Why did you quit / cut down on smoking?

[Liskrig]

I was "smart" enough to wait until I was 18 (legal age here in the states) to start smoking cigars. I bought a cheap Game Green cigar (green plastic wrapper in a stand-up box usually in convenience stores.) I immediately liked the experience, but HATED the taste (its a cheap cigar). I tried another one that same day that was Vanilla flavored, and enjoyed it a BIT more.

I looked up some local tobacconists and bought some premium cigars. I got bad bad morning breath if I smoked the night before (no matter what I used, it wouldn't go away) and found it to be because of just how strong the cigar filler was. The same thing happened with "Mild" cigars too.

I moved to pipes, and enjoyed that significantly more. The tobacconist near my work makes his own blends, and I sometimes helped him with naming them and critiquing them. I used Peterson pipes as my main, and still have a Nording 2005 Hunter pipe unsmoked with the certificate that I'm keeping to collect. I ended my leaf smoking with 3-4 bowls a day during Spring to Fall, and maybe 2 bowles during the winter months (if that at all).

I never felt like I was addicted, but I enjoyed the taste and the feeling it gave me. It wasn't an expensive hobby, as the only consumables were pipe-cleaners ($2 for 50) and pipe tobacco ($8 for 2oz). The pipes were $80 - $200 but I loved them very well so they never had any burn-outs, or hot-spots.

I switched to vaping before the warmer weather here and the transition was seamless for me. I started on an iStick 20w with a nautilus Mini vaping Halo's VOODOO. I miss it sometimes (NET juices can only take you so far), but would never actually go back. I feel better in the mornings, can breathe easier... Its great!

 

[Jakeey]

Because at the age of 68 the doctor told me to get my affairs in order. I will turn 74 in about a week, so I guess vaping has made it so that I have had ample time.

Haha my grandpa is 90 and still smokes (75 years of smoking) ciggarettes and pipe, I've told him to start vaping but he straight up denies it, "I've smoked for 75 years, why quit now when I can die any day and the thing I enjoy most is smoking" a quote from him and I accept it

 

[kkiet]

50+ years of smoking and health problems. Been eight months off cigs now.

 

[SmokinRabbit]

30ish years of smoking. I was at over 2 PAD. Part of it was I wanted to take better care of myself (which I wish I'd done all along -- LOL)... Part of it was money. What I've saved I was able to buy health insurance.

I quit August 2014, so I'm at almost a year now, cigarette-free

I'm also at 0mg nicotine and have been for a long while. My vaping is pretty casual now. The small Ego One battery easy lasts me 2-3 days. Two 5ml of juice can last me two weeks.

Vaping made all the difference. I honestly never thought I'd quit smoking. Other than gaining 30 lbs (which I can't entirely blame on quitting smoking), I'm pretty happy. And I'm working on the weight now

 

[Steamer861]

Health Concerns! after 40 plus years of heavy smoking, It was literally killing me!
Now a year and a half off the smokes & into Vaping I feel 10 years younger
Thank God for Vaping cause with out it, I fear I would have smoked to the end

 

[mauricem00]

I quit smoking for heath concerns. except for hypertension im in good health and I really enjoyed smoking my pipe but after 45 years of smoking I found an effective way to quit when my girlfriends sister let me try her e-go vaporized. been tobacco free for 6 month now and the smokers cough and sinus congestion are gone. I don't get "winded" near as quickly when riding my bicycle up hills or hiking in the local mountains and my blood pressure has actually dropped a little.pipe tobacco was not that expensive ($42/month) but I am still saving a little money.

 

[AXIOM_1]

I guess I am just plain self absorbed or something because I did not quit because I was worried about other people. Nope, I quit because I was just plain PARANOID about the health consequences. Unlike most folks, I started smoking when I was a very young kid (about 10 years old) and I was very immature. Both my mind and body had not even had a chance to develop at that early of an age. I was hanging around this one social outcast sort of a kid that smoked and one day I thought I would try it. It only took me a few days of that and I found myself quickly addicted. I ended up smoking for 35+ years (closer to 40 years actually)

The entire time I smoked while growing up, I was paranoid about cancer and the other health problems from smoking but yet I could never seem to quit no matter how I tried or what I tried. Then one day while watching a medical scientist on television I was took back by what he said. He said that it is not that smoking "may" cause cancer but that it WILL DEFINITELY cause cancer provided that a person smokes them long enough. It may take some people 40 or 50 years of smoking them but if they keep smoking they definitely will develop lung cancer. So basically I knew that I was headed for lung cancer.

