I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my journey through my years of smoking and becoming an ex-smoker with the help of e-cigarettes. 25+ years ago I started smoking while I was in high school. My friends didn’t pressure me or ridicule me into it. It was as simple as they were smoking, my mom smoked, and I thought it was cool. It wasn’t much later that I realized how bad of a decision that had been but it was too late; I was hooked. Over the years I tried several ways to quit smoking, all without success until late 2012. My first attempts were with ƒ??the patch.ƒ? I trusted the recommended level of dosage and ended up with excruciating cramps, no matter where I placed the patch. It was suggested that the patch I bought was too strong so I tried a lower dose and got the same result. Smoking wasn’t nearly as painful as quitting so I tossed the box of patches and went back to cigarettes. Later on brought attempts with: ƒ??gumƒ??, hypnosis, cold turkey and acupuncture/pressure. All ended up the same way. I quit for a few days but was back smoking in the end. I initially tried my first e-cigarette back in 2007/08 sometime but was less than satisfied with the product. In late 2012 I took another look and was amazed at how much the industry had grown and matured since the first time I had tried it and decided to give it another try. The intent was less about quitting smoking than it was an attempt at reducing my overall cost. My new e-cigarette arrived in the middle of October and had great success in lowering the amount of cigarettes that I was smoking. By the end of the first week I was down from a pack a day to 4. At that point I decided that buying another pack was simply not worth it and decided to quit. Even then I was amazed at how easy it was. I hadn’t even been trying to quit but I was finally rid of cigarettes anyway. No crazy mood swings, no cravings for food or a need to keep my hands busy since I had the e-cigarette, no cravings for a cigarette until I actually tried to quit entirely. It was awesome, effortless, and painless and probably the best decision I’ve made. As I write this today, my last cigarette was 198 days ago and I havenƒ??t had more than mild cravings since I got past the first week. My breathing is vastly better than it had been. Iƒ??m even back to playing a little soccer which I never would have dreamed even 6 months ago. Health-wise, I feel much better and I havenƒ??t had so much as a cold since I quit smoking. Mentally Iƒ??m more focused than ever, especially since Iƒ??m not wondering when Iƒ??ll be able to sneak away or take my next smoke break and I havenƒ??t been this social in years since Wisconsin nearly banned smoking indoors and I stopped going out socially almost entirely. All in all, my life has improved in every measurable way to me and I have e-cigarettes to thank as part of that improvement.