I have to be honest with myself

[wheezal]

We all stumble from time to time....the real trick is to use that momentum to make it look like a totally awsum forward flip that you totally meant to do with erryone watching.


and thats what ya did. so be proud, and get some icy-hot for the bruises.

 

[wink_82]

I've slipped twice, both while drinking, and it had been over a month of vaping only... both times it tasted so bad I almost lost my dinner and put them out after a couple puffs. Thats when I knew there was no going back for me. Now granted there are times I see a pack, see someone smoking, or even smell someone smoking and think "why can they smoke and I cant?" Lol. Then I remember how good I feel, and after getting my first mod with vv/vw on monday, its better than ever!

Sent from my SM-N900R4 using Tapatalk

 

[MySubliminalYear]

My wife still smokes analogs all the time as she won't convert to an e cig because of the report about the lady who charged hers in her car and it exploded. I can watch her smoke and never get the urge to light one myself.It wasnt always like that but your resistance to tolerate seeing cigarettes smoked will build up over time. Sounds cliche but you have to take it one day at a time.

What about the lady who's cell phone exploded while she was charging it? Or the lady that spilled hot coffee on herself and got burned badly? Does she still use a cell phone and drink coffee? More people die every single day from smoking cigarettes than from their ecig exploding on a charger. Just sayin...

 

[stimpy]

I still love the smell of cigarettes but every time I take a drag (maybe once every few months) it tastes like someone pooped in my mouth.

 

[JayQC]

I had cigs since I started vaping.

Usually bumming them out of curiosity and I must say that although I didn't hate it (I used to smoke, obiouvsly), I found the throat hit to be less satisfying than my EVOD.

 

[AndriaD]

You did good, grannykimmy, threw them away even though they tasted good to you. Kudos!

I kept a "no need to panic" stash for 56 days after I quit, the last 12 in my last open pack, because I knew if all available cigarettes were gone, I would definitely panic, freak out, feel like I was dying, etc. I had a couple cravings and reminded myself, you can always go smoke... but I felt absolute abhorrence for that idea, I was doing so well with vaping instead, so I managed to resist. Somehow.

But then I started reading stories like this one, where some old cigarettes tempted one to light up, and they tasted good... and then I was afraid to KEEP any cigarettes in the house, so I finally gave them away, to a neighbor on disability who's too broke to care they were 2 months' stale. Glad they're gone. From my house, from my life. I talked to my son on mom's day, and he asked how the vaping was going, and I said "Great!" and he asked me, don't you have cravings? I thought about it for a second, but replied "not since the first couple weeks," which surprised me to realize it. I'm constantly surprised when I remember that I've become a non-smoker, one of that species I used to hate but mainly because they were so obnoxious to smokers.

I can't stand the smell at all anymore, not freshly lit, not stale, no part of it smells good to me, another big surprise. But, I remember how obnoxious non-smokers were when I smoked, so I try to rein in my disgust so as not to offend them as I was so often offended by non-smokers. They can't help it; either they don't know about e-cigs yet, or they tried some lame disposable and thought there were all that bad, or maybe they just feel that whatever they put in their body is their own damn biz and nobody else's. I felt that way with cigarettes, and I feel that way now, with e-cigs, so take THAT, stupid ANTZ!

Good going, Kimmy.

Andria

 

[WelfareKid215]

What about the lady who's cell phone exploded while she was charging it? Or the lady that spilled hot coffee on herself and got burned badly? Does she still use a cell phone and drink coffee? More people die every single day from smoking cigarettes than from their ecig exploding on a charger. Just sayin...

I know exactly what you sayin but she just doesnt want to listen. Its hard to convince the misinformed!!!

 

[Mailablemage]

I dont mean to belittle anyones struggles but the cig cravings while vaping is something i just cant understand. Once i switched i was switched and have t had a craving for a cig since. Maybe its because i was t a heavy smoker, but still. There was zero struggle for me. I dont understaaaaaaand

 

[Smokachino]

I will always love smoking but as long as I have e-cigs I know I can resist them. This morning while cleaning I saw a cig pack under my kitchen table. I figure my dog, who is always digging things out to chew on found them under the bed or something. I left it sitting there for hours afraid to pick it up in case it had cigs in it finally I had to get it off the floor and sure enough it was almost a half of pack with a lighter. I stood there starring at them and sniffed the pack...smelled like heaven and before I knew it I had whipped one out light it up and was mesmerized.. I ended up smoking about half it of before I came to my senses and put it out, then quickly filled the pack with water to ruin the cigs and tossed it. I guess I should feel guilty but I don't, before e-cigs I would have ended up smoking them all in a few hours and likely going to buy another pack.. but this time I was able to toss them though I do have an overwhelming sense of sadness and loss from the thought of trashing them and a bit of a cig buzz.