Then, my mother was a long time smoker ( 50 years of smoking) and just a while back she got sick and they discovered that she had terminal lung cancer. When they did the biopsy of her lungs, they were able to determine that her type of cancer was directly caused from smoking. Needless to say, my poor mother only lived 3 months after being diagnosed and then she died. Just like that that medical scientist had stated on television is exactly what happened to my mother. So, as you might imagine, that propelled me even further into getting my act together and finding some way to get away from the cancer sticks, which I was able to do via vaping.

 

[Nolongerpuffin]

Health and cost. 2 PAD at 7 dollars a pack was adding up. Found out I was diabetic and my doctor noted restricted air flow and areas of "stasis" in my lungs.

Watching and listening to my mother going through COPD after she quit in her fifties (I'm 55 and was 54 when I started vaping) and knowing I'd be facing the same road and likely still am.

Then having a chest x-ray done for another unrelated reason and discovering that by some miracle, the x-ray was still fairly clear.

Decided to quit while I was ahead. Vaping was the only option as I'd already tried the pharmaceutical NRTs without success, and was unable to take meds due for health reasons.

My lungs are now clear, my BP has dropped back to normal for a 20 year old. My circulation is better. Heart rate has dropped. Cough is gone. I'm still diabetic and still overweight, but my A1C has dropped, which I can't attribute to getting off the analogs. Now, when I "run out of steam" walking or climbing stairs, it's because my bum knee has had enough,not because I can't get enough air.

Starting to vape was one of the best health decisions I've ever made.

 

[Hitcat44]

Why Quit?
Easy to answer,,,,
It was Killing Me.

 

[K_Tech]

I had my first cigarette at the age of 12, started smoking rather regularly in high school, and spent the next 30 years being a dedicated smoker.

The last ten years I smoked, I hated it. I hated the way it made my clothes, hair, and fingers smell. I hated the yellow stains on my fingers and on the walls of my house. I hated the hold it had on me, and I hated the way my house smelled when I walked into it after a day spent outdoors.

I tried everything to quit - patches, gum, Chantix, Zyban, lozenges, inhalers, and cheap cigalikes from the local stop 'n rob, and nothing worked long term until I started vaping.

I had six cigarettes left in my pack when I got home from work to find my first assortment of vape mail in the mailbox. Twelve hours later, I'd extinguished my last cigarette.

That was almost two years ago, and I couldn't be happier about the switch!

 

[Nolongerpuffin]

I sold my mobile home up in Northern WI and moved to the Milwaukee 'burbs a couple of months ago. Before I put the house on the market, I had to "prepare" it.

This included a thorough cleaning, which included washing 12 years of accumulated tobacco smoke off the walls. It took (illegal) trisodium phosphate and much scrubbing to remove the build-up without damaging the drywall.

When I first quit the analogs, I washed every stitch of clothing I owned THREE times before I got the smoke stench out of them, plus all my bedding and towels. EVERYTHING stank.

I sold my furniture with the place, or I'd have had to have had that professionally cleaned as well. Luckily I never smoked in my vehicle, so that wasn't an issue.

It's a filthy habit. Right now, in my apartment, I am looking for a tactful way to request that my new neighbors, who apparently don't want to stink up THEIR apartment with cigarette smoke, smoke a bit farther from the building as their smoke wafts into my apartment on occasion and I can no longer abide the smell.

 

[AshleyG]

Hiiii guys. Just thought I'd add my reasoning

I'm 26 and had smoked cigarettes for 13 or 14 years (way too long). I started at 12/13 years old and was heavily addicted from the get go. I had a "cool" mom growing up and she bought my cigarettes .. I guess she was tired of me stealing hers or whatever. I'll be honest, we all lived on the same "hill" or road and my uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, etc all smoked.. So even if she wouldn't have bought them, I could easily get them and would smoke behind her back. At the time, my friends and I thought my mom was the coolest mom on the planet and I really wish she would've never bought them for me, so I would've had no choice but to eventually quit.

