Five Years Smoke-free!

Hi All! Sorry if this is long. This place is a lifesaver. I was a 30 year PAD smoker. Tried all the recommendations to quit. Resigned to smoking forever. I heard of vaping in 2013 and found this site. The day my Ego arrived in the mail on April 15, 2013, I put down the cigs and haven’t had a puff since that day. (I still smoke in my dreams every night.) I started out at 18 mg, and went up to 24 for a while. I vaped way higher nicotine than my cigs had, and much more often. I even took my Ego pen to bed and put it under my pillow to use through the night. No matter how much Nicotine I inhaled, I still went through the same withdrawals that I did when quitting cold turkey, or the gum, or the patch, or setting a timer between smokes. It was obvious I wasn’t withdrawing from nicotine. It’s from whatever chemicals are in the cigarettes.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve gone down from 18mg, to 12, to 6, and now 3. Not by choice. I was happy at 18. I started getting lightheaded, so stepped down the nicotine in levels. Not because I wanted less nicotine, but because my body couldn’t handle it. I’m now at 3mg, and starting to getting lightheaded from it. Next step is 0mg. I’ve no problem going to no nicotine, but after so long, I can’t imagine not having the inhale/exhale/hand to mouth repetition.

Has anyone gotten to 0mg and still vapes, or have you broken the habit?  

Hello fellow vapers.
Here is a topic I was thinking of lately and I wanted to ask your opinion/plans.

Generally speaking, e-cigs were invented in order to help smokers switch from smoking regular cigs to something much less harmful and eventually help people quit this (one of the worst) habit of smoking / adding nicotine to your system.

Ideal plan was to give a smoker something similar (as a process) with enough nicotine to satisfy his needs but without all that sh@t that cigs contain.
After some time this ex-smoker was suppose to start lowering amounts of nicotine in his e-juice up until he is OK with 0 mg. nic vaping.
And eventually quit vaping as well, eliminating the habit.

In reality, I'd say about 80% of ex-smokers who became vapers don't even plan to quit vaping, they have their preferred nic. level and they keep on vaping it year after year being happy about it.

So what's your opinion on that? Do you also plan to keep on vaping or you might quit it in the future?  

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.  

Because it has a coil? Because it has a tank that contains VG or PG? Because the user expels vapor that looks like smoke ? Because it has a battery? Because the tank holds liquid that contains nicotine? What if the tank does not contain nicotine? Is it still an E-Cig?

These are my burning questions for tonight while watching Modern Marvels on H2 (History Channel 2)

That and I really need to know what exactly constitutes an E-cig. I've been tobacco free, smoke free for almost two years. Vaping exclusively. I'm close to zero nicotine now. Will I still be an E-cig user when I go to zero? Obviously yes, but why ?

I really dig vaping a million times more then I dug smoking. I hated smoking. Just did it for 40 years 'cause I couldn't get off the stinkies til I discovered E-cig (24 mg/ml when I first quit smoking) almost two years ago. Still can't believe I've been smoke free for so long.

Hope you weigh in on the subject of "What constitutes an E-Cig ?"  

Hi my name is Steve and I'm a smokaholic. I've been clean for nearly 1.5 years and I've even converted a few people along the way.

I haven't been back here for a while but I had some questions about steeping so I logged in but I thought I report in on my journey to quit smoking. January marked one full year so I'm almost up to 1.5 years free of smoke. I'd like to eventually quit nicotine altogether but for now I'm happy to be smoke free, though I did just lower my nicotine level to 12mg, that is however in a higher watt unit. How long has it been for you? Do you think you will ever quit vaping too?  

So here's the issue. After about 5 or 6 years of bouncing back and forth between vaping and smoking, something has to give.

Now I don't need advice on thich gear to buy or which juice to buy because I have all that and and am usually equipped with my DNA mods, various RDA's and Breeze disposables. But my problem is that I live with and am i. A relationship with a smoker who has no desire to quit.

