Will power has never been my strong suit with smoking. I have cut wayyyy back from 3 packs a day the first few days I only smoked a few. The past couple days I'm smoked about a pack a day. Which I know is 2/3 less but still. What i need help with is over coming the hand fixation and Mouth fixation. I have to say i don't even enjoy the taste really but After 25 years of smoking I'm just used to having a smoke in my hand or in my mouth.
I could use some advice on fixing the fixation lol .
Side note : I don't/can't chew gum and Hard candy is not an option.
It took me way over two years to vape only, instead of dual use with occasional backslides into smoking only.
For hand to mouth, the cigalike advise is probably pretty good advice if the mod you are vaping on isn't giving your brain that satisfaction: I did mod and cigalike at the same time and it helped me out a lot - I was just so used to having something between my fingers almost my entire waking day. Getting a wide variety of mods, juices and attys helped also. (spent hundreds of bucks since Nov., but what they hay, would have spent hundreds on smokes).
Still, a third less smoking is still a third less smoking. When I got down to a pack a day, my health and my wallet really noticed the difference.
In fact, I just realized it's my one month anniversary of not touching a single cigarette. I got my first cigalikes in Feb. of 2013, so close to three years it took me, I guess.
Last November, my health got so bad from smoking related issues (I only did 2.5 PAD for 37 years, lol) I knew something had to give.
I was chain vaping so much I had to have several tanks on hand, because when chain-vaped, the juice would get too hot and I'd end up getting a mouth full of juice when I had only one set up.
I also had to go to lower my nicotine percentage, because I'd get super hopped up on the nicotine, and smoke cigarettes when the nicotine from vaping got too much.
I carried all my vapes on me at all times: would have vaped in the shower if it wouldn't have ruined the batteries!
I actually spent part of one day "fake" lighting my vape to satisfy my brain wanting that part of the ritual - thank god that urge passed. Would have been embarrassing if anyone saw that - but I'd do it again if the urge to smoke got strong and it would satisfy that neurotic part of my that needs constant hand to mouth action.
Personally, I had to do a lot of things the opposite of how most people seem to do it.
A lot of other tricks worked for me sometimes, but later didn't: pretending I switched brands, so I'd reach for a vape instead of a smoke. Keeping my cigarettes at the other end of the house instead of on my person, all these helped me vape instead of smoke at times, sometimes didn't help at all.
Most people hang onto their cigarettes just for a security blanket for the mind.
I had to toss out my smokes after went I finally went a whole 72 hours w/o smoking. The temptation to light up, despite the fact I didn't actually like it, was too powerful for me. My brain likes cigarettes a lot.
Every time I overcame a vaping/smoking hurdle, another presented itself. I realized whenever I thought about "quitting" cigarettes, my brain kind of panicked and I'd smoke. So I started referring to it as "stopping cigarettes" instead and that panic went away and I'd vape instead of smoke.
The smell of cigarettes started to bother me (for the first time in decades) and listening to my husband hack away was motivating for me, once I faced the facts on how bad cigarettes actually smell (I try to remember that, because weeks later now, cigarette smoke smell good again to me). That helped me to remember to reach for a vape when I wanted that hand to mouth action - many, many times I grabbed a smoke without even realizing it when I would have been just as happy vaping.
I posted a similar thread, and got tons of good advice, some worked some didn't.
One piece of advice that really hit home was from a former 50-year smoker. He said that when the urge to smoke hits, remember your best vaping experience, grab your mod and try to get into that great vape zone, again.
