I’ve made it - 1 year without any tobacco whatsoever and I feel brilliant. For those of you who haven’t visited this blog before and seen my diary I’ll briefly recap why and how I stopped and what a difference it’s made to my life – apart from hopefully lengthening it!

I had smoked for 40 years and was getting more and more out of breath, my chest was making scary noises when I was asleep, my circulation wasn’t good, my gums were damaged. I was basically getting ready for the knackers yard but I wasn’t ready for that in my head.

I tried to stop smoking several times over the years but never made it past 6 months. Usually I started again when something happened that was upsetting and I smoked to beat the stress. I also enjoyed a cigarette and especially that one after a meal, but I knew in my heart of hearts that I needed to stop, but no way was I going to try cold turkey.

I read an article about electronic cigarettes  that was submitted to my article directory and checked them out. I searched the internet and found out what was being said about them before commiting myself and ordering a pack. I spent about £50 and that was the best £50 I have ever spent.

Because you can get different strengths I used e-cigs in the same way that you would use nicotine patches to gradually cut down the nicotine intake. I also used nicotine patches for a couple of weeks at work to make sure that I wasn’t tempted – we sell cigarettes! There was also a natural lessening of the frequency and amount that I wanted to smoke my electronic cig until about 5 months later I totally stopped. That might seem a long time but during those last few weeks I only had about 5 drags a day. Apart from a small glitch a few days into my final stop smoking effort I haven’t smoked the far more dangerous to your health tobacco during the last year. 

For me electronic cigarettes have worked where nothing else did and I think that they are the best invention since ring pulls were invented for cans. Don’t even bother to comment with ‘should have gone cold turkey’ remarks – they usually come from those who haven’t smoked or those smug beggars that did manage cold turkey.

It didn’t take long for me to notice improvement in my breathing, the scary night noises stopped, my gums have improved but they will never get back to what they were because smoking destroyed some of the bone in my mouth making my gums recede. My circulation is better too and I had the easiest winter for years with Reynards disease which was very painful for my fingers. I don’t smell any more and I’m not endangering the lives of those around me – especially my grand kids. What was that song?

I really feel now that I won’t be tempted to smoke tobacco again. I haven’t had any cravings and if I do there is a fully charged electric cigarette sitting in my drawer at home – better that than the real thing!

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £1100. I’ve already used some of my savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I’m now saving up for central heating in my home but it’s good to be able to treat myself with the savings too.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

I know that I can thank electronic cigarettes for the ease and for the excellent end result. If somebody had told me that a plastic lookalike could do what other methods have failed to do for me a few years ago I would have thought they were pulling my leg or on another planet. I think ecigs are the best invention since ring pull cans but some governments don’t.

I guess that it depends upon the way that you look at it. Obviously there are always concerns about testing any products that are taken into your body, but we know that tobacco is very harmful to your health and that various governments who get high taxes from tobacco reckon to be campaigning and taking measures to stop smoking.

In my ideal world those governments would do more to stop smoking if they dropped the bans on electric cigarettes, researched them, helped promote them as a stop smoking aid and monitered the manufacture of them. I believe that this idea would do far more to stop people from smoking than anything that they are doing now.

Anyway that’s my ideal world. In my less than ideal world I’m still waking up with a dry mouth and sometimes a sore throat, the crap still coming up out of my lungs. A friend who stopped told me it took her about 18 months for that to stop happening, I never thought it would take that long.

That’s it really for this month, except for some fun. I read about a free way of making videos on Youtube and following is the end result. Please feel free to add the video to your sites!!!

Cool isn’t it? That was really easy and only took a few minutes.

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £1000. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I haven’t decided what I’m going to treat myself next with saved cigarette money. I’ve been thinking about getting a guitar and learning how to play it, or maybe even put it towards a holiday.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

I’ve got to admit that there have been times that I’ve wanted a cigarette. Sometimes it’s stressful at work and when I see others go to the back door for a fag I’m tempted to join them. But when I pass close by the smell puts me off – maybe I’m turning into one of those intolerant ex smokers!

