I've been vaping for about three weeks now, and during that time I've smoked two cigarettes. I really had no strong desire to smoke either of them--it was mostly a sense of curiosity. After smoking for about 30 years, I've decided that I enjoy vaping a lot more.
I've made a few halfhearted attempts over the years to quit smoking. The hardest part about it was that I never really wanted to quit. In fact, the worst part of it was knowing that I would never be able to smoke again. I loved smoking, and giving it up was like saying goodbye to an old friend. Knowing that I would never be able to enjoy a cigarette again was always the worst part. And, of course, until now, there was no such thing as "just one cigarette". The first cigarette always led to a fast relapse, since I never really wanted to say goodbye to my old friend in the first place.
I had resigned myself to not being able to quit permanently. In fact, I was toying with the idea of doing what one person said he had done. Most people took this as a joke, but I realized he was serious. He had quit smoking temporarily, and planned to start again on his 70th birthday. By that time, he assumed that he wouldn't have enough time to do any damage during his remaining years. So he had the health benefits of quitting, but didn't have to quit permanently. Again, some people assumed he was joking, but I knew he was being quite serious. Permanently saying goodbye to an old friend is hard, although doing it only temporarily wouldn't be as difficult. It made perfect sense to me.
After my two attempts at smoking now, I realize that there is no grief. If I ever want to smoke again, I can. My wife smokes a little bit, and there are constantly cigarettes in the house. She's one of those rare people who smokes occasionally because she likes it, but she's not addicted, and truly can take it or leave it. Interestingly, I'm now one of those people. I don't have to wait until I'm 70 for my next cigarette. I can smoke one right now if I feel like it. I just don't want one right now. Maybe tomorrow I will, but probably not. If I do want one, it's no big deal. It's quite possible for me to not smoke, even though there's an almost full pack of perfectly good cigarettes just lying around the house, waiting for me. During any of my quit attempts, that would have been an irresistible temptation.
I had two previous attempts with e-cigs. The first one, like my current successful one, was necessitated by the need to be somewhere for a few days where I couldn't smoke. I had used nicotine gum in the past in similar situations, but it just wasn't the same. I need the nicotine delivered in doses of a certain size, with the fast reaction time that only smoking it can give. I also need the positive reinforcement of seeing the smoke exit my body. (It never tasted right if I smoked in the dark.) The gum could get me through a few hours, but it definitely wasn't a good solution for even a few days. So about two years ago, I went to the mall and bought something that looked like a toy cigarette. I've never quite figured out the reason why they make them look like a cigarette. Actually, I like what cigarettes look like. In fact (and this was a big part of the problem for me), there's nothing more beautiful for me than seeing a pretty girl smoking a cigarette. But the cig-alikes are clearly just an imitation. Unlike cigarettes, they don't get smaller with use. Unlike cigarettes, there's no smoke coming from the end. And for smoking, the weight is all wrong. They don't feel like a cigarette, and you can't even hold one like a cigarette. Again, I still enjoy the sight of a pretty girl smoking a cigarette. But there's nothing about a cig-alike that is even vaguely similar, as far as I'm concerned. Again, it looks like a toy cigarette, and I see absolutely no advantage to making it the same shape and color. If I need that, then I can just buy a real cigarette.
But that's all the guy at the mall had. To make it look even more like a toy, it even came in a box that looked like a pack of cigarettes. It didn't hold the stuff particularly well, but from a distance, it looked like a pack of off-brand cigarettes. Again, that's all they had, so that's what I bought.
It got me through a couple of days, but it was still nothing more than a poor substitute for the real thing. I got my nicotine fix, and it got me through a couple of days. But as soon as I was able, I put the toy cigarette aside for use in a future emergency. That was about two years ago. I bought 10 cartridges to go with it, and I still have 10. I did use it in a couple of emergency situations, but that's about it. Real cigarettes were better.
On July 1, the Minnesota Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided that smokers should pay for the new Vikings stadium. Since I really don't care about football, I decided that I didn't want to pay. Also, more imporantly, I was going to be in a situation where I had to go a whole week without a cigarette. I started planning for it, and decided to try an NJOY. It was slightly better than the one I got at the mall. I grudgingly decided that to get through my emergency, I would just buy several of the disposable ones. Again, I don't see the point of one that looks like a cigarette, so my plan was to buy several of the BLU disposables to get me through the week. In fact, since I was going to be in a non-smoking environment, the fact that it looked like a toy cigarette was actually a big disadvantage, since it would make stealth use more difficult. I figured that, from a distance, the BLU would look like a pen or something, and wouldn't cause as much suspicion as the toy cigarette.
