I Have a Confession

I am ready to go public and admit to the world what only a choice few now know.  About a year and a half ago, which is roughly a year and a half after kicking the smoking habit with Chantix, I started smoking again.  Does that make Chantix unsuccessful? Absolutely not!  After all I quit for 1 1/2 years.  But it does make my resolve to stay quit unsuccessful.  I won't go into the reasons I started smoking again, all I can say is I am smoking again.  For a full year I only smoked 5-6 cigs a day.  This past year that number has ballooned into a full half pack a day, the number I was smoking before I quit in the first place. 

So why am I confessing this now?  The answer is because I am trying something different.  I decided that it is time to try electronic cigarettes.  Will this help me to quit smoking?  I don't know, but I have hopes that it will help me to cut back at the very least.  Will this be healthier than smoking?  I can't honestly say.  These devices have not been FDA approved, and the battle is on, and these companies aren't allowed to make any claim as to whether or not they are healthier.  All I can say is that, instead of nicotine and smoke and a thousand unknown chemicals, these electronic cigarettes seem to be a lesser of two evils.  They contain only a few ingredients and the nicotine is inhaled into your body through water vapor instead of smoke.  So, let the debate be on, and when they finally release the government health studies, I shall review them with an open mind.  But for now I am choosing to believe that these will be better for me than regular cigarettes.  This is only one person's opinion, so take it lightly, and make up your own mind about these things based on the research you do.

I spent hours today researching electronic cigarettes in an attempt to find the one that I think will work best for me.  My ultimate goal is to replace all my regular cigarette smoking with an electronic device, so I don't mind a higher start up cost.  It is important to me that the cost to continue smoking be reasonable, so that also influenced my decision.  I ultimately decided to go with:



I found that Green Smoke was the most highly rated electronic cigarette on the market.  As far as I can tell from reviews, this would give me the closest thing to what felt like smoking a real cigarette.  It has the most vapor of all brands, and it is a two piece design instead of a three piece design.  With Green Smoke, there is a fresh atomizer inside every cartridge, instead of an extra (third) piece.  Many complaints of other electronic cigarettes was that the atomizers went out frequently and were hard and small to clean.  I like that the Green Smoke looks and acts like a real cigarette.  Some people might prefer to use a device that looks vastly different (they don't want the stigma of being seen smoking, they don't want to compare it to actual smoking, or various other reasons) but I do not.  I want a device that reminds me of a real cigarette.  Even though the start up cost is high, the batteries are highly rated.  The batteries are the expensive part of the electronic cigarette, so ideally I paid more upfront but will save money later on replacements.  Finally, the cigarettes themselves are very reasonably priced.  One cartridge equals one pack of cigarettes, and the full price of a cartridge is $2.95.  Green Smoke always has a sale going on so if you are willing to buy multiple packs of cartridges at a time you will pay even less than $2.95 per "pack". 

Here is what I ordered:

Basic Starter Kit ($139)

• 2 batteries (the part that looks like the cig)
• 5 cartridges (the part that looks like the filter, each one is the equivalent of a pack of smokes)
• Charger
• Instruction manual

Carrying Case ($9.99)

• Holds both batteries, and two cartridges (two packs of cigs)

100 Rubber Tips ($5)

• These protect your cartridge when another person smokes off your electronic cig.  I figured that I'd have many people asking me to try my Green Smoke, so I got these

4 - 5 pack of Cartridges ($13.75 each -- $2.75 per "pack")

• 2 Red Tobacco "Full" Flavor
• 2 Red Tobacco "Light" Flavor
• 1 Menthol "Full" Flavor

Total Order:  $208.95.  After using my 10% + free shipping coupon code (I'll give that at the end of this post), the order came to: $188.05.  So, $188.05 paid for two electronic cigarettes (the battery), a carrying case, rubber tips and 25 packs of cigarettes.  For the cartridges, Green Smoke recommends starting one level up from what you're currently smoking.  So because I regularly smoke lights, I chose 3 5-packs of cartridges that are full flavored to start with, then I will switch down to the lights.

