the pack and smoke it. The so-called "voices in my head" telling me to light up that every smoker gets when trying to quit are silent. The excuses and self-rationalization is surprisingly absent. When I get a craving, I take about 10-15 puffs on my e-cig and forget all about my desire to smoke. I have quit smoking cold-turkey. Compared to the last 10 or so times I have tried to quit I am finding this to be super easy. Something tells me that this time is for good.
I spent at least about 15 hours researching different brands before selecting the one I felt was the right fit for me. I am not interested in providing advertising for this company at this point, as I want this to be a completely neutral testimonial. In fact, I found Google to be a complete waste of time in my research because nearly all the blogs and websites that showed up offering "reviews" in my searches were clearly biased towards a particular brand and obviously closely associated with a certain company or at very least receiving some kind of kickback. I expected this, as e-cigs sales have soared due to recent research and press releases, and everyone is trying to get a piece of market share. The internet is full of misinformation and questionable motivations. The overall experience of trying to get real and honest reviews on e-Cig products was extremely frustrating because of this.
I did manage to find a couple websites and forums that offered what I felt was objective information, reviewing many different brands and avoiding the five star rating, providing factual information without injecting excessive amounts of opinion. I realize that any type of review is going to have a certain amount of subjectivity to it, but a good and honest reviewer will make great attempts at minimizing their opinions and present the facts to let the reader render their own judgement.
Along with my starter kit, I also bought a nice sampler of e-Liquids. I am glad that I did, as I have discovered several things:
First, I found two flavors that I like a whole lot, that I would not have tried otherwise. One of the flavors were only offered as e-Liquid, and the other I would not have purchased as full pack just to test out. Having to choose a big variety from the sampler deal forced me to go out on a limb to try some flavors that are well outside what I would choose as tobacco replacement.
Second, I found that filling my own cartridges is extremely economical. The pre-filled cartridges last me a couple days, roughly equivalent to a single pack of cigarettes. Ignoring the cost of replacement batteries (which are really quite reasonable at $10 each), this would put my total cost at around $20 per carton-equivalent, less than half the price of smoking. But the real savings are attained by filling my own cartridges. After deciding which flavor I really like, I have been working with a single blank cartridge and a 10mL sample bottle. A full week has gone by and the blank cartridge is still working great and I have more than half of the sample bottle remaining. I refill just slightly more than once a day, about 20 drops each time. This method has reduced what was a $20/week smoking habit to under $3-4/week. That is real money folks. I'm putting more than $700 per year back in my pocket. I know, I sound like a car insurance commercial. At this time next year, if I am still going strong with the e-cigs, I'm going to buy myself a fancy set of golf clubs as a reward.
For those that are still with me at this point, I'm going to summarize the positive points of my experience:
Quitting smoking cigarettes using e-cigs is easy and they are a natural substitute. I don't stink all the time, and I don't have to wash clothes that I wore for an hour or two. I don't have to change clothes if I break down and have a smoke halfway through the day when I have to interact with non-smokers later. Heck, I could probably skip a shower every once in a while as long as I put on extra deoderant. I can puff away in my car with the windows rolled up and the AC going. I can puff away in my friends' cars. My parents are extremely happy to hear that I am quitting for real this time. I get to tell women that I am interested in that I do not smoke if they ask. I do not feel like a social pariah and outcast when vaping in public (at least not to the extent that I did when I was smoking). I am confident that this product will add years to my life.
Anyways, sorry for the long winded testimonial, but e-cigs are changing my life for the better and I feel that I have to shout out to the heavens and share my experience. If you have any comments I'd be happy to read them. I reserve the rights to this testimonial as my own intellectual property, but I give full use to the people at e-cigarette-forum.com to help other smokers make the right decision to quit smoking.