I immediately realized, however, that the disposables wouldn't save me any money. They cost more than a pack of cigarettes, and didn't seem to last as long. So I would be paying just as much, or even more, and wouldn't even get a stadium to show for it. So the plan was to get myself some Marlboro Lights as soon as my week was over. I even planned on buying them in another state from now on to keep from having to finance the stadium.
But just a few days before my week from hell without cigarettes, I saw a new shop selling e-cigs. I decided to check them out. This time, they didn't have toy cigarettes. Instead, they had things that looked like big pens or small flashlights. I realized immediately that these would be a better choice for my planned stealth vaping. I really had no idea what was available. I had seen a couple of people with box-like things, and one of them had even offered me a puff, which I realized immediately was almost as good as smoking. The presumed cost, however, had kept me away. In addition, the box thing was a little bit off-putting. But at this store, they sold me exactly what I needed. They were actually almost secretive about what exactly they were selling. There was no mention of brand names. In retrospect, I suspect that this was to keep people from trying them in the store and then buying online. I did my research later, and I could have gotten everything a little bit cheaper, but not much.
For about $40, I went home with (what I later figured out to be) an EGO-C Upgrade battery (with USB passthrough), a Kanger T-2 clearomizer, and two bottles of e-liquid. The salesperson tried to get me to sample different flavors, but I told her I just wanted nicotine, preferably the strongest they had. She sold me a bottle of "Liqua Traditional Tobacco" in the 24 mg strength. I asked for two bottles, and she didn't have any more tobacco flavored, so I just had her sell me a bottle of menthol. I didn't smoke menthol, but all I was worried about was the nicotine. I just wanted to make sure I had enough to see me through. I still have the unopened bottle of menthol, which is now my emergency supply.
It turns out that she sold me exactly the right thing for me. Now, it probably helped that during my week from hell, I had hardly any opportunity to vape or smoke for quite a while. I was constantly with other people, and I just didn't have time. As was my past custom, I chain smoked before I had to go, in order to get the nicotine in my system to last me a while. Then, it was cold turkey for several hours.
When I finally had a chance to duck into a restroom to try out the new toy hidden in my pocket, I realized that this was really good! It was actually better than smoking! The next day, when I had some time to myself and could do it properly, I realized that this was really, really good! It was actually much better than smoking! I kept using it, every chance I got, for the next week, and it stayed good! It tasted good, and the nicotine felt as good or better than any cigarette I had ever smoked.
When my week was done, I did not race to the first convenience store I saw to get a pack of cigarettes. I just enjoyed my Ego whenever I wanted, and it was still better than smoking. In fact, I realized that, for the first time in years, there wasn't a single cigarette in the house, and I had absolutely no desire to go buy another one. This would have been unthinkable for most of my life. For the past 30 years, I've always kept a mental inventory of exactly how many cigarettes I had. Occasionally, I would realize right before bed that I was down to one or two, and I always had to think in terms of whether I should smoke them then, and need to go out first thing in the morning, or whether I should start rationing them in order to go at a more convenient time. That was no longer an issue for me. I had a full bottle of the liquid, and in case of emergency, I still had a full bottle of the menthol liquid. Even if I don't like it, it still contains the nicotine, which is my main concern.
I did go and buy spare parts. They told me that the coil will last "about two weeks", and it's been longer than that. So I bought one spare, and also a spare tank that came with a coil. The only spare I don't have (yet) is the battery itself. I will get myself one or two of those, but for the time being, I do have the old toy cigarette I got at the mall. It's better than nothing, and it will see me through a day or two.
And more importantly, if I really get in a fix, I can just go down to the local Kwik-E-Mart and get myself a pack of my old friends, Marlboro Lights. If I'm lucky, there will be a pretty girl there selling them to me, and maybe I'll get to see her smoke one. It will be like old times catching up with my old friend. But then, when I get my replacement parts, I can put my old friend aside once again. Except perhaps for a short-term emergency, I don't need him any more. I certainly won't hang around with the cigarettes long enough to start feeling the shortness of breath again. In short, cigarettes, I can take 'em or leave 'em. Really!
Interestingly, when I did smoke those two cigarettes, they tasted like burnt paper. I wonder why.
For years, I loved the taste of a Marlboro Light, and in some ways, I still enjoy them. But they don't taste nearly as good as my Ego with a few drops of Liqua Traditional Tobacco!
