Welcome to my little blog!

This blog was designed to share my experience with quitting smoking in the hopes of helping those still struggling with active nicotine addiction. I know the feeling all to well and I know how hard it is to stop smoking. I struggled with it for almost 10 years.

It nearly drove me crazy and I was really beginning to think I would never be able to quit. I tried every form of nicotine replacement therapy on the market, I read books, I even went through a round of Champix. Nothing worked. Within hours I would be right back sucking on a cigarette cursing it the whole time.

I was actually starting to admit to myself that I would smoke for the rest of my life when I encountered someone using an electronic cigarette. It was the first time I had encountered one and I was amazed. I was skeptical yes, but amazed and supremely curious to try it for myself. I didn't feel comfortable asking the gentleman I had just met to try his, so I came home and immediately ordered my own.

I remember waiting for it to arrive and telling my wife that I thought e-cigs might actually help me. I can still see that hopeful yet ultra skeptical look. She was beginning to think as I was that I would never be able to quit. After all she just watched my dad die of lung cancer never being able to stop right up until his last few days. I could understand where she was coming from but I was sure e-cigs would work for me.

When my starter kit finally arrived, I ripped open the box, screwed the thing together and started madly puffing away. It was my intention to never smoke again from that day forward. I can tell you it wasn't that simple. I did go back and forth between the tobacco and the electronic cigarettes for a few months before I finally was able to put that last cigarette down.

Even with e-cigs it was still a challenge and I struggled quite a bit in the first few weeks. Electronic cigarettes did help with the nicotine cravings but I found there was still a withdrawal period (I guess from the other chemicals in the tobacco). It wasn't until that first two weeks passed that I actually started to enjoy the e-cig as much as I had enjoyed my cigarettes.

What I liked about it was that I was actually able to simulate the feeling of smoking quite well with a variety of flavors while at the same time delivering a dose of nicotine with every puff. After a few months I couldn't even imagine smoking another cigarette. Even the smell of the burning tobacco now is enough to make nauseous.

The way electronic cigarettes work, is the heat up a liquid solution which contains vegetable and propylene glycerin along with pharmaceutical grade nicotine. Most reputable e-cig manufacturers only use ingredients approved by the FDA.

I think the main reason they did work for me and for countless others I've spoken with, is that it offers the same nicotine replacement therapy that the patches or the gums offer but in a way smokers enjoy using that also appeases the oral fixation and the hand to mouth action smokers are accustomed to.

Part of the inspiration for this blog is the fact that in the last year of so it seems like every news article written about electronic cigarettes is a negative propaganda piece, designed only to scare potential e-cig users from even trying them. It's so frustrating to see smart people continue smoking telling me "we just don't have enough information on electronic cigarettes to honestly answer the questions regarding their safety". While at the same time puffing on something that we know for sure isn't!

I read an article in the Texas Chronicle yesterday where a man's e-cig battery blew up somehow and injured his leg with a piece of metal saying he's going back to cigarettes because "it's safest". I nearly fell off my chair.

These are the kinds of stories that are making headlines instead of the millions of smokers lives that have been saved and that could be saved by using an electronic cigarette instead of smoking tobacco. Of course, we all know the reason for that is the lost revenues to big tobacco and big pharma cause by the popularity of vaping. I guess to them a dollar is worth more than a human life.

Thanks for stopping by, I will continue to write in the coming days. In the interim, if you are a smoker who would like to quit smoking and haven't already, please try an electronic cigarette. If you're anything like me, you'll be amazed at how well it mimics a real cigarette in both flavor and sensation without any smoke at all.

You can have all the pleasure of smoking without ever inhaling smoke again. For anyone wanting more on e-cigs, check out the best electronic cigarette resource site and buying guide for 2015.

For those who remain skeptical or would rather a more pharmaceutical approach to quitting smoking and a comparison between the various methods including electronic cigarettes click here.

Until next time I wish you all a smoke free day!