Good for you for throwing them away, and I can SO relate to "the overwhelming sense of sadness and loss". In the beginning I was literally in tears over the loss of my Marlboro Ultra Lights . . . a true love/hate relationship if there ever was one! After almost one year without them I still miss them sometimes, but only on days when I'm not in the mood to fiddle with vape stuff and wish I could just light it up and smoke it . Hang in there, you're doing great!

 

[AndriaD]

I dont mean to belittle anyones struggles but the cig cravings while vaping is something i just cant understand. Once i switched i was switched and have t had a craving for a cig since. Maybe its because i was t a heavy smoker, but still. There was zero struggle for me. I dont understaaaaaaand

My husband is that way. It's like he just flips a switch in his head, and bang, he's over it, whatever it is -- drugs, alcohol, smoking, anything at all.

Most of us are not that fortunate or blessed with a switch we can flip. I don't understand a really long, ongoing struggle either, to me that says that the person really didn't want or choose to quit, but had it forced on them. But even when you really want it, really choose it for yourself for your own reasons, there can still be cravings -- you just have to choose anew each time, if you're really committed to quitting. It's all about CHOICE. You can let your addicted brain boss you around, or you can choose to own your brain, rather than be owned by it.

My own experience is that if you tell your brain NO in no uncertain terms, however many times it takes, it finally gets the message and stops bothering you with cravings.

It's all about CHOICE.

Andria

 

[Baldr]

Well I'm at 24mg. This is my 3rd attempt at quiting through vaping. It has been about 3 months since trying again, and doing much better. I don't have a cig every day, but when I do get cravings it is for that morning cig.

I still feel pretty good about it as going from a pack to 1.5 packs a day for 30 years to one cig once in awhile in the morning is quitting in my book. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I started vaping at 24mg. That got me mostly off the cigs, but after meals, vaping didn't cut it, and I needed a couple-or-three cigs. I cut down from 3 PPD to about 10 cigs a day pretty easy, but then I was stuck at about 10 cigs a day for a couple of months.

Then I got some 30mg juice. I used that after meals, and continued using the 24 as my "all day" juice. That did the trick. As soon as I started doing that, I quit smoking. I was still buying cartons at a time and had 6 unopened packs, plus about a half of an open pack. The opened ones got tossed, and the unopened ones got given away.

If you're vaping and it works most of the time, but you still need a few cigs, it makes sense to me to get some higher nic juice just for those times. I can't promise it will work, but it did for me.

Once you are off the cigs, then cutting down the nic, a little at a time, isn't hard. But best to get off the cigs first, then worry about lowering your nic levels.

I still feel pretty good about it as going from a pack to 1.5 packs a day for 30 years to one cig once in awhile in the morning is quitting in my book.

That's certainly a success in my book. But I think you'll be better off to get rid of that last temptation. Too many people keep doing both vaping and smoking, and it's easy to end up back to smoking regularly when you do that.

 

[Baldr]

My wife still smokes analogs all the time as she won't convert to an e cig because of the report about the lady who charged hers in her car and it exploded. I can watch her smoke and never get the urge to light one myself.It wasnt always like that but your resistance to tolerate seeing cigarettes smoked will build up over time. Sounds cliche but you have to take it one day at a time.

She's never heard of a fire due to someone smoking? Or a phone battery exploding? Geeze. Honestly, it sounds like she just doesn't want to quit smoking and that's her excuse. And if that's the case, then vaping won't work for her anyway. You have to want to quit.

I have a lot of friends who still smoke. Doesn't bother me. Heck, I let them smoke in my car. (I don't really like it, but I allow it.) When they cigs are fresh, I kind of like the smell. The after-smell, though, I hate. Even when I smell a fresh one, I'm not at all tempted to smoke. The last time I tried a cig, it tasted incredibly nasty.

 

[jjordan]

I don't know how I do it but in my car is a full pack of cigarettes with three lighters they don't call my name, the don't even appeal to me and the smell of my car now all pure and smoke free...nothing beats that. The smell of a cigarette makes me so sick I almost vomit from the stench. I love being smoke free and I'm proud of you for destroying your temptation.

