My First Anniversary Of Being Tobacco Free!

I joined ECF back in August of 2017. I was sixty-five years old and had been smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day for 40+ years. I began vaping at the same time win the hope I could at least cut down. I dual used for months, continually cutting back on cigarettes. I smoked my last cigarette on May 11, 2018 - I am coming up on my three year anniversary. When I began, I vaped 24mg nicotine. Now I alternate between 3mg and zero nic.

Given how incredibly positive vaping has been for me, I am in shock at recent events. I was down to two working mods. I have ordered four mods, some tanks and a bunch of coils. I am still able to buy some eliquids where I live - but many of my favorites from Halo have been discontinued. I still have some outstanding hardware orders that I hope get delivered.

The treatment of vaping in the media has been a one sided disgrace, and propaganda works. Over the years when I have mentioned to people that I quit by vaping, they respond, ‘so you quit smoking by picking up a habit that is even more dangerous’.

I am set for at least a year. Fortunately I have kicked my addiction to nicotine - I recently vaped zero nic for a month. If I was just starting out, it would truly be panic time, and I would go back to cigarettes for sure. I suspect that many will do just that. Happy I started when I did.  

I've been trying to get my dad to quit smoking for two years now. He wanted to quit using an e-cig. However, he just can't seem to stick with it. He has been smoking for 30+ years. He smokes almost two packs a day.

I think the problem really is that he hasn't -tried-. As soon as he wants a real smoke, he lights one up. He only uses his e-cig is places he can't smoke.

He says he wants something that taste like tobacco. I've tried buying him numerous tobacco e-liquids. The closest was one from Ahlusion, but he still says it isn't like tobacco. He keeps saying he'll quit, but then he doesn't.

He has an ego with a mini protank, he seems fine with that. He isn't very amused by my mech mods and RTAs. lol.

I'm just lost as to what to do. A lot of people say to just stop telling him to do so and let him do it on his own. It is hard to just sit and watch him smoke though, esp when my mom had lung cancer just over a year ago (luckily, she did quit smoking with an e-cig and went into remission after radiation treatment). When I switched, I had only just started to smoke again (I smoked 3 years, quit, then started smoking again for about 4 months, then to an e-cig). I didn't like tobacco flavors when I started and almost immediately went to fruit flavors. He's tried those too, doesn't have much interest in them.

So my question to you ex long term smokers, what helped you make the switch? I feel like I just can't relate to smoking 30 something years.  

It's been a while!

I left for a while,,,,,,,I think it's been a year or more,,,,,,I took a break because,,,

1) I thought it was getting too political around here (my opinion) and I wanted a break from it.

2) I got a job (which I LOVE) and it takes a lot of my time,,,,,,,

3) I stopped vaping. Yep, me,,,,,,,,who vaped 20 ml a day at one point,,,,Nope, I didn't go back to smoking,,,,,I didn't plan it,,,,it just,,,,,happened. Mostly due to the job, I think,,,,,,I just vaped less and less and less until I wasn't vaping at all,,,,,,,,

then WHAMMO,,,,,,,,the urge for cigarettes hit,,,,,like 9 months after I stopped vaping and almost 3 years after quitting smoking, and it hit like a ton of bricks. It kind of surprised me to be honest. Well, there was no freaking WAY after THREE YEARS that I was going to start smoking (I did that THREE TIMES in the past and it was ALWAYS a disaster),,,,,,so I picked up my provari, charged those batteries, made myself some No Nic juicy peach, and started vaping again.

Thank GOD for my e-cig, because there is NO DOUBT in my mind I'd be smoking again if I hadn't kept it.

Some thoughts,,,,,,,,

1) whoaaaaaaaaaa what the heck happened to this forum???

2) Provari has a VERSION 3??????????

3) Where the heck do I reset my password????????? I forgot mine, I had to have it reset, and I'd like to change it to something I'll remember.

4) It's nice to see everyone  

I had quit, FINALLY, after 15 years of a pack or more a day smoking. What an accomplishment! Something i would be proud of for an entire year. The benefits I had seen were amazing! I could HIKE again, 3000ft elevation gain in 3 miles! Wow! Something i had not done since i was 13. Well, there I was... Camping with some friends.

I knew I should have brought my backups, I KNEW IT! All i had was two 18650's, my mini mech which took 1 and an RDA... It was only a matter of time before something went wrong. I did not bring the tools to rebuild the atomizer. I had no charger for my batteries- and we would be here for a week. What the hell was I thinking?

The trip was a blast, we did a TON of fishing, nights were spent with our group of party-goers by the campfire. We drank ALOT and we shared our stories.. In the back of my mind, i knew... I was going to be without nicotine at some point in this trip. WHY, Why did i not come prepared. Something SO IMPORTANT to me and i did not bring what i needed.

