After 50 years I did it. Here’s how ...
Hi! My name is Andrew and I was a smoker for 50 years. A pack a day smoker. For 50 years I enjoyed smoking cigarettes. I was addicted to cigarettes. I couldn’t live without them. Despite years of urgings and warnings from my doctors, family and friends, I had no intention of giving up my smoking habit. Ever. Then, one day, on December 7, 2011, I quit smoking cigarettes. I quit buying cigarettes, I gave away a dozen disposable lighters and put my ashtray in the kitchen cupboard. I quit smoking cigarettes. In one day. With no withdrawal symptoms, no urges to light up a cigarette, no massive hunger or massive weight gain, no major side effects of quitting. No pills, no patch, no gum. I gave up smoking cigarettes. In 1 day.
Why I quit
As far as I know, as of 2011, my lungs were clear, my chest x-rays were always negative. In fact, despite the urgings of friends, family, my local, state and federal government and medical profession, as you will see I did not give up smoking for health reasons at all.
I am not an anti-smoking zealot. If you wish to continue to smoke, as of this writing, as an adult you have a legal right to do so. I chose to quit smoking cigarettes. And I did it in 1 day. No pills, no patches, no gum, no hypnosis, no classes, no psychotherapy, no groups, no exercises. Is the method simple? Yes. Was it easy? Yes. Do I feel deprived? No.
After 50 years I quit smoking. In 1 day!
The real reason I quit smoking
After 50 years I quit smoking cigarettes. I did not quit for health reasons (which is indeed a good reason to quit). I quit for social reasons. Social reasons? What does THAT mean? It means that where I live, in California, everybody hates smokers. I smoked a pack a day, for over 50 years. I finally quit in 2011, not for health reasons but because I got tired of the smell, the ash, and being treated like a smoker, a second-class citizen, which in California, where I live, means you get discriminated against, you get treated like a horrible bad person who is polluting the air and poisoning people and the planet with second-hand cigarette smoke. Here in California, everybody hates smoking. And smokers. You can barely find a place to smoke anymore. In California you can't smoke in bars, restaurants, buildings, offices, parks, beaches and other public areas. You can't smoke within 20 feet of ANY establishment where people congregate. Entire cities in California have already banned smoking in public! Most automobiles made today have no ashtrays in them. In fact, today you can't even smoke in a rental car and, if you do and get caught, they charge you a "smoking" fine of $200! And don't think that, wherever YOU live, increasingly severe anti-smoking laws and taxes and regulations and social pressures can't happen there. It can and it will! In addition, for every pack of cigarettes I used to buy, a lot of the purchase price went to taxes, punitive taxes imposed by a government who is successfully trying to restrict and even ban my legal right to smoke!
Enough is enough! What did I do? I quit. I quit smoking cigarettes. In 1 day.
How did I do it?
Here's the secret
Yes, I quit smoking cigarettes. In 1 day. But I found a way to still get my nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes that kept me smoking for 50 years. I found a way to get my nicotine, WITHOUT smoking tobacco, without being subjected to 4,000+ other chemicals, without emitting offensive and harmful tobacco smoke, without ashes and ashtrays and lighters or matches, and without littering. How did I do it?
Electronic cigarettes. E-cigarettes. I discovered e-cigarettes.
Disclaimer
The government currently prohibits promoting electronic cigarettes as "smoking cessation devices" therefore I am not promoting or condoning the device for that purpose - even though that's exactly what it did for me; I am just relating my own personal experience!
The hardest part was finding a brand that fit my desires. Good taste, good battery life, no vaping odor, good build quality, good price, and good customer service. I tried 5-6 brands before I found the right one for me. The other ones I tried sucked. They either had lousy taste, noticeable odor (which intensely offends anti-smoking zealots), or too short a battery life. I finally found a brand that worked for me.
As of April 2010, The American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) supports electronic cigarettes sales to adults, "because the possibility exists to save the lives of four million of the eight million current adult American smokers who will otherwise die of a tobacco-related illness over the next twenty years."
Are-cigs cool?
In my opinion e-cigs are very cool. What I really like about e-cigs is that when I only want a few puffs, I can take a few puffs of my e-cig and put it right back in my pocket. Unlike cigarettes, I don't have to put it out and I don't have to smoke the whole thing! I do that a lot, to only take a few puffs. Sometimes a couple of puffs is all I want or need and then I'm done. I take my puffs and just stick my e-cig back in my pocket. No fuss, no muss. No looking for an ashtray or tossing the burning butt on the ground or out the car window. No smelly tobacco smoke, no ashes, no matches, no ashtray. Cool!
