When I decided to take the plunge into e-cigarettes and vaping, I had no idea where to start. I had never heard the term 'vaping' before to know that was a term to search, all I knew to google was 'e-cigarettes'. Well, that doesn't lead you to vaping forums, or the vast majority of vaping information on the net.
I found a lot of information (mostly controversy) about e-cigarettes, and a plethora of products. It was overwhelming, and less than helpful. I landed on several 'review' sites, but none of them were consistent, most seemed to be advertising... for their own brands, and it was impossible to tell which was which. The majority were self-serving, and not very informative... or at least informative about what I most wanted to know: how many people successfully quit after going to e-cigs? WHY did they quit, most of us who still smoke have already tried nicotine replacement, gums, patches, Nicotrol, Chantix, books, etc etc. What makes e-cigs different? If I buy your kit, how long will it last? How much will I spend over x time on average? What is the shelf life of the nicotine product? How many do I need per week? When will I be replacing the equipment? How much do I need to buy right now to last my first week/month?
I only found the answers to this after finding this forum, and that was after literally 15 hours nonstop searching and reading. The majority of people new to this would not / could not invest that time. If I didn't happen to be at a point in life where I could, I would have just walked away in confusion too.
So I picked one that sounded good, Bloog. I bought the entire Ultimate Kit, plus 2 extra batteries, plus extra cartomizer sets. It was pricey, especially after I found this forum and other resources (by then, I discovered the term 'vaping' was a good search term). And a huge leap of faith, given that I didn't know if I was spending over $100 and everything would break and become useless in a week. Some sites said those cartomizers only last an hour or 2... uh... so I'm going to spend $3/ hour doing this just in carts? x16 hours a day? I think that insufficiency of explanation on ANY e-cig site (Average equipment life expectancy? Per use time and cost for the 'pack a day' smoker? This makes people hesitate. No one in their right mind quitting smoking would splurge $48 per day to try their equipment/products... only the desperate...which I was. But I wouldn't continue to spend that kind of $$. If I were on a budget, heck no... put this basic info on your site, because leaving customers to guess means they assume the worst, and you lose sales!
For the record, NO, it does NOT cost that much. The cartomizers might last 2 hours continuous time, but if you are a pack a day smoker, so far I haven't managed to finish even 1 cartomizer in a day (smoking like I would if I were smoking 2 packs a day). PLUS, the cartomizers are refillable too. While I haven't had long experience, the cost SO FAR appears to be less than cigarettes, with a large up front investment for the equipment.
I had 1 single goal... quit smoking. Then get my husband to quit by seeing that if I could do it, he could do it - over the last 30 years we've been together, he would watch my failures over and over again to the point where he won't even try. I'm stubborn. He's 10x more stubborn.
I didn't want to try something new. I wasn't looking for a new hobby (even tho I may have found one!). I thought e-cigs were worth a try because they 1. LOOKED LIKE CIGARETTES. This should appeal to the psychological addiction. 2. SMELL LIKE Cigarettes. Again, more psychological. 3. Made vapor like cigarettes. 4. Contained as much or more nicotine as cigarettes. Not getting enough would drive me back to cigarettes, so here, more was better. This was what I wanted. Whether what I was ordering would accomplish that or not I just didn't know, nicotine replacement did nothing for me in the past, and Chantix made me very ill.
Before I received my Bloogs, I was scouring the net looking for information on what I just bought. I spent well over $100 on my first order, for something I had never seen before, and was a bit nervous. I found very little of the information I most wanted about Bloog, not even here. So I figure I could answer some of the questions I had, now that I got my Bloogs.
Bloog Observations:
Bloog packaging is outstanding. Molded inserts, professional printing. The batteries and carts are a velvety brushed metal that's gorgeous, and sort of astonishing to see in what I had thought of as a short shelf life product. They look high end and well designed. Even the flavor names and mg are professionally printed on every little cartomizer. Each little cartomizer is encased in expensive silicone caps on both sides. Pretty impressive. I would not be ashamed to gift this to anyone anywhere.
