Posting here for accountability!

[PositivePenny]

I’m a long term, at times heavy, smoker. I’ve tried a few times to give up but have never succeeded.

I think part of the problem in the past is that I enjoy smoking. ‘Giving up’ means I’m depriving myself of something I enjoy so I’m going to try a different angle!

From tomorrow I will aim to ‘cut down’ (and stick to it!)

I read lots of the threads on this board but one that jumped out to me was a poster saying they’d bought a vape and had cut down on cigarettes a lot since using it. I have multiple disposable vapes (amongst patches/gum/books 🙄) so I’ve decided that I’ll try substituting some cigarettes for the vape and see how I go!

I’m hoping having a more relaxed attitude to cutting down will eventually make me a non smoker. I know that gaping probably comes with it’s own issues and I’ll still be using nicotine for the foreseeable future but the only thing that really motivates me to stop is the stale smell of cigarettes (the money wasted, heath issues, hold cigarettes have on me etc don’t have a big of an impact as they should!) and I’d rather smell cotton candy on my hair than cigarette smoke!

So, I’m going to start posting here each day so I can hopefully look back on it and see how far I’ve come!

[PositivePenny]

21 cigarettes smoked
vape still in the cupboard

Not a great 1st day but I have used a cigarette counting app today, which I found very useful and noticed a pattern to my smoking which I’ve never thought about before. I smoke the most in the mornings, I never just have one cigarette more like I have little ‘smoking sessions’ then nothing for a few hours, I use these sessions as a reward for completing something.

Plan for tomorrow is to swap a couple of cigarettes for the vape!

[PositivePenny]

Day 2 - 17 cigarettes smoked. Still haven’t made the switch to the vape for any but that’s an improvement on yesterday so I’m happy!

I need it to rain because this weather means it’s far too easy to just nip out for a quick smoke!

[PositivePenny]

Day 3 - 12 cigarettes smoked, just a few puffs on the vape because it seems quite strong and catches my throat a bit but maybe I just need to change the flavour?

I’m looking forward to smelling fresh rather than cigarettes!

[BastetsWhiskers]

Well done! How's it going now?

[Coyoacan]

Good luck, OP. There are lots of ways to stop smokng, but I just wanted to recomment Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. I smoked for 45 years and for the last twenty was smoking 50 a day and was only able to stop using this book.