The First Few Days – Transitioning to Electronic Cigarettes
If you’ve been drawn to electronic cigarettes because of the prospect they can serve as an alternative to regular cigarettes, there will be a transition period. Although e-cigs allow you to enjoy nicotine, they do not contain other addictive substances regular cigarettes do.
Known as Whole Tobacco Alkaloids (…or WTAs), substances like nornicotine, anabasine, anatabine and myosamine will not be in your new electronic cigarette.
Therefore, when you begin vaping, you may still crave a regular cigarette.
We’re here to tell you that it’s perfectly normal to still crave a traditional cigarette for a while – if you feel like having a regular smoke, by all means have one
Especially during the first week of using your e-cig, you will still have cravings for a regular cigarette. Some people get over this stage fairly quickly while others may take up to a year to completely transition.
Provided your cigarette usage decreases over time, it’s not completely unheard of for new vapers to still indulge in the old fashioned way of getting nicotine. In an ideal situation, you will cut down your usage though and cut it dramatically.
But if you’re not satisfied with your progress in transitioning, there are a few things you can do to improve your electronic cigarette’s effect, including:
• Choose a higher strength nicotine e-liquid. If you’re using a 24mg nicotine liquid, consider a 36mg mix. Also, you may have a higher tolerance for nicotine, which has nothing to do with how much you smoked.
• Don’t restrict e-cig usage to when you smoked. Use your electronic cigarette more often and longer each time. Especially in the early stages, some vapers use their devices twice as much as they smoked.
• Get a more powerful device. Basic e-cig models deliver 4 watts of power or less. Consider a 6, 8 or even 10 watt system. The easiest way to boost your power is to get low resistance cartomizers and atomizers, which will increase your power to 6 or 7 watts.
As long as you’re gradually reducing your cigarette intake, you’re on the right path.
But if you’ve increased your nicotine concentration, frequency and power and are still not satisfied with your progress, you may consider adding SNUS to your routine as some vapers have done. Swedish SNUS is basically an oral tobacco that comes in micro pouches that you place between your gum and upper lip. It’s different than traditional oral tobaccos in that it doesn’t require spitting.
Also, SNUS doesn’t contain the carcinogens that traditional cigarettes and oral tobaccos do. While these substances are removed, like traditional cigarettes, the SNUS does contain the WTAs your body is craving.
Therefore, if you’re craving those WTA substances, many vapers have found a combination of e-cigs and SNUS to be an effective strategy for completely cutting out traditional smokes.
Again, there’s no magic timeline for completing the transition from traditional smokes to electronic cigarettes. Some are able to do it in one day, while others take up to a year. As long as your cigarette usage is continuously decreasing, you’re making progress.
Until you are completely free of traditional cigarettes, keep a pack around the house to save yourself the subconscious anxiety of not having any. And if you decide to light one up, smoke half of it, put it out and then rinse with mouthwash.
Remind yourself of what inhaling fire tastes and feels like.
In due time though, you can be sure electronic cigarettes can replace your old ‘fire’ based methods. It just takes a little time in some cases, and a bit of patience.