Vape, Not Smoke: Quick Tips To Get You Started Quitting Smoking
Introduction
Vaping saves lives. Vape pens, like those from elf bar shop, have been shown to be 95% healthier than traditional cigarettes. Not just that, in a Public Health Survey done by the UK, it has been shown that vaping has been the most important factor in helping smokers quit the smoking habit.
Smoking has been shown over the years to lead to catastrophic health complications, and as a smoker, you probably know this best.
While you might have heard of vaping as an alternative to smoking, this article will convince you once and for all that a vape pen is all you need to quit.
Common Issues when making the switch
Uncomfortable to use
Smokers often talk about what they smoke and talk to a room of a thousand smokers and chances are, you’ll get a multitude of different responses on what they like in a cigarette. Just like normal cigarettes, e-cigarettes come in various shapes, sizes and functions.
For example, you might miss a specific taste of cigarette smoke you’re used to. In that case, you can try buying e-liquids that approximate some parts of that iconic taste.
If you’re finding it difficult to get used to holding the vape pen or pod in your hand, you can experiment with a cigarette-like vape, which probably uses cartridges that are menthol or tobacco flavoured with similar nicotine values or try guide to nicotine salts.
Coughing
A common thing people say is “don’t breathe like a smoker”. This is because, when you try to inhale vape like you do smoke, you might end up coughing and confused.
For a cigarette, since the cigarette itself is already burning and between your mouth, when you inhale, you’re inducing smoke proportional to how hard you’re breathing in.
In a vape pen, however, the heating coil is activated at a constant rate no matter how hard you inhale.
Not only that, vapour is also thicker and denser than cigarette smoke, and since our respiratory system is a sensitive instrument, coughing from the difference in sensation is very common. The way to combat this is to remember that coughing is normal, temporary, and to take prolonged, steady puffs instead of quick inhales.
Dry Mouth, Nose and Throat
As the nose, throat and mouth are connected, anything unwanted passing through either will result in all three feeling irritated. It might seem counter-intuitive, but e-liquid vapour actually takes more water from you instead of hydrating your body.
This happens regardless of whether your e-liquid contains nicotine or not, and means that something you have to do to take care of yourself is to hydrate more often.
Vape is Simply Not Working
Usually, most smokers, especially heavy smokers, tend to report that vaping is just not doing it for them at the outset of their conversion. This might be because of one of many reasons:
- You’re not used to the timing of the nicotine hit. With vape, the factors like how quickly your coil heats up, the wattage, the mixture of the e-liquid, your vaping technique and frequency, might not be perfect for you to enjoy the nicotine hit straight away. This, compared to cigarettes that are uniform, have much fewer variables and have been tweaked finely, means that it comes down to patience. Nicotine effects from vaping tend to take a while to set in but also last for much longer
- Adjusting is a gradual process. Some people expect to pick up an e-cig and be completely free from smoking. While this has and can be the case, most of the time, adjusting from smoking to vaping is gradual and takes one’s patience to unlearn a long-time habit. Don’t beat yourself up over it. If you’re still craving cigarettes, let yourself have it without thinking that you’ve failed. Also, try adjusting your e-liquid, maybe its taste or its nicotine content just isn’t doing it for you.
- You’re vaping too much. With a cigarette, one usually has to move to an open-air corner to smoke, and there’s a limit to how many cigarettes someone usually wants to carry around them. Unlike a cigarette, you can keep an e-cigarette with you at all times. This means, without the number of sticks and the hassle of having to get up and go to a smoking area, it’s very easy to vape way too much. This could lead to side effects of nicotine overdose shadowing the high and satisfaction of each puff.
Choosing your E-Cigarette
If you’re looking to start right away, look into pre-filled pods, which is a kind of e-cigarette that requires very little upkeep and doesn’t require refilling vape liquid before using. If you know you’ll be using your vape for a long time, get a box set or a vape pen, both of which you will have to maintain by replacing its components, filling up the reservoir and charging the pen properly.
When you’re just getting started, if you’re impatient, beyond pre-filled pods, look into disposable vapes, which might let you accustom yourself to the vaping experience, and let you try many flavours before deciding on an e-liquid.
If you’re quite serious not only about quitting smoking but about vaping, then try finding a vape pen with a puff counter. This is very good if you’re concerned about your own habits and would like to keep track. Like I said earlier, if you puff more, the indicator can let you know to drink water and maybe ease off on caffeine, and if you’re steadily puffing less, then the indicator can let you know it is time to switch to a liquid with lower nicotine.
What’s the difference between a pod and a refillable e-cigarette?
Pods are usually maintained very easily and use cartridges, and are often compact, silent and discreet. Refillable e-cigarettes are, on the other hand, much cheaper in the longer term, and have a wider range of features for different vapers’ styles.
Flavour and Liquid
Many smokers like to start with menthol and tobacco flavours as they’re getting used to the new high and new motions of an e-cigarette. Especially when the desire to smoke an actual cigarette starts dying down, you can go ahead and try many other different kinds of flavours!
While there’s a flavour for everyone, it also means that the process of selecting the right flavour can be tiring, but don’t skimp out on this! The large variety of ways an e-liquid can taste is one of the best perks of picking vape over smoking!
Conclusion
Whether it’s because it is much cheaper to vape, or because of health and social consequences, whatever your reason for switching over to e-cigarettes, I salute you. It’s not easy to change something, especially if that something is a coping tool for harder problems.
Anyway, let us know if you’ve used the advice from this blog, and share it with a friend who you swear is puffing himself to an early grave! That’s been all, and see you all in the clouds!