Speaking of health, I already do feel a lot better. It took about a week to start noticing it, but I've noticed that I can exercise a lot more without feeling winded. Also, I've noticed that this gets better every day. I don't wake up coughing, and my teeth are starting to get white again. In general, I just have a lot more energy.
I've only been at this for a few weeks, but I do have some advice for other newbies:
1. If the first e-cig you try is no good, then keep trying. If possible, go to a shop where you can try it out.
2. Don't think that you have to quit cigarettes entirely. In my case, I can now smoke whenever I want, and I will probably smoke occasionally. But I forget to smoke now! I didn't have to say goodbye to my old friend. I just like my new friend better.
3. Even though you don't have to quit forever, it will probably help if you start out by cleansing yourself of smoking for a short time, perhaps just several hours. There are probably times now when you can't smoke, and you know how wonderful it feels to smoke a cigarette at one of those times. If you can quit for a day, great. Or even if you can quit for several hours, I think that will probably help. That first cigarette after those times is wonderful, isn't it? Well, if you switch to an e-cig, you will get that same wonderful feeling, and it will be even better!
4. Before making that switch, practice smoking with your new e-cig a few times, even while you are still smoking full-time. It's not difficult, but vaping is somewhat different from smoking. You might even cough a little bit the first time you try it. Once you get the basics down, you'll be able to do it right after your brief departure from nicotine, and it will be extremely pleasant. (I read on this forum that with an e-cig, it's important to breath the smoke into your mouth, and then inhale. Perhaps I've been doing it wrong all the time, but that's exactly how I smoked a cigarette. I never breathed the smoke in directly from the cigarette. I always drew it into my mouth, and then inhaled. So if you smoke the other way, it might be useful to start practicing with cigarettes the way that you will use the e-cig.)
5. If it's not extremely pleasant, then try again with another system. For me, the combination of the Ego battery, the Kanger T-2, and the Liqua Traditional Tobacco was absolutely perfect. On the other hand, I've read that some people didn't like some or all of those. What's right for me might not be right for you. So if you try that combination and it's not as good as smoking, you might want to try something else.
The information on this site and elsewhere can be overwhelming. There's a whole new vocabulary, and I don't know it. Many people seem to be searching for the perfect e-cig. In my case, I think I've found it. Maybe there's something better, and perhaps someday I'll find it. But for now, I know that what I have is better than the best cigarette.
I've made a few halfhearted attempts over the years to quit smoking. The hardest part about it was that I never really wanted to quit. In fact, the worst part of it was knowing that I would never be able to smoke again. I loved smoking, and giving it up was like saying goodbye to an old friend. Knowing that I would never be able to enjoy a cigarette again was always the worst part. And, of course, until now, there was no such thing as "just one cigarette". The first cigarette always led to a fast relapse, since I never really wanted to say goodbye to my old friend in the first place.
I had resigned myself to not being able to quit permanently. In fact, I was toying with the idea of doing what one person said he had done. Most people took this as a joke, but I realized he was serious. He had quit smoking temporarily, and planned to start again on his 70th birthday. By that time, he assumed that he wouldn't have enough time to do any damage during his remaining years. So he had the health benefits of quitting, but didn't have to quit permanently. Again, some people assumed he was joking, but I knew he was being quite serious. Permanently saying goodbye to an old friend is hard, although doing it only temporarily wouldn't be as difficult. It made perfect sense to me.
After my two attempts at smoking now, I realize that there is no grief. If I ever want to smoke again, I can. My wife smokes a little bit, and there are constantly cigarettes in the house. She's one of those rare people who smokes occasionally because she likes it, but she's not addicted, and truly can take it or leave it. Interestingly, I'm now one of those people. I don't have to wait until I'm 70 for my next cigarette. I can smoke one right now if I feel like it. I just don't want one right now. Maybe tomorrow I will, but probably not. If I do want one, it's no big deal. It's quite possible for me to not smoke, even though there's an almost full pack of perfectly good cigarettes just lying around the house, waiting for me. During any of my quit attempts, that would have been an irresistible temptation.