Anyways, I have two kids that are under age 7 and have been married for 9 years. I quit because its not about Me anymore. I need to be healthy for my family. I kept thinking what if I couldn't go to all the ball games or play outside with my kids or take them to do amazing stuff because or an oxygen tank or cancer. Why would I bring cancer and smothering upon myself? My kids keep asking why I wouldn't quit and my oldest kept begging me to please stop smoking. I promised him I would quit. .

I was introduced to vaoing and have been vaping for 4 months. My hubby was a smoker of 15+ years and he quit about 2 weeks before me. He really introduced me abd encouraged me to quit. I initially bought a cheapie at a convenience store and purchased some peach juice from there also (vape plus, I think). It was hard for the first week because I felt as if I couldn't get the nicotine to hit me fast enough when a craving set in.. Seems like cigarettes hit you right then an there.

Anyways, I am so thrilled that I quit. I can breathe better and I don't stink. To me, cigarettes reek and used to they smelled heavenly, especially right after I woke up or ate.

Anyways I am so glad I had a good support system and that my hubby had quit too. Now I'm working on my mom...her ego one came in about a week or so ago and I'm trying to get her to try the transition. We will see how it goes!

 

[Completely Average]

Simple economics.

I smoked a pack a day and my wife also smoked a pack a day.

1 Pack = $6.25

So.....

$6.25 x 2 x 365 = $4,562.50 per year smoking (Not counting extras like lighters, air fresheners, and replacing occasional burnt items)

I now DIY my juice. Unlike most people I do not have shinyitis, so I can go a year or more without having to buy new gear. The only thing I pay for now is replaceable coils, and those typically last me a month or more.

So I spend less than $300 per year on vaping.

$4,562.50 - $300 = $4,262.50

That's basically like getting a $2.09 per hour raise at work.

Or to put it another way....

My daughter just turned 13. From the time my wife and I switched to vaping until my daughter turns 16 we will have saved enough money to buy her a brand new car.

 

[Completely Average]

I'm 26 and had smoked cigarettes for 13 or 14 years (way too long).

Anyways, I have two kids that are under age 7 and have been married for 9 years.

You got married when you were 17?

 

[hmar]

I wasn't happy with being a smoker anymore, always being a slave to that little stick, always aware of the minutes until my next cigarette. I was at the point where, to keep cast down, I was rolling cheap pipe tobacco, so the smell was especially strong. The final straw, for me, after 20 years of smoking was when my employer announced that insurance premiums would be doubling for smokers. I had tried vaping in the past, this time it stuck. I have been 16 months without a cigarette, my nicotine cravings are no longer strong enough to control me, I don't smell, I can breath again, I no longer spend a portion of each morning clearing my lungs. Last weekend, I got on a bicycle for the first time in over 10 years. Rode 2 miles, my knees gave out long before my lungs did. Last year that would not have been the case. I consider vaping to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

 

[cstat]

Too expensive & trying to get healthy

 

[3mg Meniere]

1. I bought a cigalike and liked it better. Never had a cigarette since.

2. Burn holes in my clothes

3. Tendonitis in my hands from using cigarette machine in marathon sessions.

4. Bad smell.

5. General health concerns.

6. Hope that it would be cheaper. That took a while.

7. RYO messy and inconsistent in quality.

 

[shaily]

Hi Jake,
Just to share my reasons..
(a) Not getting any yonger
(b) Wife and Kids
(c) Cigs really really really make you loose your health
(d) Why should I pay some cig company for making me sick

 

[mamabear15]

Same reason as you, over here lol I didn't want to raise my lil rugrat to either get sick from my 2ndhand smoke or to just grow up seeing Mommy smoke all the time and be more likely to smoke herself...

 

[AndriaD]

I just wanted a way to indulge my habit indoors, was tired of freezing my bits off, on the front porch. And it worked great for that. When I saw what a really good substitute it was, and saw how many people have used e-cigs to stop smoking, I thought, why not? I'd wanted to quit for DECADES, after all, and it looked like I might have finally found the way to do it. I was right.

And, I was tired of my pk a day habit destroying my hard work trying to get our family financial situation straightened out after the bad years of the economic meltdown -- e-cigs have been a godsend, even with indulging my shinyitis every few months. Times when the check is a bit slimmer, I don't really have to buy anything; I make my own juice, build my own coils, don't have to DEPEND on anyone or anything.

Andria