 

[AndriaD]

She's never heard of a fire due to someone smoking? Or a phone battery exploding? Geeze. Honestly, it sounds like she just doesn't want to quit smoking and that's her excuse. And if that's the case, then vaping won't work for her anyway. You have to want to quit.

There's a book I absolutely LOVE, called "Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah", and in it, is one of the most unforgettable quotes I've ever encountered:

"Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them."

The number of reasons a smoker can think of for not even making any attempt to quit smoking is probably beyond any counting. And you're absolutely right: as long as excuses are made, action will not be taken. It's much easier to make excuses than attempt any kind of real change. Change is scary -- the few days before I finally did quit, I was terrified -- what would my life be like, without cigarettes? I don't know if I was more scared it would fail, as the patches did, or that it would actually succeed.

Andria

 

[CKCalmer]

[...] before I knew it I had whipped one out light it up and was mesmerized.. I ended up smoking about half it of before I came to my senses and put it out [...]

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the Ten Second Rule that applies to food dropped on the floor. If you pick it up within ten seconds, then the drop doesn't count and the food is still OK to eat.

There should be a similar rule for us... The Half-a-Cig Rule. If you break down, light a cigarette and smoke half of it or less before crushing it out, then it doesn't count and it's still OK to call yourself a vaper.

 

[AndriaD]

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the Ten Second Rule that applies to food dropped on the floor. If you pick it up within ten seconds, then the drop doesn't count and the food is still OK to eat.

There should be a similar rule for us... The Half-a-Cig Rule. If you break down, light a cigarette and smoke half of it or less before crushing it out, then it doesn't count and it's still OK to call yourself a vaper.

Hmm... that would almost make my quit date a week earlier. The entire last week I smoked, except for the very last one, I'd take 2 or 3 puffs and put it out with a grimace of disgust.

The very last one, however, I knew would be my last, and I *forced* myself to smoke the entire disgusting thing, right down to the filter, wearing a rather inadequate jacket and no gloves or hat when it was 29 degrees. I wanted to make that as memorable as possible, to pre-empt any potential thoughts of 'well I could have just one', so that I would remember the discomfort, the disgust, the pure awfulness of the whole experience. It seems to have worked; I had one or two real cravings in the early days, but none severe enough to make me actually try it.

Andria

 

[FatherTime]

after not smoking for about the first 45 days of vaping and not smoking, i tried a cig to see how it compared to vaping after i had been vaping for an extended period of time. it was so gross. taste was so bad. smell was horrible. i felt dirty. i only smoked half of it. tossed it and now know i will never be smoking another cigarette EVER

 

[grannykimmy]

I wouldn't consider it struggles per say. I haven't had any cravings except for the first time I tried menthol liquid. Now I can vape menthol with no problem. A smoke would have never come to mind if that pack hadn't showed up. I've been around plenty of smokers since quitting with no issues, I've have cigs offered to me and refused. I consider it more of a weak moment and learning experience. Yes I loved the smell and the taste but I don't HAVE to have it, I could enjoy the smell and taste for a brief moment and still toss it, walk away and not look back... I can live without it. Literally

 

[kaoticspik]

My first day vaping I also bought a pack of cigarettes and never unwrapped it. It sat in my house for about 2 weeks before I finally had one. Upon having my first cigarette I absolutely hated it. The smell the taste etc. I smoked a pack of Dumaurier Regular Small King a day for 8 and a half years and it blew my mind that I hated every bit of it. I gave the pack away. I can't stand the smell these days. I absolutely loved smoking every part of smoking from the smell to the taste to the feel of it. It will come eventually!

 

[Zuma319]

I took up vaping in September, but I still smoke analogs whenever I want to. Its just that I seldom want to. I had about four packs when I switched, and I still have about a half a pack. For me, the big things is that although I may try to step down my nicotine intake in the future, I'm not concerned with that right now. And that is the huge difference right there. Twenty years ago I tried quitting many times, I once lasted six weeks, but when I gave in to temptation, when the nicotine rush hit me, I felt there was six weeks work down the drain, I was immediately hooked again. I just smoked an analog just now, but I expect it will be a few weeks before I have another, there is no sense of defeat at all. I expect my half pack will be empty sometime this summer, and I'm not sure if I will buy another one or not.