Quitting smoking is hard, no doubt about it. In addition to the chemical addiction to nicotine, there is also the constant habitual pattern that is reinforced by soothing rituals and social connection.
One way to stop smoking and avoid the negative long-term health effects of smoking while still satisfying both the chemical and behavioural addiction is to switch from smoking to vaping.
Vaping is up to 95% less harmful than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes, making it a drastic risk reducer on your way to being completely smoke free. While no form of smoking is safe and vaping still has its own risks to consider, switching from smoking to vaping can be a great first step.
Furthermore, the use of vaping devices as cessation tools has been shown to significantly improve your chances of reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke in a day, moving away from smoking tobacco products every day, and quitting cigarettes altogether.
That’s all great news, but you might still be asking yourself; “How do I switch from smoking to vaping?” We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to walk you through each step in building your nicotine and smoke-free plan.
Find Your Motivation
Motivation is key to any success in life, and quitting smoking is no exception. In order to switch to vaping from smoking and eventually give up nicotine altogether, you’re going to need something to motivate you through it.
The most obvious reason, of course, is your health. Cigarettes contain over 250 chemicals that are known to be harmful including carbon monoxide, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. These chemicals contribute to a host of diseases throughout the body but are most damaging to lung and heart health.
You might want to simply avoid these health issues because of what they are, but further motivation still might come from all the things you have to want to be healthy for. There’s nothing wrong with doing it for someone else if that someone means enough to you.
Whatever your reason, be it family, comfort, cost, or even spite, let it drive you through the difficult moments that test your will. Have you got your reason? Good, now let’s make the plan.
Start Small
The transition from smoking to vaping doesn’t have to be drastic by any means. Just like with anything else, consistency is the most important part. It doesn’t mean much, going cold turkey and switching from smoking cigarettes to vaping in a day, if by the end of the week you’re back at the gas station buying another pack.
Start small. Pick one cigarette a day to replace with vaping, and the best place to start is with that first cigarette in the morning. If you can replace your ritualistic first cigarette of the day with a few puffs on your vape instead, you will set the tone for the rest of the day that says, “Yes, I can do this!”
From there, every few days, pick another cigarette to switch until you are smoking only one cigarette a day. Then, pick a day to try and go without entirely while only using the vape. Start with one day a week or every other day and then slowly build up the number of days in between until you are able to make it a whole week or month with just vaping.
There may be a point during these steps when smoking a cigarette doesn’t even entice you anymore and you no longer need to take any of the remaining small steps listed above in order to successfully walk away from tobacco cigarettes, and that’s great!
Once you get to that point, there’s nothing wrong with skipping the last little bit, just being done with cigarettes and only using your vape. That is the goal afterall, right?
Find the Right Vape for You
When you are first starting out on your journey to switch from smoking to vaping, it’s maybe not the best idea to go out and buy a super complicated and expensive box mod with massive e-liquid refills in every flavour you think you might like.
Instead, start with a simple pod vape to try it out. Pod vape kits have everything you need built in and precharged. You just open it up, insert the pod and start vaping, and when it’s done, just toss the pod, responsibly and in line with your local waste and recycling programs, of course.
Once you’ve tried out some different brands, intensities, and flavours of pod vapes, you’ll want to do a little research into common types of vapes and figure out which vape is right for you.
Read some articles, ask your friends who vape what they use, or strike up a conversation with the person working at your local vape store to start getting an idea of what kind of system would work best for you.
A great option if you have just started vaping, especially if you are or were a heavy smoker, are vape pods. Pods are usually closed systems, meaning you don’t have to refill them yourself, that are ultra convenient and easy to use. After disposables, pods are really the simplest way to vape.
In addition to their ease of use, pods are also cheaper than disposables and generate much less waste. With STLTH pods, you can even recycle them at participating locations across Canada to reduce your footprint even further.
The pods come in a variety of flavours and nicotine strengths ranging from 0 to 20 mg/ml. For formerly heavy smokers, however, STLTH has developed its STLTH Bold line, which more accurately mimics the throat hit of tobacco cigarettes without using a higher strength e-liquid.
Make the Commitment
Once you’ve found a good vape system and made progress replacing cigarettes with vaping to the point that you are ready to stop smoking altogether, all that’s left to do is make the commitment to be done for good.
Mark the day and make sure to celebrate your achievement! Make it a special occasion and celebrate its anniversary every year as you continue to work towards breaking away from nicotine and eventually, even giving up vaping to live a totally smoke-free life.
You can do this. One cigarette at a time, you can switch from smoking to vaping.