Then it happened. I was on my second battery- three days into the trip. The vape was becoming very weak, I was almost done. I fought hard to conserve, only vaping a puff or two every hour or so. I still needed SOME nicotine. It was about 8PM, time for another puff... Only.. Nothing. "OK" i said. "I can still do this, I dont need it". It had been an hour since my last puff and honestly, I did need it.

9 O'clock rolled around, we were hanging out around the fire drinking... everyone was smoking and I had nothing to occupy my hands. I was desperate. "I can go lay down, maybe if I go to sleep, wake up early and pack up- I can make it home and this will all be over". I laid down... Restless. The next thirty minutes felt like 10 hours, I did NEED it.

I will just go hang out some more, forget about it. I climbed out of the tent and rejoined the group around 10, seems like no one was tired. I knew i couldn't sleep. The alcohol was starting to loosen my grasp on priorities... Ok, just one drag, something to get me by. I looked at my buddy smoking and decided I would ask.. "hey man, let me hit your cig". Huge mistake! "Here, just have one" he said. Ok, what harm would a couple drags do? I lit the cig, inhaled deeply and noticed a few things.

The first drag was very weird. It tasted very bad, completely like chemicals. It was so satisfying though! I smoked that cigarette and enjoyed it, every moment. The campground we were at had a store that was open until 11, and guess what.. I needed nicotine. They sold cigs. The rest was history. I regretted that to this day. I had messed up, so bad. I had so much under my belt, so much accomplished- i was a loser that day.

Its been 5 years since then. My lungs have gotten so bad. I smoked 2 packs a day, marb 100's. I cough in my sleep and when i wake up. I vomit sometimes from how bad it is. Sometimes, i have a hard time breathing- something new and unfamiliar... I know why though. These past 6 months have been bad. It was time to make a change.

I proposed something to my wife; who does not smoke and never has. She loves sugar, if she could quit that... something i did 7 years ago... Then i would quit smoking. DEAL! She was onboard. Two weeks have passed, she has quit sweet creamer in her coffe, candy, chocolate, sweet tea, everything. She did it. Ok, My turn.

I went out tonight about 6 hours ago and bought a new vape. I have not smoked since i bought it! I can do this, I know I can! She is already proud of me, and I am too. Its time to quit once and for all, and I know i can do this... Here's to believing!  

This past week marks 5 years since I smoked a cigarette. It honestly doesn't seem that long, it seems like yesterday I was huddled out in the cold at work with the smokers. I had been a smoker for 28 years.

Unlike many I see posting here, I cannot say vaping helped me quit. I quit cold turkey, and never tried an ecig until about a year after I quit smoking. At that point I was still doing well as a non-smoker, I didn't physically crave smoking, but I missed the 28 year habit of lighting up, having something to fiddle with, and just the relaxing feeling of the inhale/exhale. I had been eating a lot more to make up for the void, and having been underweight all my life I started packing on pounds (too many!). I sorely needed a non-food substitute for the comfort I was missing, but wasn't about to go back to smoking.

I tried a junky convenience store ecig after that first year, and thought "if this was what they were like than forget it". I continued on not smoking, but still missing the habit. About two years after that I began seeing the new advanced products coming out, and did a lot of research. I bought my first starter kit in 2013, and slowly advanced up to bigger and better gear.

People ask why would start vaping after I had already kicked the cigarette habit, and I say, "Why not?". Other than nicotine I'm not getting any of the negative things I got with cigarettes. And in my opinion, there's really nothing wrong with a little nicotine. Nicotine is not what was killing me, it was the smoke that was delivering the nicotine that was killing me.

So I'm 5 years smoke free, I no longer hack in the mornings, my chest never hurts and my clothes, car and hair don't stink anymore.
I have no intentions on giving up vaping, as it has no negative impact on my life, and i enjoy it, so why stop?

I have since gotten my son, my step-son, and his wife to all trade vaping for smoking, so bonus points for saving all their lives too!  

After years of not smoking, I started again at the end of August. There have been a few times over the last seven years, that I have smoked cigarettes. Anytime this had happened, I'd switch back to my vape. Usually within 24 hours of smoking, I could drop it, and go right back to the E cig. This time was different. Here I was, right back to a pack a day. Of course I ended up getting sick. Cigarette smoking makes me highly susceptible to lung infections.
The last time I smoked was a week ago. I am back on my e cig. I can take a deep breath without my chest and lungs rattling. Round two has been a different experience, from the first time I switched. This round I had decent gear and plenty of e liquid.  