Regards,
Stan
July 2013
I bought my first e-cig starter kit two weeks ago and I am certain now that this is going to change my life. As a half-a-pack-a-day smoker for almost 15 years, I have found it to be incredibly easy to quit smoking so far. I have the remainder of my last pack sitting on my desk and I look at it every day, but I have not had an irresistible urge to pull one out of the pack and smoke it. The so-called "voices in my head" telling me to light up that every smoker gets when trying to quit are silent. The excuses and self-rationalization is surprisingly absent. When I get a craving, I take about 10-15 puffs on my e-cig and forget all about my desire to smoke. I have quit smoking cold-turkey. Compared to the last 10 or so times I have tried to quit I am finding this to be super easy. Something tells me that this time is for good.
I spent at least about 15 hours researching different brands before selecting the one I felt was the right fit for me. I am not interested in providing advertising for this company at this point, as I want this to be a completely neutral testimonial. In fact, I found Google to be a complete waste of time in my research because nearly all the blogs and websites that showed up offering "reviews" in my searches were clearly biased towards a particular brand and obviously closely associated with a certain company or at very least receiving some kind of kickback. I expected this, as e-cigs sales have soared due to recent research and press releases, and everyone is trying to get a piece of market share. The internet is full of misinformation and questionable motivations. The overall experience of trying to get real and honest reviews on e-Cig products was extremely frustrating because of this.
I did manage to find a couple websites and forums that offered what I felt was objective information, reviewing many different brands and avoiding the five star rating, providing factual information without injecting excessive amounts of opinion. I realize that any type of review is going to have a certain amount of subjectivity to it, but a good and honest reviewer will make great attempts at minimizing their opinions and present the facts to let the reader render their own judgement.
Along with my starter kit, I also bought a nice sampler of e-Liquids. I am glad that I did, as I have discovered several things:
First, I found two flavors that I like a whole lot, that I would not have tried otherwise. One of the flavors were only offered as e-Liquid, and the other I would not have purchased as full pack just to test out. Having to choose a big variety from the sampler deal forced me to go out on a limb to try some flavors that are well outside what I would choose as tobacco replacement.
Second, I found that filling my own cartridges is extremely economical. The pre-filled cartridges last me a couple days, roughly equivalent to a single pack of cigarettes. Ignoring the cost of replacement batteries (which are really quite reasonable at $10 each), this would put my total cost at around $20 per carton-equivalent, less than half the price of smoking. But the real savings are attained by filling my own cartridges. After deciding which flavor I really like, I have been working with a single blank cartridge and a 10mL sample bottle. A full week has gone by and the blank cartridge is still working great and I have more than half of the sample bottle remaining. I refill just slightly more than once a day, about 20 drops each time. This method has reduced what was a $20/week smoking habit to under $3-4/week. That is real money folks. I'm putting more than $700 per year back in my pocket. I know, I sound like a car insurance commercial. At this time next year, if I am still going strong with the e-cigs, I'm going to buy myself a fancy set of golf clubs as a reward.
For those that are still with me at this point, I'm going to summarize the positive points of my experience:
Quitting smoking cigarettes using e-cigs is easy and they are a natural substitute. I don't stink all the time, and I don't have to wash clothes that I wore for an hour or two. I don't have to change clothes if I break down and have a smoke halfway through the day when I have to interact with non-smokers later. Heck, I could probably skip a shower every once in a while as long as I put on extra deoderant. I can puff away in my car with the windows rolled up and the AC going. I can puff away in my friends' cars. My parents are extremely happy to hear that I am quitting for real this time. I get to tell women that I am interested in that I do not smoke if they ask. I do not feel like a social pariah and outcast when vaping in public (at least not to the extent that I did when I was smoking). I am confident that this product will add years to my life.
Anyways, sorry for the long winded testimonial, but e-cigs are changing my life for the better and I feel that I have to shout out to the heavens and share my experience. If you have any comments I'd be happy to read them. I reserve the rights to this testimonial as my own intellectual property, but I give full use to the people at e-cigarette-forum.com to help other smokers make the right decision to quit smoking.
Regards,
Stan
July 2013
