Thursday 5 April 2012

Update on Quitting Smoking

So I've been using an electronic cigarettes to help me with quitting smoking for a little over 2 months now and it's time for an update.

I'm successfully down to smoking only 2 real cigarettes per day!!!!

I have to say that after a few weeks I wasn't overly impressed with the e-cig I bought; the batteries started to die pretty quickly and I ended up using all 3 batteries I had up to twice per day ........ 6 batteries recharged per day isn't great!! I bought and XXL battery from a different site and a Passthrough which connects to a USB port on my PC and got by quite happily. I got a little fed up with the cartridges, finding I was filling them too often so I got some cartomizers to try - these incorporate the atomizer and cartridge in one. I definitely found that I got a much better vape from the cartomizers so I would recommend them if you are seriously looking for a substitute to help you quit smoking. 

I'm down to using a combination of 5mg, 8mg and 0mg eliquids!!

There are loads of websites selling eliquids, some are better than others for sure and the price can vary greatly. I use a couple of different sites to get the flavour/strength combinations that I like.

I'd have to say that if I were to buy my first ecig now, I'd go with the Green Smoke one that a friend of mine has. Although the initial outlay is much higher, she has been using the same 2 batteries for over 6 months now without any deterioration - which is amazingly cost effective. The Green Smoke company are very adamant that their product is not an aide to quitting smoking but really they are just covering themselves legally. The main problem that put me off buying the Green Smoke in the first place was the range of flavours they have since I wasn't sure if I would be able to buy compatible cartomizers to fill with my own choice of flavours, but now I'm pretty sure that there are compatible ones available so again, in hindsight I really should have gone for this brand.

I gave myself an approximate 6 months window to be off of both cigarettes AND ecigarettes and being less than half way through that time period, I'm pretty confident that I'm going to succeed. Great since the Chancellor just put an additional 37 pence on a pack of cigarettes!! I'm also conscious that my dad died of a heart attack at 40 years old and I'll soon be reaching that milestone myself (with an additional risk from high cholesterol). And as an added bonus, since I smoke any cigarettes I do have outside, my house now smells so much better and I can actually plan to redecorate!!