I had two previous attempts with e-cigs. The first one, like my current successful one, was necessitated by the need to be somewhere for a few days where I couldn't smoke. I had used nicotine gum in the past in similar situations, but it just wasn't the same. I need the nicotine delivered in doses of a certain size, with the fast reaction time that only smoking it can give. I also need the positive reinforcement of seeing the smoke exit my body. (It never tasted right if I smoked in the dark.) The gum could get me through a few hours, but it definitely wasn't a good solution for even a few days. So about two years ago, I went to the mall and bought something that looked like a toy cigarette. I've never quite figured out the reason why they make them look like a cigarette. Actually, I like what cigarettes look like. In fact (and this was a big part of the problem for me), there's nothing more beautiful for me than seeing a pretty girl smoking a cigarette. But the cig-alikes are clearly just an imitation. Unlike cigarettes, they don't get smaller with use. Unlike cigarettes, there's no smoke coming from the end. And for smoking, the weight is all wrong. They don't feel like a cigarette, and you can't even hold one like a cigarette. Again, I still enjoy the sight of a pretty girl smoking a cigarette. But there's nothing about a cig-alike that is even vaguely similar, as far as I'm concerned. Again, it looks like a toy cigarette, and I see absolutely no advantage to making it the same shape and color. If I need that, then I can just buy a real cigarette.
But that's all the guy at the mall had. To make it look even more like a toy, it even came in a box that looked like a pack of cigarettes. It didn't hold the stuff particularly well, but from a distance, it looked like a pack of off-brand cigarettes. Again, that's all they had, so that's what I bought.
It got me through a couple of days, but it was still nothing more than a poor substitute for the real thing. I got my nicotine fix, and it got me through a couple of days. But as soon as I was able, I put the toy cigarette aside for use in a future emergency. That was about two years ago. I bought 10 cartridges to go with it, and I still have 10. I did use it in a couple of emergency situations, but that's about it. Real cigarettes were better.
On July 1, the Minnesota Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided that smokers should pay for the new Vikings stadium. Since I really don't care about football, I decided that I didn't want to pay. Also, more imporantly, I was going to be in a situation where I had to go a whole week without a cigarette. I started planning for it, and decided to try an NJOY. It was slightly better than the one I got at the mall. I grudgingly decided that to get through my emergency, I would just buy several of the disposable ones. Again, I don't see the point of one that looks like a cigarette, so my plan was to buy several of the BLU disposables to get me through the week. In fact, since I was going to be in a non-smoking environment, the fact that it looked like a toy cigarette was actually a big disadvantage, since it would make stealth use more difficult. I figured that, from a distance, the BLU would look like a pen or something, and wouldn't cause as much suspicion as the toy cigarette.
I immediately realized, however, that the disposables wouldn't save me any money. They cost more than a pack of cigarettes, and didn't seem to last as long. So I would be paying just as much, or even more, and wouldn't even get a stadium to show for it. So the plan was to get myself some Marlboro Lights as soon as my week was over. I even planned on buying them in another state from now on to keep from having to finance the stadium.
But just a few days before my week from hell without cigarettes, I saw a new shop selling e-cigs. I decided to check them out. This time, they didn't have toy cigarettes. Instead, they had things that looked like big pens or small flashlights. I realized immediately that these would be a better choice for my planned stealth vaping. I really had no idea what was available. I had seen a couple of people with box-like things, and one of them had even offered me a puff, which I realized immediately was almost as good as smoking. The presumed cost, however, had kept me away. In addition, the box thing was a little bit off-putting. But at this store, they sold me exactly what I needed. They were actually almost secretive about what exactly they were selling. There was no mention of brand names. In retrospect, I suspect that this was to keep people from trying them in the store and then buying online. I did my research later, and I could have gotten everything a little bit cheaper, but not much.
For about $40, I went home with (what I later figured out to be) an EGO-C Upgrade battery (with USB passthrough), a Kanger T-2 clearomizer, and two bottles of e-liquid. The salesperson tried to get me to sample different flavors, but I told her I just wanted nicotine, preferably the strongest they had. She sold me a bottle of "Liqua Traditional Tobacco" in the 24 mg strength. I asked for two bottles, and she didn't have any more tobacco flavored, so I just had her sell me a bottle of menthol. I didn't smoke menthol, but all I was worried about was the nicotine. I just wanted to make sure I had enough to see me through. I still have the unopened bottle of menthol, which is now my emergency supply.
It turns out that she sold me exactly the right thing for me. Now, it probably helped that during my week from hell, I had hardly any opportunity to vape or smoke for quite a while. I was constantly with other people, and I just didn't have time. As was my past custom, I chain smoked before I had to go, in order to get the nicotine in my system to last me a while. Then, it was cold turkey for several hours.
