The End of an Era...

Let's see...to the best of my remembrance I've smoked since I was about 10 years old or thereabouts. That's almost 40 years of smoking! Well I can say that I'm officially down to about 10 smokes a day which is unheard of for me! So how did this all come about you might ask?

Well..it goes back to some long-term dental issues that have finally caught up with me. I went to the dentist who definitively told me that my teeth were history. They set up an appt. with the oral surgeon who was really nice and I was all set to schedule a surgery date, till they took my blood pressure. Surgery was definitely off then! I know that most of the high BP is due to the excess salt through the holidays, trading forex at odd hours of the night and not sleeping well and also gaining back about 30lbs that I'd lost before the holidays. I also know that one of the underlying issues has been and still is my smoking.

So a guy I know in town has been using this electronic cigarette and says he's feeling better and not coughing. I looked at his device and was at least curious about it, so in my own particular OCD-style I came home and started researching the devil out of it. There are volumes of info on the internet about the e-cigs and their benefits. The two most important being better lung function and lowered BP. That was pretty much enough for me to want to try it. I'd tried using the count-down timer method last year, but got to an hour between cigs and was about to go postal. Julia said if I didn't just smoke, she was gonna shoot me..LOL! I really have tried in the past, but the nicotine withdrawals were just too strong and I haven't been able to get past them. The e-cig allows you to maintain your nicotine levels while eliminating the harmful effects of the smoke itself. It's not a quit smoking device as much as it's a healthier alternative to smoking. Many people are however able to completely eliminate normal smokes or analogs as their called and then to also wean themselves off of nicotine through the e-cig on a much more gradual basis. The other huge advantages of the e-cig are the physical factors of the vapor itself which safely mimics smoke and also satisfying the need to have something in your hands.

So I researched more and decided on a particular model of e-cig based on it's popularity and ease of use and availability in the market. It's also one of the less expensive models, but definitely not cheaply made. The model I've chosen to work with is the Joye-510. It is a small e-cig in the "mini" class and measures about 110mm long vs a regular 100mm cigarette. It has 3 parts, the battery, atomizer and cartridge. They are available in a variety of colors, the most popular of which is black. There are also a large range of attachments, modifications and accessories available for the 510. The starter kit which includes 2 complete e-cigs, wall charger and 5 spare cartridges runs anywhere from about $35-$80. Sadly the higher priced kits can often be the 510 clones, which are not as robust as the true Joye-510 kits. I'll post more on where and what to get in a later post.

So I'm into my 2nd week on the e-cig and I'm down to about 10 smokes a day vs almost 3 packs. I'm using my countdown timer and adding 5 minutes a day to the total, which I'll bump to 10 and then 20 minutes till I've quit. I'm vaping fairly regularly with that and I'm using 36mg juice. I started with the 24mg juice, but was still having nic-fits...the 36mg is much better. Then once I'm off smokes, I'll start cutting down the nicotine too, around 1mg every week or two till I'm off the nicotine. Then I'll decide if I still want to vape for the enjoyment of it or walk away completely.

So far though I'm only occasionally feeling stress of withdrawing, but that's getting much easier every day. I will post more on various other aspects of e-cigs and vaping.