I’ve dug out my electronic cigarette a couple of times but I’ve stopped short at taking a drag by thinking that I will be spoiling months of effort. Away it goes again and I make myself busy to stop wanting what I can’t have.

Over the last 10 months quite a lot of those around me have tried to stop smoking but so far I’m the only one to last out more than a few weeks. That’s a shame but it goes to show just how difficult it is to quit. Like me beforehand they probably just haven’t found the right method for them, but for many of them they will one day.

I was babysitting my 4 year old grandaughter last night. Out of the blue she asked me if I smoke. I said “No not any more but I uesed to”.  Saying that made me feel almost as good as the hug that I got.

A couple that I know live in Spain and went to their doctor when they stopped and wanted help. They were asked if they wanted to die happy. Their doctor thought that they would be miserable if they stopped smoking, obviously not believing that this couple wanted to live a longer, healthier life and feel good. and that might make them happier!

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £900. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I haven’t decided what I’m going to treat myself next with saved cigarette money. I’ve been thinking about getting a guitar and learning how to play it, or maybe even put it towards a holiday.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

If you have previously read my stop smoking diary you will know that I used electronic cigarettes to help me to quit. I heard this week that the British government are now considering banning e-cigs yet they allow the killer tobacco cigarettes to stay on sale. Please sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ecigarettes/

I haven’t got much to add to my diary this month it’s been a good one. I recovered from the chest infection that I had last month and feel much better. I do still get odd mornings when I wake up coughing, my throat is dry and my mouth tastes horrible. I reckon that’s still the gunge coming up out of my lungs.

Even though it’s been a cold winter it’s been the least painful as far as my Reynards disease problem is concerned for a number of years. That tells me that my circulation has improved. My teeth and gums have stopped hurting so hopefully the damage caused by smoking is reversing or at the least not getting any worse. So everything is good and hopefully it will stay that way.

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £800. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I haven’t decided what I’m going to treat myself next with saved cigarette money. I’ve been thinking about getting a guitar and learning how to play it, or maybe even put it towards a holiday.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

If you have previously read my stop smoking diary you will know that I used electronic cigarettes to help me to quit. I heard this week that the British government are now considering banning e-cigs yet they allow the killer tobacco cigarettes to stay on sale. Please sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ecigarettes/

Unfortunately the reason that I was late with this update is because I’ve had a bad chest infection and felt too lousy to even use my laptop – that pleased my cat Sparky who regained my knee for  a week. It really is sods law, 40 years of smoking and I never had a chest infection – or a throat infection as I had in November. Stop smoking and the infections hit. It feels really crappy and unfair but if I have to walk on hot coals to stay stopped I will.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my method of quitting electronic cigarettes and will try to answer the main questions here.

Electronic cigarettes have got nicotine in them, nicotine is addictive, I don’t believe that you can quit with them so why do you say that you can?

Because I know that you can quit by using them from personal experience. Yes they mostly have nicotine in them, but patches and gum have nicotine in them and they are stop smoking aids.

I think that what happened with me was that because I smoked menthol cigarettes and ordered menthol ecigs they didn’t taste bad and my timing was right. I had banned smoking from every room in my house except the kitchen several years ago because I was fed up with painting over the tar stains. I’ve never been one for standing or sitting still for long so I rarely smoked a whole cigarette before my quit attempt. The only time that I did was when I went out of work for a cig break with a colleague.

Once I started on the ecigs I only wanted 2 or 3 drags and then I wanted to be on the go again. The cig breaks naturally occured less often and at home I would often go for full days without having one. That was more from bad management than anything else. I kept forgetting where my ecig was or forgetting to charge its battery. What I did notice was that as long as I kept busy I wasn’t feeling strong withdrawal symptoms.

I broke my spare battery on my first ecig and instead of replacing it and getting more menthol cartridges I bought a cheap and nasty tasting ecig that could never be addictive. It tasted so horrible that I smoked it less and less until one day I just stopped.

Have you ever been tempted to buy any tobacco cigarettes?

Only on a rare occasion and the temptation has been slight, more like a passing thought from the previous habit. I think that knowing I have a fully charged ecig in the drawer at home will always stop me from buying a pack no matter how stressful things get – I just don’t need to.