When I finally had a chance to duck into a restroom to try out the new toy hidden in my pocket, I realized that this was really good! It was actually better than smoking! The next day, when I had some time to myself and could do it properly, I realized that this was really, really good! It was actually much better than smoking! I kept using it, every chance I got, for the next week, and it stayed good! It tasted good, and the nicotine felt as good or better than any cigarette I had ever smoked.
When my week was done, I did not race to the first convenience store I saw to get a pack of cigarettes. I just enjoyed my Ego whenever I wanted, and it was still better than smoking. In fact, I realized that, for the first time in years, there wasn't a single cigarette in the house, and I had absolutely no desire to go buy another one. This would have been unthinkable for most of my life. For the past 30 years, I've always kept a mental inventory of exactly how many cigarettes I had. Occasionally, I would realize right before bed that I was down to one or two, and I always had to think in terms of whether I should smoke them then, and need to go out first thing in the morning, or whether I should start rationing them in order to go at a more convenient time. That was no longer an issue for me. I had a full bottle of the liquid, and in case of emergency, I still had a full bottle of the menthol liquid. Even if I don't like it, it still contains the nicotine, which is my main concern.
I did go and buy spare parts. They told me that the coil will last "about two weeks", and it's been longer than that. So I bought one spare, and also a spare tank that came with a coil. The only spare I don't have (yet) is the battery itself. I will get myself one or two of those, but for the time being, I do have the old toy cigarette I got at the mall. It's better than nothing, and it will see me through a day or two.
And more importantly, if I really get in a fix, I can just go down to the local Kwik-E-Mart and get myself a pack of my old friends, Marlboro Lights. If I'm lucky, there will be a pretty girl there selling them to me, and maybe I'll get to see her smoke one. It will be like old times catching up with my old friend. But then, when I get my replacement parts, I can put my old friend aside once again. Except perhaps for a short-term emergency, I don't need him any more. I certainly won't hang around with the cigarettes long enough to start feeling the shortness of breath again. In short, cigarettes, I can take 'em or leave 'em. Really!
Interestingly, when I did smoke those two cigarettes, they tasted like burnt paper. I wonder why.
For years, I loved the taste of a Marlboro Light, and in some ways, I still enjoy them. But they don't taste nearly as good as my Ego with a few drops of Liqua Traditional Tobacco!Speaking of health, I already do feel a lot better. It took about a week to start noticing it, but I've noticed that I can exercise a lot more without feeling winded. Also, I've noticed that this gets better every day. I don't wake up coughing, and my teeth are starting to get white again. In general, I just have a lot more energy.
I've only been at this for a few weeks, but I do have some advice for other newbies:
1. If the first e-cig you try is no good, then keep trying. If possible, go to a shop where you can try it out.
2. Don't think that you have to quit cigarettes entirely. In my case, I can now smoke whenever I want, and I will probably smoke occasionally. But I forget to smoke now! I didn't have to say goodbye to my old friend. I just like my new friend better.
3. Even though you don't have to quit forever, it will probably help if you start out by cleansing yourself of smoking for a short time, perhaps just several hours. There are probably times now when you can't smoke, and you know how wonderful it feels to smoke a cigarette at one of those times. If you can quit for a day, great. Or even if you can quit for several hours, I think that will probably help. That first cigarette after those times is wonderful, isn't it? Well, if you switch to an e-cig, you will get that same wonderful feeling, and it will be even better!
4. Before making that switch, practice smoking with your new e-cig a few times, even while you are still smoking full-time. It's not difficult, but vaping is somewhat different from smoking. You might even cough a little bit the first time you try it. Once you get the basics down, you'll be able to do it right after your brief departure from nicotine, and it will be extremely pleasant. (I read on this forum that with an e-cig, it's important to breath the smoke into your mouth, and then inhale. Perhaps I've been doing it wrong all the time, but that's exactly how I smoked a cigarette. I never breathed the smoke in directly from the cigarette. I always drew it into my mouth, and then inhaled. So if you smoke the other way, it might be useful to start practicing with cigarettes the way that you will use the e-cig.)
5. If it's not extremely pleasant, then try again with another system. For me, the combination of the Ego battery, the Kanger T-2, and the Liqua Traditional Tobacco was absolutely perfect. On the other hand, I've read that some people didn't like some or all of those. What's right for me might not be right for you. So if you try that combination and it's not as good as smoking, you might want to try something else.
The information on this site and elsewhere can be overwhelming. There's a whole new vocabulary, and I don't know it. Many people seem to be searching for the perfect e-cig. In my case, I think I've found it. Maybe there's something better, and perhaps someday I'll find it. But for now, I know that what I have is better than the best cigarette.
