Advice from those who quit analogs gradually

[Taniger1]

HIya, I'm like Hoosier. Except I actually had no INTENTION of quitting smoking. Most folks here know I work in a prison (now you do too /grin). In Washington state, prisons are NON smoking facilities. That's right, the inmates can NOT smoke. Lets face it, this is a population that SMOKES and HOW. THey can smell smoke on ya's a MILE away!

I LIKED smoking though. I was one of those, as I said, with no INTENTION of quitting. I did notice whne I found a juice I liked, that I smoked fewer analogs though. I can't tell you when I had my last analog. I don't KNOW, frankly I dont' CARE. I just know that one day I woke up and went to the store and grabbed some ice cream and was put out the only palce to PUT the ice cream in the freezer is where that carton of analog's I had bought sometime ago was at.........6 packs no less. Well the Ice Cream went into TAHT spot and I THINK my daughters (she's 20 now) friends swiped the last packs.

Some suggestions. When you get a stash of juice going the ones you DON'T like DO have a use :0) The PIF forum here http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...-you-must-read-rules-before-posting-here.html you can forward juices you didnt' care for and get some that sound interesting to try!!!! READ the rules!! But, if you keep with it, the vapeing I mean, like MOST of us who DIDN'T pick up a PV and drop analog's, one day you'll wonder just how long you have been NOT smoking (which by the way is the NORM the guys who quit right away are the EXCEPTION)

GOod luck, find the flavor(s) that are for YOU!!

 

[kingcobra]

I started smoking back in 1978. My last serious attempt to quit was in 1980. By then I realized I would never quit. At some point, no more than a few hours after I tried to stop, I would get to the point that the most important thing to me in the world was to smoke, and so I did.

So a friend introduced me to vaping in March of last year. My intention was not to quit, but perhaps to cut down with this. So vaping was successful in that respect. I told myself that if I ever quit it was going to have to be relatively painless. I tried a few times but the urge to smoke was too great.

Finally, I decided to give it another try but with different conditions. I wasn't looking to quit necessarily, just do an experiment to see how long I could go without them. There's a very strong attachment that some of us develop towards smoking, and the very thought of trying to quit can bring on a feeling of loss. Also, focusing on quitting can also conjure up a lot of bad experiences. So this was just an experiment.

So as the experiment went on, I decided to push myself, just as you would trying to do more reps lifting weights. If I stop it now and smoke, I will have wasted the time invested, so I decided to persevere.

The hours passed, and amazingly, I had made it two days. Vaping wasn't doing it, even though I was vaping 30 mg, I took out my pack of cigarettes on the brink of giving in, smelling them, and then putting them down, having had my experiment survive the moment but teetering on failure.

Shortly after that, I came to the realization that I wasn't going to make it, no matter how hard I tried, and I was already conjuring up all the will power I could manage. Then I decided, well if I was going to go down, I was going to go down swinging. I dug out some 60 mg nic juice that I had on hand and bumped up a bottle of 30 mg to 36 mg.

This was definitely better, and you might say I vaped myself into a nicotine stupor of sorts, but that was what was required. A couple more days passed, and I finally threw out my pack of cigarettes. I was now winning. I was going through withdrawal to be sure, and there was something definitely missing with the vaping, it was so nice and pleasant when I smoked. Nicotine replacement, even from vaping, was not the treat I thought it might be. I was keyed up all the time and really missed the relaxing feeling I got from smoking.

So in spite of this I decided that while I do need something else, it wasn't going to be smoking. I went around to some tobacco shops to see if I could get some snus to try, no one had ever heard of it. I could order it online from Sweden, but I had also heard about WTA and that sounded exactly like what I needed.

So where was two choices, one place had their site down and they weren't going to be back up for awhile, and the other place was Aroma. I tried to order it but they didn't have an option to ship to Canada. That didn't stop me though, and I emailed the owner, who after a bit of convincing decided to make the effort to get me some.

The WTA juice was simply awesome, and now I not only feel as good as I did smoking, I feel much better. I have a large stash of regular juice on hand, so what I've been doing is mixing it half and half, half 24 mg WTA and half 36 mg regular, so it's 30 mg with half WTA which I delightfully vape all day.

So that's why I go on here telling people to try WTA as it has made such a big difference for me. If you aren't struggling, then you don't need anything else, but if you are, and you give up without trying everything, including higher nic and WTA, then you are the one defeating yourself.

It's been 6 weeks now since I quit and I never ever want to go back to smoking, simply because I do not have any desire whatsoever to smoke another puff, and feel fantastic without them.

 

[Briar]

It took me a long time to get to the point where I don't really want to smoke. To me, that's the most important point: it's not that I want to quit, it's that I don't want to smoke. By choice and inclination. I couldn't do it any other way. I tried.

To get to that point, I simply immersed myself in vaping: the flavors, the toys, the community, the fun of it. In the end, it tastes a lot better, and it's a lot more fun, than smoking. Once you believe that, life becomes a lot easier - but it simply takes time. If you want to quit gradually, I'd just take it easy. Vape your face off and enjoy the hell out of it. If you feel like smoking for some reason, do so and forget about it. If you don't obsess about it, most likely you will simply drift from one to the other rather painlessly. Lack of obsession actually helps.

Also, for those sudden "God help me, I have no idea why I feel this way all of a sudden" cravings, WTA saves my ..... A few puffs on that, and the feeling simply goes away - and I have no clue why I felt that way in the first place. Biochemistry, most likely. I've been vaping for a long time, but until I tried WTA, that sudden craving would still surface once in a blue moon. Now I handle it with WTA, and all is well.