I read that the 808 was not as interchangeable with other products. Well, I haven't seen the other products, but if you get the USB one (NO idea how long this will last- that makes a difference), it's a far more compact and elegant solution on a professional desk than any other pix I've seen. Would I buy it again? Yes, if the durability is as great as the looks. It perfectly fits that compact clean elegant niche, and I don't need to see another of this type.
The 'classic' battery is the size of a cigarette. When you screw on the cartomizer, it's a bit longer than a cigarette. The WEIGHT and FEEL of it in your hand is a bit heavier than a cigarette, and would be a bit difficult to hold between fingers like a cigarette. However, it is not bulky feeling, and you can smoke it like you might a long skinny cigar... but no need for ashtrays, no 2nd hand smoke, no lighters, no holes in your furniture and tar on your walls.
Bloog Taste. I bought the Tobacco Sampler, which has all 5 of their tobacco flavors. While I am in no position to compare the taste with other brands, I can tell you as a pack a day smoker how they compared to the taste of cigarettes. Whether I will decide they are better or worse than other products after using them a while, I can't say. Over time, I expect my taste will change. But for a smoker, this is how I'd rate them:
Red- The closest to a real cigarette. I would buy ALL Red 24 mg if I could have tried them first. This actually tastes like a cigarette, right down to the throat feel and nasal sensations. HOWEVER, very little smoke out of the cartomizers.
555 - next closest to a cigarette, I'd describe it as robust, and full of flavor, but not cigarette flavor. It has a hay-like sweet taste, with a touch of anise perhaps. It's nice, but not as satisfying to a smoker.
The Last Straw- even more hay-like, but a dry hay, with a smoky dry overtone. I think outdoor autumn bonfires and hayrides. I can see this growing on people... but again... not as good for cigarette replacement.
RY4- hay-like (think alfalfa), but with sweet... maybe molasses. I'm not nuts about the sweet, but a cigar-smoker might like this.
SPI - more sweet than hay, otherwise not as notable compared to above flavors.
Bottom line, if you are starting out with Bloog, the Red hands down is the closest cigarette replacement. Even at 24 mg... I still wanted cigarettes, but cut WAAAYYY down within the first day already. This is promising, and as others have already told me on my intro thread, it's a good idea to just chain puff to break the desire to run out and smoke. That was great advice. Don't hold back, not in quantity or nicotine. There is NO TAR in this, nic til you can't take it.
What I don't think anyone should do, is expect to stop smoking immediately, because that leads to disappointment. For me, the biggest problem I have with quitting is, the more I think about quitting, the more cigarettes I smoke. This meant that even with acupuncture herbs that made me vomit every time I lit up, I just fought through the nausea and lit up 2x more often without thinking. I'd get nauseous, and after smoking a bit, that would go away. With hypnosis and tobacco aversion books, they made me THINK about smoking, so naturally, while I was thinking how gross what I was doing was, I'd be doing it. And the grossness became almost pleasant. When I think of my own black decaying lungs, cancer, mouth sores, hole in windpipe with oxygen tank held to it, my own funeral and crying family, I RUN for the cigarettes. Sigh. This is how tough the road was ahead of me.
In my first 12 hours chain puffing Bloog 24mg cartomizers at my computer with the USB connected Bloog plugged into a power outlet, I smoked 3 cigarettes. That's a real victory for me already! I probably got 5x the nicotine I do smoking, but for me, that's completely OK. I can smoke 4 packs a day when I put my foot down and decide to quit. LOL! The difference here was, I did not run for the cigarettes every time I thought of them!! Breaking the psychological addiction was a much bigger deal than the physical, and the toughest to overcome (on nicotine patches and gum, I was smoking right through the highest level nicotine... the lightheaded did not stop me). I am prepared for a long road, but the signs of progress, that I did not WANT to run for the cigs while actively thinking about them... is an almost incomprehensible victory, given my nature.