Regulations
Note: According to my research (credible google and governmental sources) there are some basic legal regulations governing e-cigs in the U.S. as of January 2012. The government regulations may not seem to make any sense but they are the government regulations nonetheless ...
E-cigarettes are regulated by the FDA. They are regulated as a "tobacco" product, though there is no tobacco in an e-cig. None at all. According to the Medical Dictionary: "Smoking is the inhalation of the smoke of burning tobacco encased in cigarettes, pipes, and cigars."
E-cigs are not allowed to be marketed as a "smoking cessation device" yet the whole point of switching to e-cigs is to no longer smoke tobacco cigarettes or smoke less of them.
As of this writing there are no FDA related clinical trials for e-cigs. According to the FDA they are concerned that the possible side effects of inhaling and exhaling nicotine and other chemicals in an e-cig are unknown (while the effects of smoking tobacco cigarettes are widely known and smoking cigarettes is heavily regulated and publicized in the U.S. to be the major cause of a variety of serious ailments, horrible diseases and, of course, a complete cessation of life, otherwise known as death).
Some "experts" are also reported to be concerned that e-cigs will be sold to children and cause kids to be hooked into trying other tobacco products, like the deadly tobacco-containing cigarette. I have heard this type of argument before, as it relates to marijuana, pornography, and other recreational products and activities. If an underage person goes online and buys something (like e-cigs) from a website that clearly states that, under the law, you must be 18-years-of age or older, and the underage buyer LIES about his/her age in order to buy the item, my understanding is that, in doing so, the underage person has not abided by the terms and conditions of the sale and/or has BROKEN THE LAW. In that case, why should the legitimate and legal seller of e-cigs be penalized (or over-regulated) for the non-compliance or illegal act of the online underage buyer?!
On the positive side, I found no mention of e-cigs greatly contributing to natural disasters, poverty, drunk driving, obesity, soil erosion, war, unemployment or real estate foreclosures.
From a New York Times article Nov 7, 2010:
" ... e-cigarettes could be the most effective tool yet for reducing the global death toll from smoking. But there’s a powerful group working against this innovation — and it’s not Big Tobacco. It’s a coalition of government officials and anti-smoking groups who have been warning about the dangers of e-cigarettes and trying to ban their sale.
"In Britain, the Royal College of Physicians has denounced “irrational and immoral” regulations inhibiting the introduction of safer nicotine-delivery devices.
“Nicotine itself is not especially hazardous,” the British medical society concluded in 2007. “If nicotine could be provided in a form that is acceptable and effective as a cigarette substitute, millions of lives could be saved.”
"The number of Americans trying e-cigarettes quadrupled from 2009 to 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Its survey last year found that 1.2 percent of adults, or close to three million people, reported using them in the previous month."
With my e-cigs, I am getting my addictive nicotine AND saving money. And, in addition, I am NOT being subjected to 4,000+ other chemicals, not emitting offensive and murderous cigarette smoke, not dropping ashes everywhere, not stinking up my clothes (and my breath), not stinking up my car, not littering the ground with dozens of cigarette butts daily, not tossing lit cigarette butts out of the car window and not creating a fire hazard. AND, more than 10 years after I quit smoking and started vaping, according to my doctor my chest x-ray showed "no abnormalities".
Am I pleased? Hell, yes!
Thanks to e-cigs, I am no longer a cigarette smoker. I'm an e-cig user. I'm a vaper! No smell. No ash. No cigarette-caused air pollution. No second hand cigarette smoke. No litter.
THAT'S how I quit smoking. In 1 day. I switched to e-cigs. It worked for me. And I couldn't be happier! The last time I smoked a cigarette was on December 7, 2011. And, after 50 years, I am no longer a cigarette smoker. I am an e-cig user! I am a vaper!
Requirements needed to become a non-smoker
The following is NOT a medical opinion or medical advice. In my personal opinion and experience, for me to quit smoking - and start using e-cigs - required 2 things.
1. motivation
2. adjustment
In order to successfully quit cigarettes, based only on my own experience, I had to be motivated to quit. As a smoker, I had to WANT to quit. I also had to COMMIT to quit smoking cigarettes. Otherwise, I would not have quit. Without a real 100% motivation I would not have quit, or would have easily relapsed. In my opinion, to become an e-cig user, I had to be fully and completely motivated to quit smoking cigarettes ... BEFORE I switched to e-cigs.
