How I Stopped Smoking And Why Vapes Kinda Suck Too

Today marks 1 year since I quit smoking 🔥🔥🔥🔥

HELLLL YAAAAAAAASSSSS #proudAF

Side note: DON'T TRY THE VAPE THING. ITS A TRAP.

When I quit smoking last fall I also took a break from alcohol for added support. After probably 6 months my cravings had pretty much completely disappeared, except when alcohol was in the picture of course.

Just as the weather really started to warm up, I ended up picking up one of those Juul things as a preventative measure for the upcoming onslaught of summer.

At first I only took it out if I was going to be drinking, but it didn't take long for it to sneak its way into my sober activities. Within a few weeks, maybe a month, the empty pods really began to accumulate. I went from a pod over a few days to pod in half a day, and it happened way too fast.

GROSS. THAT SHIT IS WAY MORE ADDICTING THAN SMOKING FYI

I was so caught in the trap I switched from the Juul to the STEALTH for a weekend because the latter are like half the price and WAYYYY more flavors.

Bad Plan Stan.

After 3 days with the STEALTH my lung capacity was functioning at maybe 70%.

I was driving to work the Monday morning and noticed my lungs weren't inhaling or exhaling fully and trying to do so was a challenge !! 3 days. . .

ALSO, the residue left over from the vapes leaves a nasty phlegmy mucous coating in your windpipes (like real smoke does) except this stuff is MUCH harder to cough up and quite a lot easier to just swallow instead because of it's weird, fine, sticky consistency.

Smoking & Vapes (and milk lol) cause an increase in mucous production in the body because that is its defense mechanism attempting to Stop these toxins from getting inside us.

I pay attention to my digestive tract more than most because mine is extremely temperamental.

Fact: the human body does NOT like to digest mucous.

It actually rocks your guts so bad y'all.

I could go on but I think you get the point here...

Anywho, I am OVER it.

Last week I spent an evening reading all the news coverage I could find on vaping related illnesses. (My way of casually and subconsciously manipulating myself lol)

I hid the Juul on myself Sunday night.

So sneaky.

Not.

Monday and Tuesday I barely thought about it. Wednesday was a little stressfull tho and it calllllled me all day long.. by 8 pm my will power was depleted & it was still accessible.... and so I answered the damn call.

I let myself have my way with it till bedtime and then I wedged it deep into the kitchen garbage where it belongs. GOOD RIDDANCE.

You may catch me sneaking a haul off one in the future but never again will I buy or allow myself regular access to those things. Much too slippery of a slope for this girl.

All I can say about vaping, is DON'T DO IT and if you have to for a bit to get off real smokes, try to use it as a bridge and not so much of a long term alternative.

Going from smoking straight to vaping might make it hard to notice these little effects on your body but they exist nonetheless. I am glad I had a cold turkey break in between so I could actually catch these side effects popping up.

I smoked mostly cigars heavy for almost 13 years, like I'm talking a pack a day guys (EW)...

Once upon a time, in a smoke pit somewhere in the summer of 2017, a non-smoker told me about a book he read that helped him stop. "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr.

I picked up a copy the next week lol but I wasn't brave enough to finish it until almost a year later on September 6th 2018.

I quit cold turkey the next day and I will forever be a non-smoker ❤️

Bless that man 🙌

& Bless that book 🙌

Much Love, Astin

Xox