7 Years Ago Today...

Lately I have been working a full weeks work week aside from writing and recording music part time. Last night I spent a long time recording and putting things together. Some of it needed extra work. These two components together was causing me extra stress. I arrived at work today and accidentally went down to the ground floor without my electronic cigarette that I always take with me, that one along with my backup. When I got downstairs I realized that I forgot it upstairs. Then a thought from outer space came to me and said that because I am so stressed out I need a cigarette because only a cigarette can cure my current feelings in this moment. So I decided to build upon that thought and found myself walking to the gas station to buy Marlboro Reds and I bought a pack.

Now I'm in my office doing computer work. I smoked two cigarettes and I chain smoked them. My hands and clothes smell terrible. Here in NY cigarettes are at least fourteen dollars and I really wasted this money. Now I'm feeling bad that I bought them, I wish I didn't. Maybe I need to go through this situation for the next time I'm in a similar position so I don't make the same mistakes I had made today.

To be honest when I smoked those two I finished them and felt like I still didn't get my fill and this never happened with electronic cigarettes. I'm always happy that I smell good like aftershave in the morning when I leave my house and if I smoke a cigarette and go on the train or bus I'll smell terrible.

I will try to use this event as a lesson in my future. To take the negative as positive advice as to what to look out for. I'm sure others can relate to this.  

I smoked my last cigarette at 8:05am on May 5, 2014 . I didn't know then if it would really be the day I finally quit, but I told myself to really try to go 24 hours without smoking, a goal I had never achieved. And I made it! So then I told myself, if I could go a day, I could truly make it.

I started smoking at a very young age, and smoked 35 years. I made numerous attempts to quit going back to my college years. I tried cold turkey, cutting back, the patch, gum, a nicotine inhaler, Wellbutrin and Chantix. No matter what, I couldn't break that 24 hour goal. I would go through ashtrays and light up every disgusting butt for 1 or 2 nasty drags.

My last few years of smoking I was under a PAD, but only due to financial reasons. I just wouldn't let myself have more than 1 cigarette per hour, but I certainly smoked the heck out of each one. The filter would be collapsed by the time I was finished.

Thank you, ECF. I was so clueless when I started vaping. I didn't know which was 510 and which was ego threading on my batteries. I didn't know an atomizer from a clearomizer. I didn't know what rebuildables were, or that the ones I saw online were clones. I kept googling different things, and kept ending up here to read. Finally after 3 months of lurking, I joined.

The journey has been amazing! The technology changes alone in the 14 months I've been vaping are mind boggling. And I've met some truly kind and generous folks here, from those who give their time all day to help others, to those who give hardware and juice to those in a financial crunch. Thank you, all  

I smoked my last analog cig exactly one month ago today, when a vape kit arrived in the mail.

I still have more than one pound of unopened tobacco lying around in a drawer somewhere, just to remind myself of the past, and to prove that I don't desire it at all, even when it's in close proximity.

This post is perhaps a little bit boring, because I don't really have any issues to report. Everything is working out great with vaping, I haven't had any cravings at all for analog cigs, not once. I was a 2 pack per day smoker for 30 years.

I'm currently at 18 mg Nic, and I'm in no big rush to step down, but eventually, in maybe a few months time, I will step down to 12 and keep it at that level for a few months. I eventually plan to be 100% nicotine free.

Quitting analogs and switching to vaping is one of the easiest things that I've ever done. The only thing that I regret is that I didn't do it a few years ago.  

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.  

2 Years ago, I tried my first cigalike and promptly ordered a Halo Triton Kit, and have been cigarette and smoke free since.

I just wanted to thank ECF for help keeping me focused, interested and distracted with the rapidly changing technology to remain smoke free. Special recognition to the 2 sub-forums that helped me the most: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ussion/519685-natural-tobaccos-part-deux.html and Halo . That's where I started and I am forever grateful for the help, encouragement and PIF'ing that occurred after I lost my job a month after I began vaping. It was a bad time to having just quit smoking, but because of ECF, vaping, and the folks at those 2 threads, I remain a vaper and never looked back.  

I have been on and off for a few years, mostly off because hubby says the smell of some of my favorite juices is annoying. Well a short stay of me in the hospital changed his mind and he does not seem to mind the vaping as much out of me.

I feel like I looked down for a second and when I looked back up there is all kind of new stuff out there, the aspire esp, eleaf, etc. I switched from the store bought auto to the ego style battery (I always go passthrough) and had gotten up to Kanger t2 and protank for various types of juice. I am a basic person, I might be interested in getting into some of those higher powered mods later (the vapor production looks insane) but I basically want to just throw the tank on a battery and go. I like replacing the atomizers and am not sure I would want to build my own and such. Of the new stuff that has come out since the protank hit (was it a year or so ago?) what would you recommend to a basic vaper? I noticed ALL the ego batteries were out of stock at gotvapes so that got me thinking maybe the ego style battery may be on its way out. I was browsing some other equipment and I was looking at the Kanger IPOW 2 but like I said, I would rather not fiddle and I do want something that is a passthrough as well.

I do realize there is a lot of variability, and the reason the more customization and adjustable stuff has come out is because everyone has different tastes, but I really would like to hear what everyone thinks for getting back into vaping.  

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?  

I've been vaping with v4l and v2 e-cigs for a couple years mostly the ego style ones. I love messing with all the technology I have and I'm very hands on so I figured I'd stop limiting myself. I bought a Sigelei 100w Plus, Kanger Sub Tank Mini, and a Mutation X V3 RDA.

WOW

I feel stupid for not doing this earlier. I've been vaping 12mg for a couple months now, but bought 6mg for the Sub Tank and RDA and that is even too strong! I diluted it with 100% PG to make it 3mg and it is much better. I couldn't be happier. No dry hits.. no leaking... all the problems I've dealt with over the past couple years are gone and I'm experiencing vaping like never before.

Success!!

Plus I finally convinced my GF to start vaping on New Years Eve and she hasn't looked back. She's using the V2 Pro Series 3 which she loves and we even found some really good house made flavors at a local vaping shop that we really liked. She got cotton candy and I got cigar. I didn't think a vape shop would have juice that good and they even made it fresh right in front of us. To my surprise no steeping required!

Alright I'm rambling. I will leave you with this pic.. and to all you musicians out there that is a ART Pro MPA II preamp with genuine Telefunken tubes from the 60's.

20150316_191947 by joshfiricano, on Flickr  

Today in the mail, the snail mail, i received a large envelope from VUSE with a two page add for a new product and it was addressed to my name.

Now i know i havent used their product and i havent signed up to receive any info from them (VUSE). I also bought all my gear online from various Vape vendors and none of it was VUSE or any type of chepo vape cigs. So one of the vendors went behind my back and sold VUSE my info. I dont know which vendor but one of them did, looks like ill be getting more junk in my mail box.


 

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!"