Hello all.
I'd like to start by thanking everyone for contributing all the information that they have to this forum (especially djinni717 for his YouTube video that initially led me to njoy and for answering some initial questions I had). While waiting for my e-cigarette, I've been trying to soak up all the information I can about the activity. Thanks for your help.
An introduction:
I'm a 26 year-old former light smoker from Oklahoma. If it wasn't for my wife wanting to keep me around past the age of 50, I'd probably be a current heavy smoker.
I used to smoke about 4 or 5 full strength cigarettes (Camel, Turkish Royals, or Lucky Strike filterless) a day, except on weekends when I could blow through an entire pack or more easily with my older brother, out on the back porch, talking about everything and nothing until the wee hours of the morning.
Quitting has been difficult. The only way I could bear it would be to promise my wife that I would not smoke anything for X days...the knowledge that I would at some point be able to smoke again combined with not wanting to break a promise to my wife was enough to keep me clean for X days. But after that time, I'd go right back to smoking. I did that whole routine a bunch of times, until I decided it might be a good idea to pit my vices against one another; I promised my wife that I would not smoke anything until I had lost 30 pounds. I figured if that took forever, hey, at least i wasn't smoking. If I lost the weight quickly and went back to smoking, hey, at least I'd lost a bunch of weight... either way, I win.
That was about 7 months ago.
As I've been approaching meeting my weight loss goal, I've been thinking about smoking more and more. I knew that the second I hit the goal, I'd be off to the store for a pack of cigs. Then I StumbleUpon'd a website advertising the Gamucci. I very literally almost cried.
The next day, after discussing it with my wife, I ordered an njoy. I know this sounds awfully xenophobic, but I was much less worried about ordering from a company in the States than from the rather shady looking China-based e-cig.com.
My njoy pen-style electronic cigarette was waiting for me when I got home from work today. Given that I hadn't smoked in more than half a year, I was eager, to say the least. I'll save my impressions of this specific cigarette until I'm allowed to post a review in the review forum.
One of the most terribly difficult things about not being able to smoke was the break from all the social aspects of smoking. As I mentioned before, My older brother and I would sit up for hours on the back porch, smoking and talking. Doing so while he smoked and I sucked on a nic lozenge just wasn't the same; it felt a little silly, not to mention the fact that I really wanted a smoke while watching him smoke. Something about the ritual of smoking, with all it's routines, just felt inexplicably "right."
You know why fat people (like myself) and diabetics so readily taking to drinking Diet Coke rather than regular Coke when their health depends on it? Because it's not an effing patch. You can still drink Diet Coke*.
That's why e-smoking is so incredible, in my opinion. Sure, it's not the same as real smoking, but most everything you did, grew accustomed to, and then grew to enjoy and cherish about smoking, you can continue to do with e-smoking. Tomorrow night, I'm going to be on the back porch with my older brother, talking about everything and nothing until the wee hours of the morning, him with his cigarettes, me with my e-cigarette, and it's going to be great.
----------------------
*To co-opt an old Diet Coke jingle:
"Just for the taste of it, Diet Smoke!"
I'd like to start by thanking everyone for contributing all the information that they have to this forum (especially djinni717 for his YouTube video that initially led me to njoy and for answering some initial questions I had). While waiting for my e-cigarette, I've been trying to soak up all the information I can about the activity. Thanks for your help.
An introduction:
I'm a 26 year-old former light smoker from Oklahoma. If it wasn't for my wife wanting to keep me around past the age of 50, I'd probably be a current heavy smoker.
I used to smoke about 4 or 5 full strength cigarettes (Camel, Turkish Royals, or Lucky Strike filterless) a day, except on weekends when I could blow through an entire pack or more easily with my older brother, out on the back porch, talking about everything and nothing until the wee hours of the morning.
Quitting has been difficult. The only way I could bear it would be to promise my wife that I would not smoke anything for X days...the knowledge that I would at some point be able to smoke again combined with not wanting to break a promise to my wife was enough to keep me clean for X days. But after that time, I'd go right back to smoking. I did that whole routine a bunch of times, until I decided it might be a good idea to pit my vices against one another; I promised my wife that I would not smoke anything until I had lost 30 pounds. I figured if that took forever, hey, at least i wasn't smoking. If I lost the weight quickly and went back to smoking, hey, at least I'd lost a bunch of weight... either way, I win.
That was about 7 months ago.
As I've been approaching meeting my weight loss goal, I've been thinking about smoking more and more. I knew that the second I hit the goal, I'd be off to the store for a pack of cigs. Then I StumbleUpon'd a website advertising the Gamucci. I very literally almost cried.
The next day, after discussing it with my wife, I ordered an njoy. I know this sounds awfully xenophobic, but I was much less worried about ordering from a company in the States than from the rather shady looking China-based e-cig.com.
My njoy pen-style electronic cigarette was waiting for me when I got home from work today. Given that I hadn't smoked in more than half a year, I was eager, to say the least. I'll save my impressions of this specific cigarette until I'm allowed to post a review in the review forum.
One of the most terribly difficult things about not being able to smoke was the break from all the social aspects of smoking. As I mentioned before, My older brother and I would sit up for hours on the back porch, smoking and talking. Doing so while he smoked and I sucked on a nic lozenge just wasn't the same; it felt a little silly, not to mention the fact that I really wanted a smoke while watching him smoke. Something about the ritual of smoking, with all it's routines, just felt inexplicably "right."
You know why fat people (like myself) and diabetics so readily taking to drinking Diet Coke rather than regular Coke when their health depends on it? Because it's not an effing patch. You can still drink Diet Coke*.
That's why e-smoking is so incredible, in my opinion. Sure, it's not the same as real smoking, but most everything you did, grew accustomed to, and then grew to enjoy and cherish about smoking, you can continue to do with e-smoking. Tomorrow night, I'm going to be on the back porch with my older brother, talking about everything and nothing until the wee hours of the morning, him with his cigarettes, me with my e-cigarette, and it's going to be great.
----------------------
*To co-opt an old Diet Coke jingle:
"Just for the taste of it, Diet Smoke!"