I still have one or two cigs a week. But I don't need them - it's simply that I'm one of the few people who actually likes the taste once in a while. But I've gone for weeks without thinking of them, too.

That's my experience, anyway.

 

[TigerLadyTX]

I got my first gas station e-cig, (NJoy), in January of this year. Within the month, I had a set of M401 batteries, (ProSmoke), and some no-name 510 batteries, too. For the most part, those allowed me to lower my cigarette consumption from 2+ packs a day, (33 year smoker), to around 12-15 cigarettes per day. For about the first month or so, I was using the cartridges and cartomizers that came with my small batteries, but that got expensive so I bought myself several 12mg samples from ECBlend to refill those cartridges and cartomizers with.

By early-February, I knew that I needed something more - something more powerful than my little batteries and I was sick and tired of constantly filling those itty bitty cartridges and cartomizers AND I was still smoking 12-15 cigarettes per day. So, I got a KGO kit and some EMDCC on the advice of some kind people here and by the end of the first day of having those, my cigarette consumption dropped to 4-5 cancer sticks per day. Even though I was still smoking 4-5 cancer sticks a day by this point, it was far, far less than my original 45-50 of them a day, so I was damned proud of myself!

In late February, I upped my nicotine percentage to mostly 18mg with a couple of bottles of 24mg and one bottle of 36mg - just in case. THAT did the trick. With the exception of ONE measly cancer stick sometime after my official "quit date" of 3/4/2012, I have been completely cancer stick free. And since that time, I have had some really difficult things to deal with physically, emotionally, and financially - yet I still do not really want a cancer stick badly enough to go buy some so that I can smoke one. Sure, there are times that I crave one pretty seriously for a few seconds - but that is easily resolved by my vaping like a fiend for a few minutes on the 24mg, or 36mg juice - depending upon how strong my craving is at that moment. I have even stood right beside smokers as they are puffing away and I do not want their cigarette one little bit, (and I really thought that I might want to beat them down and steal it from them before I placed myself - intentionally - in that situation). I have sat side by side with them while drinking alcohol, (one of my previous cigarette triggers), and did not want to smoke one! *pats self on back*

Anyway, now I vape, exclusively, and though I still have an occasional craving, I find they pass quite quickly and I am getting to the point that I cannot stand the way cigarettes smell. I can smell a smoker as they walk by me, (even if they are not smoking at the time), and my nose wrinkles up. Ewwwwww - they stink!!

Monday, I took my best friend to the hospital for knee replacement surgery. She is part smoker/part vaper - like I was a few months ago. When I unpacked her clothes from her bag to put them into the dresser in her room, the miasma of cigarette smoke just wafted out of her bag and it was gross. Seriously GROSS!! I have given her some eGo batteries, 3.5ml clearomizers, and higher nic % juices. She says she thinks this will do the trick for her - just as it did for me. I sincerely hope that it does as I had started her off months ago on M401 and 510 kits when she had her other knee replaced and she has cut down considerably since then.

~Tiger

 

[bnrkwest]

I started vaping and smoking 1 year ago, mid June, so it was on and off for a awhile. I got a better 808 end of July and it really helped me cut way back on cigs. Then I got better juices, Halo and that is what helped me get down to 1/2 analog a day for quite awhile. Then Sept 15 I went totally smoke free because analogs were tasting like crap compared to vaping and I never had another after that. I would get cravings, yes, but I told myself I wanted to vape instead. I was in love with vaping and still am! Good luck bnrk

 

[Trixie]

Hulamoon, like you, I had no intention of quitting went I began this journey; I was merely being polite when a friend bought an e-cig and supplies for me, and told him so. I also found this site before I even started (the friend had announced his intention to get sets for a group of us, including himself, so I decided research was in order).

I started by using the e-cig at times it was inconvenient to go grab a smoke, and kept smoking at other time throughout the day, though like you I did find my cigarette consumption dropped quite a bit during the day right from the start – from 30 a day down to 15-20 that first week.

A gradual (natural, not planned) decline in smoking vs. vaping over a period of about two months until I was down to between 1 and 3 cigarettes a day, one every morning, and usually one in the evening, sometimes another in the middle of the day. Then one day I just forgot to smoke, and didn’t even realize it until I was going to bed that night. No big deal, and still figured I’d have one tomorrow, but I didn’t. Still haven’t quit smoking, just simply haven’t had a cigarette in a few (actually, almost three) years.

In the first six months after that I had two or three interesting, strong cravings, but when I pictured myself going out to the car, which is where I started keeping (and still keep) that last pack of cigarettes, lighting and inhaling the smoke, the urge left as quickly as it came, so I just never bothered.

Take your time figuring out the liquids, the strength, and the equipment, and as it all becomes easier I think you may just naturally find yourself gravitating away from traditional cigarettes. Just know (and check this site for further info and help with this bit) that during the first 2-6 months your tastes will change greatly, and what tastes great the first month can taste awful two months from now. There will also be strange, flat taste days, or days when nothing tastes good, and you’ll probably need to switch up the flavors for that.

Eventually it all settles down, and you’ll find what works best for you long term, though even a year later you may decide you need to keep looking for that next great taste, battery, whatever. That’s ok too – this is your unique journey, and I wish you well on it. Keep asking questions or just reading and learning, because there is always new information that pops up, which is why I still drop by from time to time. Thanks go to the many helpful people willing to share with the rest of us.