That's quite an investment but I intend to make a serious go of this.  Ideally I'd like to quit smoking real cigarettes.  Right now I have 4 1/2 packs of cigarettes.  I hope that my Green Smoke package comes while I still have a couple packs left because I really hope I don't have to buy anymore real cigarettes.

I'm super excited about this!  I will keep this blog updated with my progress on my switch to electronic cigarettes.

Here are some links for you if you're interested in Green Smoke:

Green Smoke Website
Green Smoke Website w/10% Off Orders of 10% or More Plus Free Shipping
Green Smoke Website w/5% Off Orders of Less Than $100

UK has seperate links for the coupon codes:

Green Smoke UK Website w/10% Off Orders of 10% or More Plus Free Shipping
Green Smoke UK Website w/5% Off Orders of Less Than $100
And here are the promo codes, if you just want to use them instead (just enter them into your shopping cart).  I think they work for both US and UK:

10% Off Orders of $100 or More, Plus Free Shipping: disc10-24656
5% Off Orders of Less Than $100: disc5-24656

That's all for today.  Please let me know if there are questions you have about any of this, and I'll try to address them in a future post.  Today is Saturday, March 26th, 2011.  Let's see how long it takes for my coveted Green Smoke package to arrive ...

It's Been a While

Wow, it's been a LONG time! Yeah, I could apologize, but we all know how it is when life gets in the way. I'll make the promise now that I will consider updating my blog occasionally.

So I was looking through my blogs when I noticed that Blogger had added a "stats" page at some point when I wasn't looking. Or perhaps I was never looking in the first place. Regardless, I noticed it for the first time ever. It was then that I noticed my tongue piercing story had apparently become quite popular.  It's been getting 300 - 400 page hits a month, and has generated many comments (most of which are spam, of course!).  I wish I knew what the magic was for getting that search engine traffic because I'd certainly apply it to many other areas.

Okay, so it's time to catch anyone up who still happens to pass by this blog.  I don't blame you for giving up on me when it's been over a year since my last post.  In fact, some of my favorite regulars (Diva in da Chantix House, Life Rushes By and Maggie's Mind) are Facebook friends of mine so I keep quite caught up on the happenings of their lives.  If you wanna join the club send me a message.

Life has been hectic, as life often is.  The baby (Tristan) will be 22 months in 2 short days.  Closing in on two years old!  I am sad that he's quickly growing up, but on the other hand, he was a horrible baby, and I'm glad to be past 14 months.  I hate that I never was never able to fully enjoy his infant stage.  Regardless he is mostly good natured now and that is good enough for me.  He is three feet tall already and crazy strong.  Here is a pic of him, all dressed up and ready to go to school with his sisters:

Lately everyone in the house, including myself have been crazy sick.  Fevers, coughs, colds, flu and pneumonia too!  Here is Alex after I dragged him to the ER where they diagnosed him with pneumonia:

Since it's been 19 months since my last post many things have happened.  Here is a list of a few of them that I might elaborate on later.  If you are interested in any particular one of these, let me know and I'll try to make it happen:

• Cruise to the Bahamas with the hubby, sans children
• I had LASIK to cure my extreme nearsighted prescription (yes, I'm 20/20 now!)
• I have an iPhone app out, and it's doing quite well (official iPhone developer!)
• Major kitchen remodel (double oven, 5 burner gas range cooktop, double counter and cabinet space)
• I met and got to hang out with Far East Movement (Like a G6), as well as Mike Posner and a few others.  I also got to be uber close to the Black Eyed Peas, where Will.I.Am made major eye contact with me and sang to me throughout the concert (I have pics to prove!)
• I never did come back and write about my scary postpartum experience. Basically I had a blood clot in my brain, a T.I.A. (sometimes referred to as a mini-stroke)
• I have a new tattoo

I know much more has happened.  These are just the ones off the top of my head.  Which ones do you want to know more about?

This is it for now, but I have a list of topics so perhaps it won't be so long after all until you hear from me again.  If I have any readers left!  I will dust off the links and go a-visiting to every one's blogs very soon.