I found that becoming an e-cig user also required me to make an adjustment. An e-cig is not a cigarette. Using e-cigs is not the same as smoking. The taste is a bit different, the feel is a bit different, the visual and oral experience is different. Becoming a successful e-cigarette user required me to make an adjustment, emotionally and physically. It took me 1-2 weeks to get used to vaping. That's pretty darn quick, considering my 50 years of smoking a pack a day. I was motivated, I had pledged to "commit to quit", and doing that, I was able to adjust to using e-cigs.
The above is solely my personal opinion, based on my own experience, and should not be construed as providing any licensable or expert or marketing advice.
Who wants you to quit smoking?
Today, in America, and many other countries, everybody wants you to quit smoking. Except maybe Big Tobacco. Does your family want you to quit? Does your spouse or significant other want you to quit? Your kids? Your grandkids? Your friends? Your neighbors? Your co-workers? Your doctor? Even your employer wants you to quit. Your local, state and federal government wants you to quit. EVERYBODY wants you to quit smoking cigarettes! I quit smoking cigarettes ... in 1 day. I'm glad I gave up the expensive, dirty, smelly, dangerously unhealthy, politically incorrect and socially unacceptable cigarette. And, I was able to replace it with a soothing nicotine-delivering very cool looking e-cig. Do I miss smoking cigarettes? No. Do I feel better health wise? Yes.
I used to be a cigarette smoker. Now, I am an e-cig user!
UPDATE: As of today I have not smoked a cigarette since I quit. I have not smoked a cigarette since December 7, 2011. Not 1 cigarette! I haven't even had an strong craving to smoke a cigarette! Thanks to my e-cig I do not miss smoking cigarettes ... nor do I ever want to smoke them again.
Unfortunately, a few years after I quit smoking and started using electronic cigarettes, local and state governments have basically banned e-cigs and are taxing and regulating them out of existence. Why? The anti-smoking zealots have won. The anti-smoking zealots incorrectly have equated e-cigarettes with tobacco cigarettes and convinced politicians to ban vaping in public. About the only place you can vape in California (or other states) today is in your own home. And maybe your vehicle. And THAT right is at risk. No longer in America can an ADULT expect to be legally allowed to partake of a legal activity.
Disclaimer
This blog contains my own personal experience and opinions of how and why I quit smoking cigarettes and shall not be construed as rendering legal, medical, financial or other licensable advice. The contents of this blog only relates to me and my own personal experience. As such, I believe this blog, and its contents, is protected under the Freedom of Speech as set forth in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America (assuming government authorities abide by that document at all anymore).
Andrew Lawrence is the author of more than 20 motivational and inspirational self-improvement books, books which make you smarter, richer and happier. His books are available at amazon.com and include “MONEY - The Basics”, “Find Your Life Purpose in less than an hour", and “The Happiness Transformation”. He lives happily and productively, as a non-smoker - and an e-cig user - in Los Angeles, California. Visit his amazon.com author page here.
UPDATE: Feb 2018
"LONDON (Reuters) - Vaping, or using e-cigarettes, poses only a fraction of the health risk of tobacco smoking and should be encouraged among smokers to reap substantial health benefits, British public health experts said on Tuesday. In a review of evidence on e-cigarettes commissioned by the government-backed authority Public Health England, experts said e-cigarettes could already be helping some 20,000 UK smokers a year to quit tobacco - and possibly many more.
“Our new review reinforces the finding that vaping is a fraction of the risk of smoking, at least 95 percent less harmful, and of negligible risk to bystanders,” said John Newton, a professor and director for health improvement at PHE. We hope this report will...encourage the 40 percent of smokers who’ve failed to quit but never tried vaping to go ahead and switch,” it said in a statement."
© 2012-2022 Andrew Lawrence. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Disclaimer
The government currently prohibits promoting electronic cigarettes as "smoking cessation devices" therefore I am not promoting or condoning the device for that purpose - even though that's exactly what it did for me; I am just relating my own personal experience!
The hardest part was finding a brand that fit my desires. Good taste, good battery life, no vaping odor, good build quality, good price, and good customer service. I tried 5-6 brands before I found the right one for me. The other ones I tried sucked. They either had lousy taste, noticeable odor (which intensely offends anti-smoking zealots), or too short a battery life. I finally found a brand that worked for me.
