​Successfully Switching to Vaping

There are many reasons why switching from smoking to vaping is a good idea and we’ll touch on these shortly. This article is for those of you considering switching from smoking to vaping and for new switchers, to help you make the transition successfully, to make the most of your vaping experience and to make the move away from smoking permanently.

Switching from smoking to vaping has got to be one of the healthiest choices you can make. Public Health England are pushing for vaping to be more widely recognised as an alternative to smoking and for e cigarettes to be recognised as official cessation devices. After hailing vaping as being “at least 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes” in their 2018 review on the topic, it is clear that PHE, who are pro-health and anti-smoking (and responsible for the Go Smoke Free ban of 2007) are fans of e cigarettes.

If you have arrived at this point and are considering moving over to vaping the chances are that you already know why giving up smoking is a good idea for your health as well as for your finances, the environment, for the NHS and more. With this in mind, we are going to lay out some information for you which will hopefully help you make a great start to switching over to vaping and keep you away from tobacco cigarette smoking.

Don’t Go Back

One of the hardest things when it comes to quitting smoking is the fact that you are fighting a battle on two fronts. First of all, your body craves the nicotine it is used to and secondly, you crave or miss the physical habits you have become so used to. Numerous studies have come to light though which have shown that smokers are just as addicted to the hand to mouth action, the social aspect, the habit of having something in their hands and the act of inhaling and exhaling as the nicotine and smoking aspects themselves. Smokers even miss the throat hit that they get from smoking cigarettes. With this in mind it is easy to see why giving up smoking cold turkey can be incredibly difficult. This is where vaping comes in.

Vaping enables you to find alternative ways to enjoy the hobby you previously did, without the toxic and potential cancer-causing chemicals (according to WHO - The World Health Organisation). You may still enjoy the hand to mouth, inhale and exhale, having something in your hand and the social and the calming aspects of smoking, just by using an e cigarette instead. Having this in place is what is making giving up smoking and staying smoke free so much easier for smokers who would otherwise be tempted to slip back to their harmful habits.

With vaping you may still use nicotine based products as e liquids come in various different strengths and as well as this, e juices that are high in PG contribute to the throat hit you are used to.

Successfully switching from smoking to vaping is significantly easier (say many vapers) than just giving up smoking. That said, if you don’t want to go back to smoking you need to ensure that you also have support and realise that you do need to stick with vaping and give up smoking altogether in order to take advantage of the health benefits of not smoking.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed by Vaping Lingo and Choice

When it comes to smoking you typically have three choices, “normal” strength tobacco cigarettes, “lights” and 

menthol tobacco cigarettes. When it comes to vaping you have a world of choices open to you, from various e liquid flavours, to base types, to nicotine strengths to device types. Our advice is to start simple in order to avoid overwhelm and to give yourself a chance to work out what works for you.

A basic starter kit has everything you need in order to get started. From there you need to choose your e liquids. 12mg is the usual amount of nicotine you would expect to find in a tobacco cigarette so start around here, or a little lower. Instead of buying thirty thousand different e liquids, choose a few you suspect you might like, such as tobacco e liquid, menthol e liquid, a dessert e liquid if you have a sweet tooth and so on. We would rather you choose a few of our e juices and stay smoke free than place a large order once, get overwhelmed and go back to the unhealthy tobacco cigarette habit you were so keen to walk away from!

There are some excellent guides around what bases are best for you (for example high VG e liquid, high PG e liquid or a more balanced mix of 50/50), on nicotine strengths and device types.

Accountability

If you’re going to quit smoking and successfully switch over to vaping, make yourself accountable to someone, or several someones. Make sure you tell people you are going to quit, ask people who you know will support you to keep tabs on you, post about your intention of switching to vaping on social media and/or consider an app that will help you track your number of smoke free days and offer additional hints and tips for success.

Be Realistic About Vaping

You will not pick up your first e cigarette, take a draw and find it exactly the same as smoking a tobacco cigarette. This is because vaping and smoking are very different. For one, vaping is about heated up eliquid to make vapour and tobacco smoking is about burning tobacco and included chemicals to produce smoke. Of course there will be some differences, but you’ll very quickly get to grips with them. It will soon be as if you’d always been a vaper.

The hand to mouth actions are the same, the nicotine is still there if you want it and you may still enjoy the pleasantly gravelly throat hit that you are used to. The differences include the flavours, (although there are tobacco e liquids available) and how you activate your ecig and inhale/exhale. It doesn’t take long to get used to it and many individuals find that once they’ve found their favourite device, e liquids and so on, that vaping is far more pleasurable than smoking, as well as often being cheaper, healthier and more socially acceptable (if that’s important to you).

Despite vaping being different in some ways, it is worth persevering with!

Kit for Successfully Switching to Vaping

As above, you don’t need to go crackers with buying kit when you’re just getting started. You’ve plenty of time to try new devices, new products and so on. Your starting list should include:

-A Basic Starter Kit or Device

A starter kit has everything you need to get going and some also include a handful of e liquids. There are basic starter kits and more advanced ones. If you want to jump straight to a standalone device, research your options before buying something. There are plenty or options from pod systems to vape pens and more.

-E Liquids

While it is tempting to go and buy one of every flavour, choose a few to get you started. You can always get more.

-Spare Batteries

E cigarettes run on lithium batteries, similar to mobile phones. Make sure that you have a spare battery or if you have a recharge only vape ecig that you have another ready and charged to go so that you don’t find yourself out of charge and tempted to reach for cigarettes while waiting.

-Replacement Coils

Most tanks feature replaceable coils. Make sure that if you have gone for this kind of device that you have replacement coils in so that you aren’t left with an e cig that won’t work which leaves you at risk of buying tobacco again while you wait for coils to arrive.

-A Travel Charger

If you are away from home/the office and in your car a lot it may be worthwhile considering a travel charger so that you may charge your batteries/your device while away so that once again, you are not left without anything vape ready.

Cravings

One of the reasons that vaping makes such a good smoking alternative is that it deals with the source of many cravings, i.e nicotine withdrawal and the physical aspects that would would have missed if going cold turkey. That said, some people do still experience cravings. Ensuring that you have your e cigarette with you and ready to go will go a long way towards ensuring that you don’t give in to them.

Others ways to deal with cravings:

• Do something different / distract yourself,
• Have a drink (a soft drink or hot drink),
• Be active,
• Talk to those who are keeping you accountable,
• Remember why you wanted to give up smoking in the first place,
• Stay away from places or situations that may be a trigger.
• Try a new e liquid, something different that might hit the spot for you.

Above all, remember that these cravings are temporary and will pass. Staying away from tobacco cigarettes, those benefits are permanent.

In Summary

Clearly there are many advantages of moving from smoking to vaping. As long as you research vaping, utilise the support tools you have available and stick with it, we’re pretty sure that you will be very glad that you did!