How long did you smoke, and why did you quit?

[tnt56]

I noticed last night that my girlfriend,(who I love more than life, we've been together for 17 years now), Can't make beans and fried taters near as good as I can. LOL The cornbread was pretty tasty though. I didn't realize how many spices were in that Mexican cornbread. Yum Yum. But then I showed her which brand to buy on that also. Hey I give her an A+ for effort and you better believe I told her how good everything was. LOL

 

[BacsiBob]

50 yr. smoker...65 y/o...1-2ppd. Started with Apollo Extreme Kit in March by leaving my cigs in the shop. I would only smoke when I really wanted to. Throughout March, I smoked 2.5 packs and gave the remaining 1/2 pack to LOML. I started with 24mg juice but I'm a heavy hitter and would get the hiccups. I cut back to 18mg for a few weeks and am now DIY at 12mg.

I immediately started feeling better and began coughing up crap for about 6 weeks. I sleep better, remember better (this is a biggie at my age) and food tastes better. I have no desire to smoke again. Wife tried e-cigs and went back to analogs. The smoke doesn't drive me out but it isn't pleasant.

That picture of the old lady scrounging butts says a lot.

 

[kscoggins]

I smoked for about 25 years. I had tried to quit a couple of times, with very little success... Patch, gum, lozenge, Chantix.... Tried it all.
I had a heart attack in 2008, and again tried to quit. In mid-2009 I bought my first e-cig. It was about like the cheap disposables we have today, and not much of a selection of juices like now. Even though it didn't fully replace smoking, I saw a ton of potential in the idea and kept using it and upgrading as new technology came out. It wasn't until just over 4 months ago that I fully resigned the analogs, save for 3 that I've cheated with. Nice thing is that for once, I've been able to "cheat" and have one and not immediately want to go back to smoking.
Best luck and keep it up!

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

These are ALL great stories, love the different reasons to quit but mostly I love that we all did, don't forget to congratulate yourself too!! It also amazed me at how young everyone was when they started, I thought I was the only 1 that started that young; My Mom even bought them for me. As an adult I think how dumb that was! I still tell my grown children that I better never catch ANY of them ever smoking. So far 2 have tried it but wasn't their thing ( the 16 year old didn't enjoy being grounded for 6 months ~ lol ), the other never will. Only 1 of my brothers and sisters doesn't smoke... that makes me sad.

 

[carlton M]

I smoked a pack a day(+!) since I was 15, 32 years later, with chest pains and hockinlugies I discovered vaping, 2 years (now you know my age too!) of vaping now, and I breathe so much better! Shamefully I still smoke 2 cigs a day (because I love smoking, so there!) but my chest no longer hurts, and my wife says I smell like pancakes!

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

I smoked a pack a day(+!) since I was 15, 32 years later, with chest pains and hockinlugies I discovered vaping, 2 years (now you know my age too!) of vaping now, and I breathe so much better! Shamefully I still smoke 2 cigs a day (because I love smoking, so there!) but my chest no longer hurts, and my wife says I smell like pancakes!

hahahahaha pancakes huh? hubs still just smells like hubs... lol

 

[keeper]

smoked a PAD or more for 7 years. I'm still young (22), so I didn't really feel like I needed to quit the stinkies. It just so happen I found vaping. Now I have a lot of new awesome friends (on forums and IRL), I don't stink up my apartment anymore, and i found a nice hobby (i consider vaping a hobby too).

 

[Dr. Phill]

I was smoking for 13 years. Crazy to think how fast time flies by. Year after year I said I was going to quit "soon" but never could. I quit one day after my girlfriend dared me to. She said I could do anything at all I wanted to do and she knew I could. I quit that day, right then and there, and she's been very supportive of my e-cig use the entire time. Smart gal there, she gets it!

 

[Tanks]

Wow, after reading some of these I almost think I shouldn't post because of all the 20, 30 and 40 year smokers but I'm gonna.

I smoked for 7 years (15 to 22 years old) and had tried to quit twice. Last tuesday my boss threatened to fire me if I ever take a smoke break again, I got mad because 2 coworkers smoke and he doesn't care but I didn't say anything to him. So, I got online, did some research and ordered what I use now, my kGo 1100mah starter kit and kGo vv with a eGo mega carto (holds 2.5ml) a vivi nova slim (2.0ml), a smoktech UDCT locking one-piece carto tank and the 2 clearomizers that came with it. The next day (last wednesday) I went, on my lunch break, to walgreens and bought a Blu e-cig starter kit to make it until kGo stuff came.