As of April 2010, The American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP) supports electronic cigarettes sales to adults, "because the possibility exists to save the lives of four million of the eight million current adult American smokers who will otherwise die of a tobacco-related illness over the next twenty years."
Are-cigs cool?
In my opinion e-cigs are very cool. What I really like about e-cigs is that when I only want a few puffs, I can take a few puffs of my e-cig and put it right back in my pocket. Unlike cigarettes, I don't have to put it out and I don't have to smoke the whole thing! I do that a lot, to only take a few puffs. Sometimes a couple of puffs is all I want or need and then I'm done. I take my puffs and just stick my e-cig back in my pocket. No fuss, no muss. No looking for an ashtray or tossing the burning butt on the ground or out the car window. No smelly tobacco smoke, no ashes, no matches, no ashtray. Cool!
Regulations
Note: According to my research (credible google and governmental sources) there are some basic legal regulations governing e-cigs in the U.S. as of January 2012. The government regulations may not seem to make any sense but they are the government regulations nonetheless ...
E-cigarettes are regulated by the FDA. They are regulated as a "tobacco" product, though there is no tobacco in an e-cig. None at all. According to the Medical Dictionary: "Smoking is the inhalation of the smoke of burning tobacco encased in cigarettes, pipes, and cigars."
E-cigs are not allowed to be marketed as a "smoking cessation device" yet the whole point of switching to e-cigs is to no longer smoke tobacco cigarettes or smoke less of them.
As of this writing there are no FDA related clinical trials for e-cigs. According to the FDA they are concerned that the possible side effects of inhaling and exhaling nicotine and other chemicals in an e-cig are unknown (while the effects of smoking tobacco cigarettes are widely known and smoking cigarettes is heavily regulated and publicized in the U.S. to be the major cause of a variety of serious ailments, horrible diseases and, of course, a complete cessation of life, otherwise known as death).
Some "experts" are also reported to be concerned that e-cigs will be sold to children and cause kids to be hooked into trying other tobacco products, like the deadly tobacco-containing cigarette. I have heard this type of argument before, as it relates to marijuana, pornography, and other recreational products and activities. If an underage person goes online and buys something (like e-cigs) from a website that clearly states that, under the law, you must be 18-years-of age or older, and the underage buyer LIES about his/her age in order to buy the item, my understanding is that, in doing so, the underage person has not abided by the terms and conditions of the sale and/or has BROKEN THE LAW. In that case, why should the legitimate and legal seller of e-cigs be penalized (or over-regulated) for the non-compliance or illegal act of the online underage buyer?!
On the positive side, I found no mention of e-cigs greatly contributing to natural disasters, poverty, drunk driving, obesity, soil erosion, war, unemployment or real estate foreclosures.
From a New York Times article Nov 7, 2010:
" ... e-cigarettes could be the most effective tool yet for reducing the global death toll from smoking. But there’s a powerful group working against this innovation — and it’s not Big Tobacco. It’s a coalition of government officials and anti-smoking groups who have been warning about the dangers of e-cigarettes and trying to ban their sale.
"In Britain, the Royal College of Physicians has denounced “irrational and immoral” regulations inhibiting the introduction of safer nicotine-delivery devices.
“Nicotine itself is not especially hazardous,” the British medical society concluded in 2007. “If nicotine could be provided in a form that is acceptable and effective as a cigarette substitute, millions of lives could be saved.”
"The number of Americans trying e-cigarettes quadrupled from 2009 to 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Its survey last year found that 1.2 percent of adults, or close to three million people, reported using them in the previous month."
With my e-cigs, I am getting my addictive nicotine AND saving money. And, in addition, I am NOT being subjected to 4,000+ other chemicals, not emitting offensive and murderous cigarette smoke, not dropping ashes everywhere, not stinking up my clothes (and my breath), not stinking up my car, not littering the ground with dozens of cigarette butts daily, not tossing lit cigarette butts out of the car window and not creating a fire hazard. AND, more than 10 years after I quit smoking and started vaping, according to my doctor my chest x-ray showed "no abnormalities".
Am I pleased? Hell, yes!
Thanks to e-cigs, I am no longer a cigarette smoker. I'm an e-cig user. I'm a vaper! No smell. No ash. No cigarette-caused air pollution. No second hand cigarette smoke. No litter.
THAT'S how I quit smoking. In 1 day. I switched to e-cigs. It worked for me. And I couldn't be happier! The last time I smoked a cigarette was on December 7, 2011. And, after 50 years, I am no longer a cigarette smoker. I am an e-cig user! I am a vaper!