Seen it mentioned over and over here that after vaping for a variable period
of time analogs start tasting 'nasty' to many (most?) people. Happened with
my father in law after about two months. Has not yet happened with a coworker
who vapes and still smokes. Think he has vaped over a year total and at
least four months with a proper rig.

So, exactly how can vaping while quitting change the taste of cigarettes when
cold turkey or the patch do not? At least they did not in the past, wife and
I quit and started back at least four times each before we finally
succeeded. Final time was almost six years ago so we were well before the
fire retardant / carpet glue was added.

Anyone quit and restart via vaping both before and after fire retardant was
added? Was the nasty taste absent back then or less pronounced?

Curious to hear from from anyone who has quit and restarted with different
methods and how the taste differs. Have read that Chantix and similar also
can cause a nasty taste. Is it the same as from vaping or different?

Never seen or found a thread devoted to this so though I would start one.  

So today I bought a pack of cigarettes . I havent smoked in a long time and i feel like vaping has turned me into a complete nicotine addict and this is why I bough the pack , I wanted to test myself since I know how much I use to smoke . Ever since I started vaping I have been increasing strenght and quantity of juice per day and I vape a lot , some days , I would vape between 10 - 15 ML of 6mg juice and absorb another ML though my skin while building . I smoked my first cigarette in almost a year and I finished it and guess what after that I wanted another one but I didnt take it .

Well before I started vaping I was smoking one cig every 2-3 hours and now I want way more . I am honestly considering quiting vaping and smoking all together , maybe 1 cig day , that would be it . Or maybe I should switch to non rebuiuldable tanks and stop making my own juice because I honestly feel like DYI and rebuildables is what made me vape more , trying different build on different attomizers , trying my new DYI e-liquids , trying other e-liquids that I bought , trying this , trying that , and at the end of the day 20ML of juice gone .

What would you recommend me ?  

I've tried to quit smoking using vape stuff many times over the last two years or so. I've made it two weeks twice and otherwise have not made it long enough to remember. I had a dream last night that I was vaping. When I woke up I got excited about that (that I wasn't smoking in the dream). I went back to bed and woke up this morning in the middle of a dream that I was smoking. Ahk!

I know that I cannot ever have another puff if I want this to work. There is a thread about how gross smoking tastes after vaping. It's true that for me, smoking is sort of gross and leaves a nasty taste in my mouth, but clearly I like it no matter how disgusting it is.

Around February, my boyfriend said he wanted to quit smoking in the spring. We quit on the same day (last Monday). He uses nicotine gum and I have my vaping. He enjoys taking a puff off my equipment. But a "puff" has turned into about as much as I use it. Last Saturday he said he only had one piece of nicotine gum because he vaped most of the time. I'm trying not to be annoyed, but it kind of irritates me a little. Mostly because I chain-vape and don't want him to take it from me. A few days ago, I noticed he kept adjusting the voltage and handing it back to me without changing it back to where I had it! I made sure he stopped doing that.

Last night he asked me what stuff I buy (the battery, clearomizers and liquid- sorry, I don't know the correct terminology for everything). He was reading up on vaping. I am hoping he's considering buying his own stuff.

I'm thrilled that he quit smoking and want to be supportive of him regardless of how he does it but I sort of want to say, "get your own!"  

History. I'm 66, smoked for more than 30 years, quit when I had a small heart attack at about 47-49 years old. BP issues requiring meds and other health issues.

About last August 2019 I had a bunch of stress come up and handled it badly. I started on mild cigars and moved to medium strong. Got in a situation where I couldn't smoke a stogie, so bummed a cigarette. That morphed into smoking more than a carton and stogies.

I knew they'd kill me so I picked up a Juul 3%, not enough moved to 5%.
Moved on to a Vinci x and 50 salt.

Have been mixing and dropping the salt and was to 25ish. Was getting a lot of choking white phlegm every morn. Vaping mostly tobacco with very little flavor. 70-30 was better than 50-50 for muscus/phlegm problem.

The purpose of vaping was to avoid analogs and eventually quit all nicotine.

I'm into the second day today. Piece of nicorette gum in one cheek and a nicorette lozenge in the other. Both 2mg. Consult your doctor on doubling up patches, gum etc.

Withdrawal wasn't bad so far at all. Don't know if vape nic absorbs different or not. It's different than quitting analogs somehow for me anyway.

Anyhow, passing it on for anyone thinking of going down the path of being nic free again. I was off everything for 15+ years and for my heart and health am going there again.

I do have to say though that vaping definitely kept me 100% off analogs once I switched. And didn't palpitate or sense any issues from it, other than a 20 count BP rise.

I vaped lightly, 100-150 2-3 second puffs per day. I still have the equipment and juice if I fail, but so far it's going well.

Dave