Since that day (wednesday) I have only smoked 2 cigarettes per day and today has been my first day not smoking a cig right when I wake up. I vaped instead! And I'm motivated to not smoke any analog cigarettes at all today or tomorrow or the next. Never again if I can help it. Getting my juice samples and finding a few more favorites will help a lot too. (currently my all day juice is Dekang watermelon and I also have Dekang Cuban Cigar that I rarely touch. I don't love it but I don't hate it either)

The funny thing is I never planned on quitting analogs when I got my first PV. I just didn't want to get fired, LOL. But once I started vaping the Blu I fell in love then I got the kGo and kGo vv with the huge carto, carto tank and vivi nova and I just want to vape from now on. I can't imagine what I will think when my ProVari arrives tomorrow. Analogs are nasty to me now. I think they stink and taste bad ever since starting to vape.

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

awwww to be 22 again and have these rather than cigarettes all these years... I would LOVE that!!

 

[DC2]

It was a scary thing to see and that image has never left my mind and that was a LONG time ago!!

This might interest you...
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/polls/91466-seriously-how-many-you-have-done.html

 

[Tanks]

awwww to be 22 again and have these rather than cigarettes all these years... I would LOVE that!!

At least you have them now, though!

I'm happy my boss put me in this situation and that I found out about PV's and ECF so early in my life, before I caused serious and/or irreversible damage to my body. It was pure luck! If I was religious I would say I'm blessed.

Now I just need to stop sitting on ECF all day while at work so I don't get fired. LOL

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

ewwww... I can say I have not done that!! lol

 

[dragonspirit1185]

I started smoking 18 years ago when I was 10 lol. I'm not talking about a cigarette here and there I actually had a pack of cigarettes in my pocket. I have been working since the age of 10. I helped this one guy for pay doing farm work and was able to obtain cigarettes through a friend who was only about 15 himself yet he was allowed to purchase cigarettes at the gas station up the street. His mom walked in one day and said I buy these for my kid so you might as well just sell them straight to him and they did lol.
So out of those 18 years I have quit a few times but when times were rough and stress was high I would buy me a pack. I'd say about 5 of those 18 years I was a non smoker. From 10 to 18 I was a Marlboro full flavor smoker but switched to menthol, Camel Menthol being my main choice.

I started vaping around October 20th when I bought a disposable NJOY One Joy methol e-cig from WalMart. I was sold instantly lol.
A couple days later I was online purchasing my KR808D-1 starter kit.
My vapor adventure got off to a rough start getting the wrong kit sent to me (ordered an automatic kit and got a manual instead. Wound up with 2 kits though ), liquid being way too overpowering, and realizing I was having a bad reaction to PG.
I then got online and ordered some 100% VG 12mg nicotine solution, flavoring concentrates, bottles and other supplies. I got my VG from WalMart.
Now that I have successfully made my own juices I am having an awesome vaping experiance
Now that I have gained experience even though it hasn't even been 1 month since I started vaping I'm already wanting an ego PV with a genesis tank cause I'm vaping so much and these little cartos just aren't cutting it lol. Also want to get the genesis style atomizer tank due to the fact it can be rebuilt, saving me money. I love DIY projects.

I made the switch for a few reasons, to save money in the long run, because it is portrayed as being healthier and I saw that you know what's all in the juice and there is only 4 ingredients vesus many in conventional cigarettes including poisons other than the nicotine itself, winter was coming up and I didn't want to be standing out in the cold just to smoke cause there is no smoking allowed in the house, I was smoking only have a cigarette at a time and lighting up the other half just didn't taste very good at all and I wanted to have the same taste in every drag and smoke here and there without taste being affected, lastly cigarettes was only helping my teeth decay more.

I have noticed I have more energy and I'm breathing a lot better. I for sure smell better now
I love vaping and in all I have spent around $70 on my kit and supplies and after that first investment I know I will be saving lots of money from here on.
Until I decide to get my usb ego and genesis atomizer tank haha then I can go back to saving money once again
I am possibly moving back to my hometown and hopefully I can get my mother to stop smoking and make the switch to vaping. She has health conditions and her smoking is only making them worse. I'm sure vaping will be a lot healthier for her since she just can't bring herself to quit. Hopefully I can get her down to some low nicotine juice then to none at all cause I think it's more the smoking and wanting to smoke than it's her needing nicotine but we'll see....

So that's my story I hope you don't mind it being a long one
-Brandon

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

Brandon, Not at all!!

