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Both hubby and I smoke and seriously want to quit. We’ve also tried just about everything from cold turkey, gum, patches etc only to fail. Two days ago we bought the Blu brand of electronic cigarettes to assist us in quitting and let me tell you, I think this will be the key.

The e-cigs give the same amount of nicotine as a cigarette but have no other chemicals in them. They taste, smoke and feel as close to a real cigarette as possible even producing “smoke” that can be blown into a rings etc. The “smoke” however is nothing more than water vapor, has no smell, will not leave any residue on walls or most importantly in our lungs.

In two days we’ve both cut down on real cigarettes close to 75% and plan on not purchasing any more real cigs once we run out of the packs we currently have. I have very little doubt we will even want or need real tobacco with the e-cigs.

Of course the biggest drawback to e-cigs is that they contain nicotine (however, Blu does offer a no nicotine e-cig)so we will continue to be addicted while using the e-cigs. Our plan to deal with that is to slowly reduce the strength of the e-cigs until we are smoking the no-nicotine ones and either stay with them or simply quit completely.

You may want to suggest this idea to your sister-in-law (no, I receive no monies from the company lol) as a possible way to quit. The e-cigs provide everything needed to satisfy cigarette cravings both physically and mentally and so far it seems this combination is what it will take to help us quit. It may be the ticket for her.

I used One Step to quit.

http://www.quitsmoking.com/onestep.htm

$20 and you get 4 filters that remove varying amounts of tar/nicotine. You clean your filters with q tips. When you are cleaning the filters and realize that gunk is going into your lungs its a real eye opener.

That was over 7 years ago. I think it worked because over time the amount in the body reduced enough so that I didn’t have that ‘panic’, need for a cigarette.

I quit by putting them on the other side of the room where I had to get up to have a smoke. Then by looking at my watch and waiting five minutes, then ten, then fifteen. Then smoking only half the cigarette. About six months later when I got down to two smokes a day and wait thirty minutes before lighting up and only taking three drags I quit cold turkey. Been about five years or so now.

The other option I considered was to send the wife on vacation for a year while I went crazy for a damn smoke. Couldn’t see getting a divorce over a simple bad habit.

I know there`s a lotta talk going around today
About cigarette smoking whittling your life away
I`ve seen it and I`ve heard it so many times
That finally it just started to prey on my mind
I guess it scared me a little bit
That`s why I decided I was gonna quit
So while I was sitting here forming my battle plan
I took another puff and turned on the fan
I just sat there in my easy chair
And thought of all the money I`d wasted on cigarettes all these years
I thought how I`d spend the rest of my days
After I kick this habit my body craves
Said to myself this ain`t gonna be so tough
With that little bit of assurance
I took another puff

When my husband was seen in Triage at a Veterans Hospital, the majority of the patients were there with COPD exacerbations.
I would often see the triage nurses taking smoke breaks. I never could figure that out.
But the topper was to see a patient smoking through the hole in his throat.
I am a former 2 pack a day smoker but learned that God provides a way for us to resist any temptation. It has been 15 years since I have smoked.
The “patch” I used was prayer for the Holy Spirit to help me, and He did.

kjo said: "My sister-in-law is a cancer specialist and smokes a pack a day. She has tried everything and can’t quit."

It was watching a sad video of a woman dying of cancer which finally motivated me to quit.

Six months prior to making the video, the woman had been a school teacher vacationing in Hawaii. She had a wonderful life and saw nothing but rosy prospects ahead.

Six months later she was skin-and-bones. She made the video to tell her story to others in the hopes that it might save them. She died two weeks after the video was made.

I couldn't stand the idea that I might find myself in her situation and would have only myself to blame. Some people have the sad misfortune to get cancer and die young through no fault of their own. Smokers have only themselves to blame.

I cut down as much as I could over several weeks in order to reduce the physical withdrawal symptoms. Then I just quit. I have described my decision-making as "throwing a switch". I simply threw a mental switch and became somebody who would never smoke again.

The real test came about six weeks later. I think I was taking college classes then, falling behind and needing to work hard to catch up. I felt quite a relief when I made it through that challenging time and didn't light up.

Like others have described, I had dreams of smoking again. In the dream I pick up a pack of cigarettes and start smoking again, only later remembering that I had quit. It's a very disappointing feeling in that dream that I have let myself down by accidently taking up the habit again.

It took ten years before the sensation of smelling second-hand smoke was not pleasant. It has been over thirty years since I smoked. I also had to quit drinking in order to quit smoking. Otherwise, I would have grabbed a cigarette after just a couple of drinks. I'm so much better off without either of those bad habits.