What to expect when you quit smoking ~ The quit smoking timeline

Let’s not beat about the bush: the best thing you can do for your health is to quit smoking.

The minute you stub out your last cigarette, your body, that miraculous sack of cells, starts healing itself. Your body knows better than anything how to rid itself of the hideous side effects of smoking, long before you’re even aware that anything is happening.

So if you start to get a craving and know you have the breaking strain of a wet KitKat and will give into the temptation to light up ‘just one more time’, know this: within 20 minutes of smoking your last cigarette, your body starts to heal itself, don’t set it back.

Benefits to your body when you quit smoking

• Within 20 minutes of quitting smoking, your pulse rate has returned to normal (for you).
• 8 hours after your last cigarette the nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in your blood have reduced by almost half, and your oxygen levels have returned to normal (for you).
• After just 24 hours post smoking your risk of having a heart attack has begun to decrease.
• After 2 days without puffing on the weed:

All the nicotine will have left your body.

You will notice a return of your sense of taste and smell.

Your body will have cleared out every last trace of carbon monoxide.

Your lungs will have set about ridding themselves of the tar, mucus and other smoking-related detritus that has taken up residence in them.

• Your cravings for a smoke will peak on day 3, but after that, you will notice your breathing is easier as your lungs start to relax.
• From here on in its plain sailing:

After 1 year your risk of a heart attack has halved.

By 10 years your risk of lung cancer has halved.

By 15 years your risk of a heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked.

Timeline: After You Quit Smoking

Image credit (myfinalsmoke.com)

Quitting smoking is not just great for your health, but by extinguishing fags from your life, you’ll light up in so many other areas:

• Saving money. Smoking is an expensive habit to maintain as the average smoker gets through approximately 13 cigarettes a day (364 cigarettes a month). And with the average 20 packet of smokes costing well over £10, when you quit smoking, you will be saving almost £200 per month (£2,400 per year).

• Tasting food. When you quit smoking your sense of taste comes roaring back. No longer are your taste buds numbed by a nicotine-flavoured coating, no longer do you need to liberally sprinkle salt on your food to experience it, you will get to taste every morsel you consume in all its glory.
  
  
• Glowing skin. When you quit smoking your skin reaps the benefits. Smoking prematurely ages your skin, in fact smokers look 1.4 years older, on average, than non-smokers. This is due to smoking narrowing the blood vessels, restricting the blood flow that is needed to keep skin and tissue young, healthy and supple looking. Smokers also tend to have a grey hue to their skin, caused by the carbon monoxide in cigarettes that displaces the oxygen in your body, reducing the blood flow, resulting in dry, sallow skin.
  
  
• Improved fitness levels. The longer it is after your last cigarette, the more your lungs will clear the tar and nastiness out, making breathing easier for you as you work out, and allowing the oxygen to flow easily around your body without hindrance from any carbon monoxide.
  
  
• Increased fertility. As a smoker, you are more likely to have fertility problems and take longer to conceive than couples who don’t smoke. This is because the chemicals in cigarettes are known to damage both sperm and eggs, so it doesn’t matter which one of you puffs on the weed, if you smoke, you could find conception challenging. Also not to mention the damage you’ll cause to an unborn baby if you continue to smoke whilst pregnant or smoke around your pregnant partner.
  
  
• Your children will benefit. If you have children and you smoke around them, odds are you will have seen first hand the effects of secondhand smoke on their health. When you quit smoking you will not only see an improvement in your health but in theirs too. The minute you stub out that last cigarette, you are reducing the risk of your children suffering from bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, meningitis and even ear infections. Seriously, your second-hand smoke is poisoning those around you.

So if you’re serious about quitting smoking, but you aren’t sure if you have the willpower to stop entirely, why not listen to what the NHS has to say.

Because the NHS, the stalwart health service that keeps our great nation on its feet, has declared that smokers who switch to e-cigarettes are twice as likely to quit smoking than those who rely on any other cessation aids. If the NHS recommends vaping as an alternative to smoking, who are we to argue with them?

Switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes

Swapping cigarettes for e-cigarettes couldn’t be easier with one of our vaping starter kits, but before you break out in a cold sweat, craving your next nicotine hit before the embers have faded on that final cigarette, rest assured, we’ve got you covered.

When you vape your first e-cigarette, you won’t miss out on anything that you love about smoking, except for all the nasty chemicals, and let’s be fair, no one misses those anyway.

You not only get to carry on with your beloved habit, albeit in a much healthier fashion, but you get to choose the nicotine levels you take in. Plus, if you’re serious about quitting smoking, you can gradually reduce the volume of nicotine in your e-liquids until you’re vaping purely for the pleasure of it, and not because you need your next fix.

And best of all, whilst you’re limited in the flavour of your cigarettes to menthol or tobacco (which of course we stock for e-cigarettes), with our range of e-liquids, the world is quite literally your oyster (and if oyster flavour was your bag, we are pretty sure there is a fishy e-liquid out there with your name all over it…)

So why not peruse our vast selection of e-liquids and see what tickles your fancy - Black Jack flavour, anyone?