Don’t you think that e cigarettes are expensive?

No I don’t. My first electronic cigarette starter kit and cartridges cost about £50, my second about £20. During the last 8 months I would have spent £800 on tobacco cigarettes – go figure!!.

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £700. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I haven’t decided what I’m going to treat myself next with saved cigarette money. I’ve been thinking about getting a guitar and learning how to play it, or maybe even put it towards a holiday.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

As those of you who have read my diary will know I stopped by mainly using electronic cigarettes and now I don’t even smoke those except for one little transgression last night. I always knew that I might want a smoke more when I go out for a drink so my ecig was tucked away in my handbag just in case. Rather that than accept a tobacco cigarette from one of my friends.

I’ve been out on other nights out and the electric cigarette and smoking has been forgotten about. Last night we were on a works Christmas night out and everybody had gone out into the snow covered beer garden. One of the new girls wanted to see my ecig so I took it out and showed her how it worked – took 3 puffs at it before putting it away. I was actually surprised that the battery was still charged as it has been weeks since I’ve used it. I don’t feel like smoking it today so no harm done.

Apart from feeling healthier and wealthier I have noticed a vast improvement in a smoking related health problem. Last winter I had a lot of pain in my fingers due to Reynards disease and especially first thing in the morning or whenever I touched anything cold. As I work in a shop that sells chilled and frozen products it was reaching a point where it was threatening my livelihood and I even could have lost my fingers if it got any worse.

This winter I have only had a few instances of pain on the coldest mornings but it hasn’t taken long to warm my hands up enough for the pain to go. I think that my circulation has improved and that has helped to lessen the Reynards disease symptoms.

The only negative thing about giving up smoking has been my weight increasing. I really didn’t care as long as I was stopping smoking, but now that I’m starting to think about holidays I need to start dieting and use my Wii Fit (Wii)
.

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £650. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I haven’t decided what I’m going to treat myself next with saved cigarette money, maybe even put it towards a holiday.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

Suddenly I smiled when I realised that my symptoms weren’t caused by smoking too much as they might have been previously and that today I was celebrating 6 months without tobacco after a 40 year long addiction. I thought that now at least without cigarettes my sore throat and cough wouldn’t be worsened and prolonged by smoking.

For those of you who haven’t read my stop smoking diary I threw out the tobacco cigarettes on May 19th 2009 and replaced them with a menthol flavoured electronic cigarette. Apart from a couple of weeks using patches I have mainly used the e-cig to help me to quit smoking.

I’ve had a lot of fun with my electric cigarette over the months, but I’m sorry to have to disappoint you cynics out there who think that you are just replacing one addiction with another – I’ve quit e-cigs too! Yes I was initially replacing one addiction with another, just as I would have done if I’d stopped totally with nicotine patches, but after a few weeks I didn’t feel as addicted to the ecigs as I had previously felt to tobacco cigarettes if that makes sense.

What has happened is that I used the substitutions for as long as I wanted and without setting a time limit. I had days at a time without using the substitutes but carried them about with me. Then I stopped carrying them around and for nearly 4 weeks have been substitute free.

I haven’t had any withdrawal symptoms at all and haven’t been tempted when I’ve been around smokers. There has been the odd time that the smell of smokers wafting by has been noticable and instead of tempting me it’s been off putting and I’m glad that I don’t smell like that any more.

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £550. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it? I haven’t decided what I’m going to treat myself next with saved cigarette money, maybe even put it towards a holiday.

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

P.S. My illness was a throat infection – sods law that I get my first one ever 6 months after punishing my throat with tobacco cigarettes

I have continued to take an electronic cigarette with me to work because that is the most stressful place that I go, and because we sell cigarettes the most tempting. I might have 2 or 3 puffs at it during my 8 hour shifts and that’s usually only because I come across one of my workmates outside having a cigarette. I don’t usually touch them otherwise and a cartridge is now lasting over a month.

Annoying them can be fun! Now that the weather is worsening I see them huddled outside in the wind and rain frantically puffing away at a cigarette they are trying their best to keep dry. I whip my e cig out of my pocket, take a drag and laugh as I’m putting it away – all from the dry doorway! It really cheeses them off when they are struggling to light their cig in the wind and I can just take mine out of my pocket. Getting smug aren’t I?