I've been telling myself that I am not really forcing myself to quit. I am INDULGING in lots of nicotine and flavor. I can have all the nicotine I want. I think trying it this way, I will take the anxiety part out of it, and based on the numerous success stories I've read here, I am hopeful that one day, I will just light a cig up and say... wow... is that gross. I don't want one anymore. I'd much rather have my <blueberry, apples, chocolate, etc etc>.
Now I'm excitedly waiting for my first juices and itaste MVP, which will become my 'portable' unit. I'm looking forward to CLOUDS of tobacco vapor full of nicotine, with no tar. I hope it will be like eating boxes of chocolate and slices of cheesecake with no calories! No, I'm not ready to move away from the tobacco juices just yet... but I did order flavors and a bunch of DIY stuff, because I expect my taste WILL change over time. I just need to turn that addiction/obsession into a new one. And maybe blending my own juices will do that for me, so I'm headfirst launching right into that.
For the first time, I actually feel like I have a chance to succeed at quitting. And while I haven't yet, I've tried a whole lot of different quitting methods, and I could tell almost immediately that they would NOT work. I think the key for me is to STOP feeling guilty that it won't work... and just enjoy doing the new thing enough to replace the old thing. I actually enjoy doing this, and it's more pleasurable than painful. I relate this feeling to buying a new pair of shoes/car/food... you may just LOVE your old ones, but you still can't wear/use them both at the same time, so must eventually choose between something you love and something else you love more.
For some people, like myself and my husband, adversity/fear/pain are things to overcome... in a carrot and stick scenerio, we are both the types to take the stick away and beat the guy trying to use it. This is carrots all the way!! Choosing between 2 carrots is much easier, and doable. When one carrot has all the benefits, and the other carrot has none, the choice will eventually become clear. I can see that right now, and can endure the patience for it to happen naturally.
Sorry for the long long story, but this is the kind of note I wanted to find and read when I did my first search. An explanation of WHY someone felt this was worth trying and how it MIGHT work. Thank you guys soooo much for being here!!! I started out with a simple info search, and are wondering why it took me so long
. I'm just so excited!!!
I found a lot of information (mostly controversy) about e-cigarettes, and a plethora of products. It was overwhelming, and less than helpful. I landed on several 'review' sites, but none of them were consistent, most seemed to be advertising... for their own brands, and it was impossible to tell which was which. The majority were self-serving, and not very informative... or at least informative about what I most wanted to know: how many people successfully quit after going to e-cigs? WHY did they quit, most of us who still smoke have already tried nicotine replacement, gums, patches, Nicotrol, Chantix, books, etc etc. What makes e-cigs different? If I buy your kit, how long will it last? How much will I spend over x time on average? What is the shelf life of the nicotine product? How many do I need per week? When will I be replacing the equipment? How much do I need to buy right now to last my first week/month?
I only found the answers to this after finding this forum, and that was after literally 15 hours nonstop searching and reading. The majority of people new to this would not / could not invest that time. If I didn't happen to be at a point in life where I could, I would have just walked away in confusion too.
So I picked one that sounded good, Bloog. I bought the entire Ultimate Kit, plus 2 extra batteries, plus extra cartomizer sets. It was pricey, especially after I found this forum and other resources (by then, I discovered the term 'vaping' was a good search term). And a huge leap of faith, given that I didn't know if I was spending over $100 and everything would break and become useless in a week. Some sites said those cartomizers only last an hour or 2... uh... so I'm going to spend $3/ hour doing this just in carts? x16 hours a day? I think that insufficiency of explanation on ANY e-cig site (Average equipment life expectancy? Per use time and cost for the 'pack a day' smoker? This makes people hesitate. No one in their right mind quitting smoking would splurge $48 per day to try their equipment/products... only the desperate...which I was. But I wouldn't continue to spend that kind of $$. If I were on a budget, heck no... put this basic info on your site, because leaving customers to guess means they assume the worst, and you lose sales!