Requirements needed to become a non-smoker
The following is NOT a medical opinion or medical advice. In my personal opinion and experience, for me to quit smoking - and start using e-cigs - required 2 things.
1. motivation
2. adjustment
In order to successfully quit cigarettes, based only on my own experience, I had to be motivated to quit. As a smoker, I had to WANT to quit. I also had to COMMIT to quit smoking cigarettes. Otherwise, I would not have quit. Without a real 100% motivation I would not have quit, or would have easily relapsed. In my opinion, to become an e-cig user, I had to be fully and completely motivated to quit smoking cigarettes ... BEFORE I switched to e-cigs.
I found that becoming an e-cig user also required me to make an adjustment. An e-cig is not a cigarette. Using e-cigs is not the same as smoking. The taste is a bit different, the feel is a bit different, the visual and oral experience is different. Becoming a successful e-cigarette user required me to make an adjustment, emotionally and physically. It took me 1-2 weeks to get used to vaping. That's pretty darn quick, considering my 50 years of smoking a pack a day. I was motivated, I had pledged to "commit to quit", and doing that, I was able to adjust to using e-cigs.
The above is solely my personal opinion, based on my own experience, and should not be construed as providing any licensable or expert or marketing advice.
Who wants you to quit smoking?
Today, in America, and many other countries, everybody wants you to quit smoking. Except maybe Big Tobacco. Does your family want you to quit? Does your spouse or significant other want you to quit? Your kids? Your grandkids? Your friends? Your neighbors? Your co-workers? Your doctor? Even your employer wants you to quit. Your local, state and federal government wants you to quit. EVERYBODY wants you to quit smoking cigarettes! I quit smoking cigarettes ... in 1 day. I'm glad I gave up the expensive, dirty, smelly, dangerously unhealthy, politically incorrect and socially unacceptable cigarette. And, I was able to replace it with a soothing nicotine-delivering very cool looking e-cig. Do I miss smoking cigarettes? No. Do I feel better health wise? Yes.
| I quit smoking cigarettes - in 1 day! |
I used to be a cigarette smoker. Now, I am an e-cig user!
UPDATE: As of today I have not smoked a cigarette since I quit. I have not smoked a cigarette since December 7, 2011. Not 1 cigarette! I haven't even had an strong craving to smoke a cigarette! Thanks to my e-cig I do not miss smoking cigarettes ... nor do I ever want to smoke them again.
Unfortunately, a few years after I quit smoking and started using electronic cigarettes, local and state governments have basically banned e-cigs and are taxing and regulating them out of existence. Why? The anti-smoking zealots have won. The anti-smoking zealots incorrectly have equated e-cigarettes with tobacco cigarettes and convinced politicians to ban vaping in public. About the only place you can vape in California (or other states) today is in your own home. And maybe your vehicle. And THAT right is at risk. No longer in America can an ADULT expect to be legally allowed to partake of a legal activity.
Disclaimer
This blog contains my own personal experience and opinions of how and why I quit smoking cigarettes and shall not be construed as rendering legal, medical, financial or other licensable advice. The contents of this blog only relates to me and my own personal experience. As such, I believe this blog, and its contents, is protected under the Freedom of Speech as set forth in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America (assuming government authorities abide by that document at all anymore).
Andrew Lawrence is the author of more than 20 motivational and inspirational self-improvement books, books which make you smarter, richer and happier. His books are available at amazon.com and include “MONEY - The Basics”, “Find Your Life Purpose in less than an hour", and “The Happiness Transformation”. He lives happily and productively, as a non-smoker - and an e-cig user - in Los Angeles, California. Visit his amazon.com author page here.
UPDATE: Feb 2018
"LONDON (Reuters) - Vaping, or using e-cigarettes, poses only a fraction of the health risk of tobacco smoking and should be encouraged among smokers to reap substantial health benefits, British public health experts said on Tuesday. In a review of evidence on e-cigarettes commissioned by the government-backed authority Public Health England, experts said e-cigarettes could already be helping some 20,000 UK smokers a year to quit tobacco - and possibly many more.
“Our new review reinforces the finding that vaping is a fraction of the risk of smoking, at least 95 percent less harmful, and of negligible risk to bystanders,” said John Newton, a professor and director for health improvement at PHE. We hope this report will...encourage the 40 percent of smokers who’ve failed to quit but never tried vaping to go ahead and switch,” it said in a statement."
© 2012-2022 Andrew Lawrence. All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