I’m not allowed to go into the full details but I managed to pass the test when we had an armed robbery at work. Afterwards I joined the group of smokers outside and one of them offered me a cigarette because I was shaken up. I said “no thanks” without thinking and without feeling tempted whatsoever, but I got my e cig out having been reminded. Just after that the police sergeant asked if I had a spare cigarette, his face was a picture when I showed him my electric cigarette.

It took quite a while but my house has stopped smelling of stale cigarettes. I am still finding lighters all over and am wondering why I needed so many.

My total savings now taking into account the cost of patches and e-cigs is now at least £450. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of 150+ cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it?

To view the rest of my giving up smoking diary click here

What I will say is that I’ve found giving up smoking this time round far easier than ever before. The reasons? Probably because I knew that I had to stop this time or my health would really begin to suffer from all of those years of smoking.

Also writing this blog has helped tremendously. I was determined that I would be honest on Smokers Stop and I would have hated to admit that I’d failed online where millions of people can see what I’ve written. No way was I going to do that so the blog became part of my discipline.

The last reason was as I’ve stated several times on this blog – electronic cigarettes . They weren’t available on my many previous failed stop smoking attempts but now I think that they are blooming marvelous.

Yes I still have one around and some purists would say that I haven’t completely given up, but because of e cigs I haven’t smoked or been tempted to smoke tobacco products packed with killer chemicals for 4 months now.

A lot of days I don’t touch my electric cigarette but it’s there to stop me from being tempted to go back to health destroying tobacco products. I’m happy with that and so is everybody around me – except perhaps for my cat! I got one of those new mini e cigarettes a couple of months back and although it’s not as good as my original e cig it does the trick.

Unfortunately Sparky the cat thought it was a plaything. The battery charger plugs into my lap top and she thinks this new dangly thing is a toy. I got up one morning and the glowy end bit had disappeared and I can only assume that she knocked it off while playing. My mini e cig still works but I’m getting an awful lot of rude comments about it!

My total savings now taking into account the cast of patches and e-cigs is now at least £350. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of 150+ cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it?

To view more of my stop smoking diary click here

That’s down to having electronic cigarettes at hand. They have done the trick for me and my use of them is now minimal. I actually have one with a no nicotine cartidge in it and another with nicotine. I said in my last months diary that I was going to go for complete days without even e cigs and I have done without feeling needy. Some days I don’t use them at all and others I just have a couple of drags late in the evening more as a treat.

Electronic cigarettes do not contain the health harming chemicals that you find in tobacco products and can be used either as a substitute or as I have to wean myself off harmful cigarettes.  The cartridges for electric cigarettes can be bought in varying strengths of nicotine as with nicotine patches.

It is nicotine that causes the addiction to tobacco products so until I am completely off the e-cigs with nicotine I can’t consider myself totally stopped but definitely over the worst.

My skin looks great upt to previously I feel fitter and healthier. I said last month that I was worried about my checkup at the dentist this month, well I need not have been.

My teeth have been quite painful and gums bleeding a bit, I was convinced that I would be getting several teeth pulled but I was wrong. My dentist had previously told me that smoking over many years has caused problems with my teeth and gums but nicotine masks the symptoms and narrows the blood vessels.

He was delighted that I had stopped smoking and told me that now the nicotine has stopped masking the symptoms and the blood vessels are opening up I can expect to feel varying amounts of symptoms and pain for up to a year. That’s horrible isn’t it?

However, my dentist tells me that as long as I keep up a good dental care regime and don’t smoke there is actually healing going on in my mouth so that is good news.

The electronic cigarettes using nicotine cartridges are a shady area, but as my nicotine intake has been massively reduced I expect that’s why the healing has started.

My total savings now taking into account the cast of patches and e-cigs is £250. I’ve already used the savings to put towards a new Sony Viao laptop, it looks a lot better than a stack of 130+ cigarette packets that I would have gone through doesn’t it?

To view more of my stop smoking diary click here