I usually do fine when I'm at work and can manage not to smoke with my vaping products. But when I come home and sit with her when she's chain smoking, I need a cigarette. I'll start by taking a smoke or two from her to buying my own pack sometimes and not vapimg again until the next day. Has anyone experienced this or have any tips to break the cycle? I definitely smoke a lot less than I used to but need to be done with the cigarettes for good.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk  

I know this is useless for most of you and if the mods want to delete it please do but I am so frustrated with the media and the politicians and I have no outlet for this, so here we are.

I actually have never smoked or vaped (aside from a trial puff here and there), but my wife and mother both have smoked and do vape. I'm on here because I'm the research and order guy.

They switched from smoking to vaping in 2007 almost at the same time, so it's been 12 years for them.

My mom was a smoker for 50ish years, and as a waitress, she was at about 2 packs a day. She's always had fairly good health because she worked on it, but as she got older you could hear the "smoker's cough" develop and just see the symptoms of aging and the early signs of lung issues. One of her sisters has COPD and another died of lung cancer. She swapped to e-cigs and never had a relapse to cigarettes. Within a year the cough was gone. She is 75 and most people think she is in her 50s. She is active and in great health with only mild diabetes (controlled with diet and I think the minimum dose of a pill, no insulin). She has had chest x-rays and a few other exams and they doubt her when she tells them she is an ex-smoker.

My wife has a similar story. Lighter smoker for a shorter time, but same results. Better health, lungs fully healed from smoking. No side effects from vaping.

Oh and my wife's father was a huge smoker and used e-cigs to completely quit smoking/vaping altogether when the pills/patches/gum wouldn't work at all.

Now, they both utilize products from vapor4life.com that resemble cigarettes and use the "light or ultralight" (I wanna say 1.8% or 1.1%... something like that) equivalent nicotine level. They don't have the giant boxes the "kids" use that produce a room full of vape smoke to be edgy and cool. They vape pretty much the same times they'd take a smoke break though I think less often really... I think they take fewer puffs maybe a little more often? I dunno, it's hard to remember since they haven't smoked in 12 years. My wife will hold hers casually hidden in her hand and get a couple puffs during movies and slowly let the vapor escape and NOBODY knows. Not even me sitting next to her.

Their health is so much better. My mom uses a plain nicotine flavor that tastes like her Winston lights did and my wife has a Menthol that tastes close to her Salem Slim Light 100s. Neither were fond of the fun flavors. I got some 0 nicotine grape the first year and puffed on it once in a while and it was neat (not really inhaling, more like a cigar or a pipe) and that was that.

I am so pissed off at the Trumps and the media for their generalized reporting and the banning of products. I'm pissed at the people/kids who use vaping like its a toy and fun hipster trend and got it banned from airplanes and restaurants. I look at my mom who most likely would have died of lung cancer or be on oxygen by now if not for vaping and I just want to punch these people in the face. How can single digit deaths, which I understand was using sketchy products anyway, trigger fear and a ban when the cigarette companies kill MILLIONS and cause cancer (to smokers and people who are adjacent to smokers via 2nd hand smoke) just have to put a warning label on their product?

Anyway, I'm rambling. I don't know where this goes. Maybe it'll spark discussion. Maybe it'll be deleted and I'll be told I'm an idiot. Maybe someone who isn't sure if vaping will help them quit smoking will see three success stories and take a step in the right direction. I dunno...

Fight the good fight people.  

I quit smoking to start vaping and have never once missed smoking. A little over a month ago I quit vaping all together after two years of slowly working my nicotine level down from 36mg to 0mg.

I quit vaping at zero milligrams of nicotine and never experienced nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

I guess these would all be good things except for the fact that I miss vaping. Multiple times a day since I quit the thought of having a vape pops in my head and just as soon as it does this weird feeling of loss follows as I realize I no longer vape. I would think by now these feeling would have subsided but they have not.

I wouldn't think much of it but since quitting I have gained 10lbs, have little to no energy, find myself easily frustrated and worst of all have found myself drinking a lot more than normal (which is probably why I gained 10lbs anyway). A huge part of me just wants to go back to vaping.

I guess my question is, Did anyone else quit vaping and experience weird side effects from quitting? If so, how long did it take you to feel normal again?  

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!