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I'm always wary of people claiming that "their" way is the "only" way to quit. I quit for 6 months a few years back by simply going cold turkey. To be fair, I was super sick (had bronchitis, mixed in with a healthy dose of a bleeding lung from coughing too much) so it wasn't that hard to quit. Unfortunately I had a a bad day at work a few months later and started smoking again.
However, as of Sunday morning (well, technically Saturday night), I decided to quit again. Bought myself a shitty little e-cig from 711 (apparently it came with a nicotine free cartridge, which I didn't realize until afterwards) and that was that. Went through the majority of the day without a problem until I was driving in the evening and started having a nicotine craving. I had one smoke left in my pack and lit it up... took two puffs, realized I had absolutely no desire to smoke it, and chucked it. Felt good doing that.
Now, I wont lie and say I haven't had any cravings. In fact, I had one of those moments yesterday morning. You know those moments how you don't need to go to the washroom until you realize that you no longer able to because it's busy? And then suddenly you can't wait to get in? I had one of those moments when it came to realizing I couldn't have a smoke. Started nicinig pretty badly, until I forced my mind to concentrate on something else. Since then, it's been pretty good. Passed my second test today, which was going back to work. I smoked the most at work, so I figured if I could make it through the day without having one, I was past probably the biggest (habit-related) hurdle.
As for the e-cig... Sunday I used it pretty regularly, Monday was maybe a couple dozen puffs all day, and today has been maybe... 6 puffs? As a friend said, it's the equivilant of quitting cocaine and instead snorting Pixie Stick powdered sugar. I only bought it in case I needed to satisfy the habit of constantly putting something up to my mouth. Apart from the first day, I think I've been pretty good without it. I'm sure I could have substituted it with something like a lolipop, but... meh.
As a reference, I used to smoke 5 packs a week on average (sometimes a lot less, sometimes a little more... just depended on what I did after work and how stressful work was).
Edit: I've also realized I need to refocus some of my habits now. I go on drives in the late evening just to wind down for the night and, of course, I'd always light up a couple smokes while doing so. As much as I love going for random drives, I think I may need to avoid doing those for the time being until my body gets used to not having smokes at times it was used to.
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