Thread: I gave up smoking 2 days ago - it was REALLY easy....

Originally Posted by Christos

Certainly don't want you to be a Red Shirt Guy as per the original series.

I always get a massive grin going when someone knows what my nickname is about Viva la nerds



On the vaping side of things...it's been interesting over the last couple of days. When I'm on a pure vape day (ie: when my daughter is with me - I never smoke AT ALL when she's around, but do sneak off for a few tokes on the vape), I don't crave nicotine as much as I would normally. And I'm talking "if I don't have a smoke in me every 15 minutes, heads will roll".

I may be struggling with the transition, but at least I can see that some of the routines and cravings are changing. It's gotta be a good thing

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

I always get a massive grin going when someone knows what my nickname is about Viva la nerds

I didn't even think it was obscure. Along with your profile pic it is pretty obvious, or am I just showing my age?

Cheers

Doug

I guess it's only obscure if someone has no idea about what the name or avatar is about.

A redshirt could have Italian, Mexican, Taiwanese, US, Thai, South African, Pashtun or Bulgarian connotations (Wikipedia)

Or the good ol' Star Trek reference which is obviously the way I use it. It's also my gaming name as I'm usually the first to die


As a side note, 47 is my favourite number which also came from Star Trek (Next Gen)
It's a bit like the Wilhelm scream...I crack up every time I hear it.
I'm such a nerd

smokes for 45 years at the end i was smoking 100 a day, then just gave them up cold turkey havent had one for 10 years now, and they still smell good

I'm not aware of anything other than perhaps water vapor that can go in the lungs and doesn't cause a problem when done in quantity. I'd imagine in 10 or 20 years, we'll have a second round of lung issues linked to the vape crowd.

I smoked when I was early in college, but the price of cigarettes driving up made it easy for me to quit. I don't remember ever feeling like I had to smoke, it was more just something to do - something to fiddle with in social situations or at work to stave off boredom.

Folks deeper into it than me that I've heard of having success mostly decided they wanted to quit and went cold turkey (though not all of them stuck on cold turkey the first time they tried, it was more of a commitment of deciding that they wanted to quit smoking more than they wanted to smoke).

And so the nicotine reduction continues. When I started vaping about 10 weeks ago I was on 18mg of nic. Then stepped down to 15, then 12, and I've been on 11 for the last week. I'll continue 1mg decrements until nic is out of my life. Being able to construct custom mixes is really helpful, and is not really possible with cigs. Many brands do come on various strengths, but these days the mg is not allowed to be printed on the packet so that makes it pretty tricky to know where you are going (and the shop staff don't usually know either). Furthermore the drops are too large in the lower range, so instead of being able to go 6-5-4-3-2-1 for example, you would would be going 6-2 and no zero. The other thing is that as I was rolling my own, there is only one strength available, which I think might have been 18mg.

At the 0 point I have only to contend with getting rid of the vaping habit (as opposed to addiction) which will hopefully not be too hard.

I'm quite sure that there will be a whole bunch of people that get a vaping illness in 5-10+ years time, but equally I would expect that there will be pro-rata many less instances than with tobacco. I would also expect that the range of illnesses would be smaller. Tobacco seems to affect the whole of the body, with it's ~300 chemicals.

From the Vaping Forum it seems that the anecdotal evidence is that they change from cigs to ecigs and stay that way - continuing to vape, presumably with a nic content of some strength. This was never my intention - I see vaping as a complete inhalation quitting technique.

I am glad it;s working for you FF, and wish you all the best in kicking it all. I smoked for over 40 years, and quit 4 years ago. There are still times when the smell of a cigarette messes with my brain, and it starts shouting gimme gimme gimme which takes a conscious effort to turn off.

I gave up smoking in 2008 after being abused by an anaesthetist before surgery.Haven't even had the slightest urge since.

Originally Posted by Lappa

I gave up smoking in 2008 after being abused by an anaesthetist before surgery.Haven't even had the slightest urge since.

He abused you so badly that you needed surgery? Wow, lucky you were in the right place.

New years day 1981,after heavy smoke fogged celebrations on the previous evening .No cigarettes since then feel good about doing so, was smoking too much back then.
Well done FF , it took me a few attempts before I finally realised it was not going to bode well for me.

Cheers

Originally Posted by chrisb691

I am glad it;s working for you FF, and wish you all the best in kicking it all. I smoked for over 40 years, and quit 4 years ago. There are still times when the smell of a cigarette messes with my brain, and it starts shouting gimme gimme gimme which takes a conscious effort to turn off.

I doubt a smoker ever really gets over the addiction, I haven't smoked for about thirty years and I sometimes I reckon I could take it up again no problems at all except I am not that rich and Mrs P would most probably finish up in jail for murder even if it was justifiable homicide. I wonder what an alien would think if he arrived on this earth and saw someone breathing out smoke after sucking on a little white tube with a fire in the end of it.

I gave it up in may 1982, best thing I ever did, can't stand the smell, makes me crook if I'm in the same room as a smoker.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

And so the nicotine reduction continues. When I started vaping about 10 weeks ago I was on 18mg of nic. Then stepped down to 15, then 12, and I've been on 11 for the last week. I'll continue 1mg decrements until nic is out of my life. Being able to construct custom mixes is really helpful, and is not really possible with cigs. Many brands do come on various strengths, but these days the mg is not allowed to be printed on the packet so that makes it pretty tricky to know where you are going (and the shop staff don't usually know either). Furthermore the drops are too large in the lower range, so instead of being able to go 6-5-4-3-2-1 for example, you would would be going 6-2 and no zero. The other thing is that as I was rolling my own, there is only one strength available, which I think might have been 18mg.

At the 0 point I have only to contend with getting rid of the vaping habit (as opposed to addiction) which will hopefully not be too hard.

I'm quite sure that there will be a whole bunch of people that get a vaping illness in 5-10+ years time, but equally I would expect that there will be pro-rata many less instances than with tobacco. I would also expect that the range of illnesses would be smaller. Tobacco seems to affect the whole of the body, with it's ~300 chemicals.

From the Vaping Forum it seems that the anecdotal evidence is that they change from cigs to ecigs and stay that way - continuing to vape, presumably with a nic content of some strength. This was never my intention - I see vaping as a complete inhalation quitting technique.

If you're able to taper down, that's quite a big win. I think you're right about replacement health issues, but probably (hopefully) not as significant as continuing to smoke.

I may have said it already, but maybe I didn't - given my choice sitting at a bus stop being that I smoked in my college days, I can no longer stand the smell of cigarettes. My choice would be to sit next to someone vaping and smell root beer or berries or whatever they chose to vape on.

it's only a matter of time before the government here tries to get their fingers in the revenue stream, though. Cigarettes are $6-$7 US a pack in my state, and higher in some...after tax. No good for most of the people who are hooked on them. Taxes on them continue to go up......regressive and coming from the same people who always cry about other taxes being regressive.

Originally Posted by D.W.

Cigarettes are $6-$7 US a pack in my state, and higher in some...after tax.

Crikey, that's very cheap. About 5x that price here. There was another hefty tax increase on July 1. For interest I'll price a packet, but I'm sure they'll be around $30 for a pack of 25.