Where there's smoke...

I’ve been knocking around with my e-cig for the better part of three weeks now and it’s probably time for an update on where it stands in my pantheon of gadgets. In the interest of putting the bottom line up front, I think it’s important to note that it’s still in use. At the three week mark, I’ll say that some of the newness has warn off and that it seems to be in the process of becoming more an appliance than an accessory. The learning curve is a nice gentle slope because the simplicity of the Vapor King model makes it mostly idiotproof. So far, it seems that it is exactly what is advertised… a substitute nicotine delivery system imitating the look and feel of actual cigarettes. What has really been a surprise is how much I would like the multitude of flavor options.

With that said, it’s not a 1:1 correspondence… While it imitates, it does not emulate. Even at the highest available nicotine level available the e-cig doesn’t pack the same punch as the real thing… and I very much still find myself looking for that punch at specific times of day; mainly following lunch and in the afternoon when I get home from work. Many of the e-cig bloggers talk about cutting out analogs completely on their first day. I’ll admit that analog consumption basically fell off a cliff with a 2/3 daily reduction, but after that it has held steady at between six and nine per day. Consumption is lowest on weekdays and climb slightly on weekends, which I didn’t expect. I initially assumed the desire for an analog would be driven by a stress response to work, but that hasn’t proved out in my own experiences to date.

I didn’t order an e-cig with quitting smoking in mind. I bought it because it seemed to be a better financial means of getting the fix that I needed and wanted… and if it had any health benefits from reducing exposure to the chemicals in cigarettes, I’d write that up as a bonus. Of course the thought has obviously crossed my mind that maybe it would be possible to kick the analogs completely, but I’m not there yet in my own head space. Maybe it’s a matter of finding just the right mix of flavor, nicotine, battery, and some x-factor – everything, ultimately, is a matter of having the proper motivation. For the moment, I’m going to continue to tinker with the mix and trying to find my own sweet spot. Even with buying a metric crapload of supplies to get started, I’m already closing in on the “break even” cost for this little experiment. Now that’s definitely a motivating factor.