My mom vapes and smokes, only vapes when she's somewhere that she can't smoke. I almost didn't even try vaping because of that, now that I am doing it myself I know she hasn't quit completely because she doesn't want to bad enough. She came over last week and I had her try mine rather than hers and she really liked it. I think she uses V2 or something like that. Anyway if your Mom wants to switch bad enough she will but don't try to lower the nic to a lower level or it won't work, she'll feel the withdrawls and give up too quickly. I'm no expert on this, heck I just started 2 weeks ago but twice I've noticed lower level withdrawls and it was not a pleasant feeling but luckily I figured out the problem and remedied it, if that happened to a new person who didn't know they might give up, and I don't want anyone to give up!!

I remember back when I was a kid, I was never carded for smokes, back then they didn't ask, they didn't care. They didn't know just how bad cigarettes were for you. But now we do.

I ordered 50/50, we've been using straight PV juice so I HOPE we have no bad reactions to the new stuff. lol

 

[The Ocelot]

I smoked for 40 years and had no intention of quitting. I liked to smoke. I got an e-cig to play with, just for fun, I imagined it would be BS. I had 2.5 cigarettes left and played a game of "puff the cig, puff the e-cig..." I haven't picked up a cigarette since.

ETA: I smoke 1.5 PAD of Marlboro Menthols.

 

[Robino1]

I remember buying cigarettes for my mom when I was a kid. Just had to have a note from dear mom to hand to the person behind the cash registar. When I started smoking, cigarettes were less than 50 cents a pack. When they started to really go up in price, I said I would quit when they got to $1.00 per pack.....nope didn't happen. Said I would quit when they got to $2.00 per pack...nope didn't happen So here I am, it wasn't the price of cigs that got me to quit, it was vaping by accident.

 

[epage]

A neighbor friend and I started stealing cigs from my dad and her mom - Marlboro Reds from my dad, More from her mom. Not sure why... maybe we thought it made us cool. We were about 14 or so.

Fast forward 32 years... I actually quit cold turkey when I became pregnant at 35. Had been "trying" to quit because of the pregnancy but unsuccessfully so... I'd gone to my folks' house and my dad, who was by then smoking Salem menthol (I smoked Va. Slim Menthol Lights), was out in the carport puffing away... I bummed one off him and a few minutes later my mom came to the door... she saw me smoking... opened the door and spewed forth a stream of curse words I'd never, ever, ever heard her use, not only at me but at my dad... I flicked that cigarette as far as I could and never smoked another one for SIX YEARS...

Then, in 2008 there was some drama and I was all stressed out... my dad had passed, my mom was bedridden and I was taking care of her alone as my brother was in jail, and was by then a single mom of 2, working full time --- and I just had to have a cigarette... went to the store right then, I mean loaded up my kids in the car at 6pm in the evening and drove to the store for cigs.. that was 4 years ago September.

About 3 weeks ago, though, my kids and I had taken a walk. About 3 blocks or so from the house they decided we should race back to the house... We did, and when we got here my 8-1/2 year old daughter had all the symptoms of exertional asthma!! She had a tight chest, painful breathing, wheezing, and a horrible cough. That lasted almost 2 hours - I was THIS close to carrying her to the hospital, and I knew it was because of me... because of me smoking cigarettes... It was bad enough I was killing myself, but now I was killing my babies, too...

Again I loaded my kids into the car and went to the store... but this time I bought a disposable menthol e-cig...

After a couple of weeks at $5 a pop for those, I was at a BBQ and a friend's daughter was vaping, not sure what it was, but when I got home I looked for info online, which, like many others have said, led me here to ECF. I ordered a VV PV and a little mini eGo after a few days of stalking and another few days talking to chefjosh. My stuff should be delivered within the next day or three and that will be the end of my disposables (and 2-4 loose Newports I've been smoking each day).

Can't really speak of much change yet I don't reckon.....
Well, actually I can:
1) My daughter hasn't had any more breathing issues...
2) The kids are happy that mommy's quitting tobacco (they understand the difference between the "real" cigarettes and the e-cigs)...

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

LOVE all these stories, not sure about the rest of you reading these but they are VERY encouraging!!

 

[Marvin & Sennie]

epage,
I hear ya. My youngest child was born 3 weeks early at a whopping 4 lbs. They induced me saying she had a better chance outside of the womb than in because of my smoking. She had IUGR which means that she stopped growing weeks before and they directly related it to my smoking. I decided that day that if I couldn't quit smoking I was not having any more babies because my smoking almost killed her.