For the record, NO, it does NOT cost that much. The cartomizers might last 2 hours continuous time, but if you are a pack a day smoker, so far I haven't managed to finish even 1 cartomizer in a day (smoking like I would if I were smoking 2 packs a day). PLUS, the cartomizers are refillable too. While I haven't had long experience, the cost SO FAR appears to be less than cigarettes, with a large up front investment for the equipment.
I had 1 single goal... quit smoking. Then get my husband to quit by seeing that if I could do it, he could do it - over the last 30 years we've been together, he would watch my failures over and over again to the point where he won't even try. I'm stubborn. He's 10x more stubborn.
I didn't want to try something new. I wasn't looking for a new hobby (even tho I may have found one!). I thought e-cigs were worth a try because they 1. LOOKED LIKE CIGARETTES. This should appeal to the psychological addiction. 2. SMELL LIKE Cigarettes. Again, more psychological. 3. Made vapor like cigarettes. 4. Contained as much or more nicotine as cigarettes. Not getting enough would drive me back to cigarettes, so here, more was better. This was what I wanted. Whether what I was ordering would accomplish that or not I just didn't know, nicotine replacement did nothing for me in the past, and Chantix made me very ill.
Before I received my Bloogs, I was scouring the net looking for information on what I just bought. I spent well over $100 on my first order, for something I had never seen before, and was a bit nervous. I found very little of the information I most wanted about Bloog, not even here. So I figure I could answer some of the questions I had, now that I got my Bloogs.
Bloog Observations:
Bloog packaging is outstanding. Molded inserts, professional printing. The batteries and carts are a velvety brushed metal that's gorgeous, and sort of astonishing to see in what I had thought of as a short shelf life product. They look high end and well designed. Even the flavor names and mg are professionally printed on every little cartomizer. Each little cartomizer is encased in expensive silicone caps on both sides. Pretty impressive. I would not be ashamed to gift this to anyone anywhere.
I read that the 808 was not as interchangeable with other products. Well, I haven't seen the other products, but if you get the USB one (NO idea how long this will last- that makes a difference), it's a far more compact and elegant solution on a professional desk than any other pix I've seen. Would I buy it again? Yes, if the durability is as great as the looks. It perfectly fits that compact clean elegant niche, and I don't need to see another of this type.
The 'classic' battery is the size of a cigarette. When you screw on the cartomizer, it's a bit longer than a cigarette. The WEIGHT and FEEL of it in your hand is a bit heavier than a cigarette, and would be a bit difficult to hold between fingers like a cigarette. However, it is not bulky feeling, and you can smoke it like you might a long skinny cigar... but no need for ashtrays, no 2nd hand smoke, no lighters, no holes in your furniture and tar on your walls.
Bloog Taste. I bought the Tobacco Sampler, which has all 5 of their tobacco flavors. While I am in no position to compare the taste with other brands, I can tell you as a pack a day smoker how they compared to the taste of cigarettes. Whether I will decide they are better or worse than other products after using them a while, I can't say. Over time, I expect my taste will change. But for a smoker, this is how I'd rate them:
Red- The closest to a real cigarette. I would buy ALL Red 24 mg if I could have tried them first. This actually tastes like a cigarette, right down to the throat feel and nasal sensations. HOWEVER, very little smoke out of the cartomizers.
555 - next closest to a cigarette, I'd describe it as robust, and full of flavor, but not cigarette flavor. It has a hay-like sweet taste, with a touch of anise perhaps. It's nice, but not as satisfying to a smoker.
The Last Straw- even more hay-like, but a dry hay, with a smoky dry overtone. I think outdoor autumn bonfires and hayrides. I can see this growing on people... but again... not as good for cigarette replacement.
RY4- hay-like (think alfalfa), but with sweet... maybe molasses. I'm not nuts about the sweet, but a cigar-smoker might like this.
SPI - more sweet than hay, otherwise not as notable compared to above flavors.
