Put the cigarettes aside (2.5 weeks now!*) and started using one of those e-cigs. Being me, I scrounged some old batteries from somebody else. Now the power button has fallen off one of them and I have to activate it with a toothpick.
And this is what happens when you apply modern technology to a situation that should just involve burning some leaves.
May all your problems be so minor.
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*Technically I haven’t “quit smoking,” so I’m really trying not to keep score. When I give up the e-cig, then I’ll keep score. I’ll also probably become insufferably smug and judgmental, because that seems to be a former-smoker job requirement.
“I’ll also probably become insufferably smug and judgmental, because that seems to be a former-smoker job requirement.”
I’m afraid so. My mother was one of the most NON judgmental, live and let live, non aggressive people I’ve ever known, but when she quit smoking – cold turkey after 40 years of it – she could hardly STAND to see anyone smoke. Oh, she didn’t run over and smack it out of their mouth, of course, but her body language sometimes said she’d dearly love to do so.
But don’t beat yourself up if you don’t quit the E thing, or not right away. Nicotine is probably one of the most addictive substances on earth… right after political power, so just don’t go all “judgmental” on yourself if you continue. Elimination of all the tar and crap going into your lungs is a massive step in the right direction as far as your health goes. And, of course, that goes for smoking anything.
Yeah I gave up on the ciggs but noticed a dramatic loss of memory. So I poked around the interwebs and found nicotine actually helps with keeping your memory sharp. So now I chew the 2mg gum I get at COSTCO. Oh, and my memory did come back to me.
YMMV.
Good for you cutting back on the cigs. I’ve been in the OR a few times waiting to take some x-rays when the doc put the video-camera-roto-rooter gizmo inside the patient’s lungs, so I know what a smoker’s lungs might look like. You’ll probably start to feel better at some point, too. Also, not that you need it, but you have my full permission to be as insufferably smug and judgmental as you want after you (totally or even mostly) give up the cigs.
I’d be wary of modified e-cigarettes, they’ve been known to explode. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57379260-10391704/electronic-cigarette-explodes-in-mans-mouth-causes-serious-injuries/
Best of luck with the smoking cessation Joel! I gave it up for good several years ago, but only by going to Swedish Snus as a less harmful alternative. I get my nicotine, and generally a can lasts me about 3 days. Buy in bulk and it’s about $3-$4 per can, or about $1 per day. Beats the hell out of 1-2 packs of cigs a day at $5-$6 plus, and its nowhere near as harmful. No spitting, and no one knows you’re doing it.
But no tobacco at all is the best alternative if its doable for a person. For me, I’m too miserable without my nicotine.
As Mark Twain once said, quitting smoking is easy, he’s done it hundreds of times! But isn’t an e-cig “healthier” in that you’re getting a vapor not smoke and you’re not getting tar, which is what really kills you. But you still get all the “benefits” of nicotine and the taste. So all in all I think the switch to an e-cig is a vast improvement for you.
Rich