A bit of a lengthy insight into my smoking history - I've been smoking on/off since I was 20 in 2009, it started with the occasional social smoke on the odd night out (mostly menthol cigs as I could not stand the throat hit with normal cigs) and it remained like that until late 2011 when I broke up with an ex for the second time and I spent a brief period during that Christmas on the fags (roughly 10 a day) and then after new years I packed them in and cut down to just social smoking on the occasional night out again. However, by late 2010 when I was still social smoking I had moved onto normal cigs which consisted of Silk Cut Silver's (yep, the worst cigarette ever produced I know lol).
Fast forward to September last year when I got made redundant from one of my previous places of work, due to the stress of being out of work for the first time in 4 years I started smoking on a daily basis again (roll ups mainly, 5-10 a day) and unfortunately between that time & all the way through until April of this year I was properly hooked on them and the last time I felt this addicted to them was during the brief smoking period of late 2011. The way it would work with what I smoked, I would smoke roll ups for probably around a month at a time before I would switch to Mayfair Smooth's/normal Mayfair's for another month and then switch back to roll ups again as I would start to feel the effects on my chest/lungs from normal cigs. My worst past smoking stint must have been while I was away on a family holiday/wedding back in South Africa in Feb and that is when my smoking got really out of control - over there I was smoking 10-15 Marlboro Gold's & the Stuyvesant brand cigarettes every day for the entire 2 weeks that I was there. I put all this down to the fact that I was drinking almost every day/heavily drinking on every other night and I remember that on one particular night (step Dad's lads/stag night out) I smoked a record of 30 cigs during that day/night. When I returned from that holiday I felt really, really rough and the health effects that it had on me at the time was just simply unbearable and I even managed to cut down quite a lot.
In March, I discovered and read a lot into e-cigs and eventually vaping. I started off with the E-Lites which at start helped and I gradually cut down the amount of roll ups I smoked down a day to roughly 2-3. Unfortunately after a couple of weeks of smoking the E-Lites I got too dependent/too used to them and I started to no longer get a Nicotine satisfaction from them and before I knew it I was back on the roll ups again full time.
While I back on the roll ups and by this point it was April, I was still reading a lot into vaping and within a few days I had a EGO-T CE5 kit with a few e-liquids
I remember the first day of when I received the kit and trying it out straight away and I about collapsed with how much of a Nicotine hit I had from it lol! After that moment though, I knew that vaping was going to work for me to an extent and that I would be able to pack in smoking the roll ups/cigs.
I've been vaping for 4 months now (16mg nicotine strength fluids) and to start with I went for a full 4 weeks without a cig/roll up and my goodness did I feel a hell of a lot better - sense of smell had properly returned & not being out of breath sometimes. Though despite that the vaping helps A LOT, on the occasional night out or when I've had 3+ beers I still sometimes do crave the odd cig and in most cases I even give in by buying a pack of 10's or a pack of 12.5g tobacco. My 4 weeks cigarette-free streak was sadly ended I was down my local with a mate and I was coping nicely with my vape, when all of a sudden the battery died! At the same time my friend noticed this and a few minutes later my friend reluctantly offered me one and she only asked me once, and I spent a horrible 10 minutes debating what to do - before very reluctantly having one and oh dear it was horrible, despite having one mega Nicotine buzz from it. I also had one more later on that evening which I only smoked half of it before I couldn't stand the taste in my mouth and convinced myself that I was letting myself down and I put it out.
After being 4 weeks smoke-free at the time and the next morning after I felt the effects that it had on me (no sense of smell temporarily, mucus build up in my lungs & throat) and oh my it was horrible
and that was only from 1 & a half cigs!
However since April when I switched to vaping, I don't smoke cigarettes/roll ups daily anymore and I still do take my vape out with me sometimes but I make sure that it's fully charged before hand lol. Though if I go on a big night out I leave the vape at home and buy a pack of 10 cigarettes still as I get soo many fully looks with vaping at times - yeah I know it shouldn't put me off but at the same time when I've had a drink and I'm with a group of people who all smoke - it still makes me want a smoke. However, if I am not drinking and I am still with the same group of people - I don't feel the need to have cigarette at all as the smell alone puts me off right away.
The health effects for me, well as I mentioned when I smoked for nearly 8 months between September - April I experienced the well known symptoms; no sense of smell, mucus build up every morning in my throat/lungs, out of breath and probably the worst one of all which developed after Christmas - the smokers cough! Since switching to vaping, I feel a hell of a lot better now and it's good to be able to have a great gym sesh again
My future goals; To be able to pack in the cigs/roll ups 100% when on nights out, and to cut down on vaping by smoking 8mg Nicotine fluids and eventually quit vaping altogether.
Thanks all - Liam