Bottom line, if you are starting out with Bloog, the Red hands down is the closest cigarette replacement. Even at 24 mg... I still wanted cigarettes, but cut WAAAYYY down within the first day already. This is promising, and as others have already told me on my intro thread, it's a good idea to just chain puff to break the desire to run out and smoke. That was great advice. Don't hold back, not in quantity or nicotine. There is NO TAR in this, nic til you can't take it.
What I don't think anyone should do, is expect to stop smoking immediately, because that leads to disappointment. For me, the biggest problem I have with quitting is, the more I think about quitting, the more cigarettes I smoke. This meant that even with acupuncture herbs that made me vomit every time I lit up, I just fought through the nausea and lit up 2x more often without thinking. I'd get nauseous, and after smoking a bit, that would go away. With hypnosis and tobacco aversion books, they made me THINK about smoking, so naturally, while I was thinking how gross what I was doing was, I'd be doing it. And the grossness became almost pleasant. When I think of my own black decaying lungs, cancer, mouth sores, hole in windpipe with oxygen tank held to it, my own funeral and crying family, I RUN for the cigarettes. Sigh. This is how tough the road was ahead of me.
In my first 12 hours chain puffing Bloog 24mg cartomizers at my computer with the USB connected Bloog plugged into a power outlet, I smoked 3 cigarettes. That's a real victory for me already! I probably got 5x the nicotine I do smoking, but for me, that's completely OK. I can smoke 4 packs a day when I put my foot down and decide to quit. LOL! The difference here was, I did not run for the cigarettes every time I thought of them!! Breaking the psychological addiction was a much bigger deal than the physical, and the toughest to overcome (on nicotine patches and gum, I was smoking right through the highest level nicotine... the lightheaded did not stop me). I am prepared for a long road, but the signs of progress, that I did not WANT to run for the cigs while actively thinking about them... is an almost incomprehensible victory, given my nature.
I've been telling myself that I am not really forcing myself to quit. I am INDULGING in lots of nicotine and flavor. I can have all the nicotine I want. I think trying it this way, I will take the anxiety part out of it, and based on the numerous success stories I've read here, I am hopeful that one day, I will just light a cig up and say... wow... is that gross. I don't want one anymore. I'd much rather have my <blueberry, apples, chocolate, etc etc>.
Now I'm excitedly waiting for my first juices and itaste MVP, which will become my 'portable' unit. I'm looking forward to CLOUDS of tobacco vapor full of nicotine, with no tar. I hope it will be like eating boxes of chocolate and slices of cheesecake with no calories! No, I'm not ready to move away from the tobacco juices just yet... but I did order flavors and a bunch of DIY stuff, because I expect my taste WILL change over time. I just need to turn that addiction/obsession into a new one. And maybe blending my own juices will do that for me, so I'm headfirst launching right into that.
For the first time, I actually feel like I have a chance to succeed at quitting. And while I haven't yet, I've tried a whole lot of different quitting methods, and I could tell almost immediately that they would NOT work. I think the key for me is to STOP feeling guilty that it won't work... and just enjoy doing the new thing enough to replace the old thing. I actually enjoy doing this, and it's more pleasurable than painful. I relate this feeling to buying a new pair of shoes/car/food... you may just LOVE your old ones, but you still can't wear/use them both at the same time, so must eventually choose between something you love and something else you love more.
For some people, like myself and my husband, adversity/fear/pain are things to overcome... in a carrot and stick scenerio, we are both the types to take the stick away and beat the guy trying to use it. This is carrots all the way!! Choosing between 2 carrots is much easier, and doable. When one carrot has all the benefits, and the other carrot has none, the choice will eventually become clear. I can see that right now, and can endure the patience for it to happen naturally.
Sorry for the long long story, but this is the kind of note I wanted to find and read when I did my first search. An explanation of WHY someone felt this was worth trying and how it MIGHT work. Thank you guys soooo much for being here!!! I started out with a simple info search, and are wondering why it took me so long
. I'm just so excited!!!
