Never Looked Back

I started smoking when I was 14 in the late 1980s. Back then, a 12 year old could walk into the gas station and buy a pack of cigarettes without any questions. Offices, schools, trains all still allowed smoking. I quit every time I was pregnant, but always ended up going back. I didn’t smoke during the day at work, or in the house, but I smoked in the evening on the porch or garage, at least 1/2 a pack a day. On New Years Day this year, almost 8 months ago, I bought a vape pen and never looked back. The day I bought the vape pen was the day I quit. Today, the smell of cigarettes and tobacco makes me sick. I have no desire to smoke at all. Tapering down the nicotine level is extremely easy. If you switch, don’t use the tobacco flavor unless for some reason the other flavors seem not to work. For most people, you won’t miss the taste of tobacco. You forget why you ever smoked in the first place. Even with the nicotine, the “addiction” level isn’t comparable. I don’t ever find myself craving the vapor. It’s still just an evening habit to relax, but with incredibly different consequences for my health. My blood pressure had started to get high for the first time in my life, after years of being low. Within a month, it was back to being in the perfect range.