The Real Countdown Begins!

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that I have been working on quitting smoking for almost 2 months now. I devised a 2 phase quit smoking plan and have been following it. My quit date is set for July 4th...Independence Day! I now have less than 1 month until I walk away from the cancer sticks for good.

I will admit that there are some days that I have doubts that I can do it. But I think I have more days that I feel I can do it. I believe that my current level of addiction is very minimal. Right now my biggest struggle is with the habit. For example, we were putting together the baby's crib this weekend and I got a little frustrated toward the end. I wanted a cigarette. That is my usual response to frustration. But this time I did not go out for a puff. I took a couple of deep breaths and continued to work on the crib. During these last days and weeks before my quit day, I will be focusing on my triggers. I will need to come up with some alternatives to smoking when I have a trigger. If anyone has some good ideas, I would love to hear them.

I am currently smoking about 10 cigarettes a day. Although, technically I think I am smoking less than that. Yes, I light 10 cigarettes a day, but with SmokeSmart I feel like I am just sucking in air for the first half of the cigarette. So I feel that I am only smoking a half of a cigarette at a time and not a whole one. And there are times that I get about half way through a cigarette and I get a bad taste in my mouth. So I put it out.

Wish me luck during these next few weeks. I think I may need it.

SmokeSmart Works

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that I have been using SmokeSmart to reduce the amount of nicotine that I put into my body. I started using SmokeSmart during Phase 1, and am continuing to use it now that I am in Phase 2 of my quit smoking plan.

Although I could feel the difference when I added an additional puncture to my cigarettes using SmokeSmart, I never really had proof that that the device actually worked. I guess I thought it was a little psychological. I read the information about SmokeSmart and could feel the difference when smoking a cigarette, but I think deep down I was a little skeptical. The information that I read about SmokeSmart sounded logical, but how could puncturing a filter reduce the nicotine that gets inhaled?

After yesterday, I believe that it SmokeSmart actually works! We went out to register for baby stuff (we are expecting a boy in September), and then to my mom's for a barbeque. I grabbed my cigarettes and a lighter before I left, but somehow forgot to grab SmokeSmart. I realized this when we got to Baby's R Us and wanted to have a cigarette before we spent the next 2 or 3 hours walking around the store putting stuff on our baby registry. I had 2 choices. I could either not smoke at all, or try to just smoke half of the cigarette. I chose the latter. And to be honest, I think that half of a cigarette was more than I needed. I felt satisfied. I think the first drag was a little overwhelming. It was STRONG! So I have proved to myself that SmokeSmart is working for me.

I Think My Plan is Working!

For those of you who read My Quit Smoking Plan, you know that I am using a device called SmokeSmart as an aid to quit smoking. I did a brief review of this device in an earlier posting. If you want to read my SmokeSmart review, you can do so by clicking HERE. For those of you who do not want to read my review, I will give you a quick run down about what SmokeSmart is. SmokeSmart is a device (for lack of a better term) that punctures small holes in the filter of you cigarette. With each puncture, the amount of nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide is reduced. So, in esence, by using SmokeSmart, I am slowly weaning my body off of nicotine.

I spent the last couple of weeks smoking my cigarettes with 2 punctures in them. Two punctures is supposed to reduce the nicotine by 28%, the tar by 50%, and carbon monoxide by 58%. Today I decided to take the plunge increase the number of punctures to 3. This third puncture will reduce the nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide levels even further. The nicotine in my cigarettes should now be reduce by 53%, the tar by 63%, and the carbon monoxide by 71%. I am not sure how accurate those figures are, but I can tell you that there is a significant difference. The first couple of drags, I feel like I am not even smoking a cigarette. When I am finished with the cigarette, I barely feel like I smoked one. I feel like I could light up another one. I don't, of course, because that would defeat the purpose!

The final thing that I noticed by using 3 punctures, is that I feel that I need to smoke more often. I usually have a cigarette every couple of hours while I am at work, but now I feel that I need a cigarette about every hour and a half. As long as I don't cave into the cravings and stick to smoking every 2 hours, my plan will work. And when I eventually get to the 4th and final puncture, I will start working on the 'habit' portion of my plan. I feel confident that this plan will work and I will be victorious in my attempt to quit smoking.

SmokeSmart Review

In my previous post, "My Quit Smoking Plan", I mentioned that I was going to use Nic-Out filters and SmokeSmart during Phase 1 to slowly reduce the amount of nicotine entering my body. Since I have already written a review of the Nic-Out filters, I will not go into that here. If you missed that review, you can read it by clicking HERE. I do, however, want to tell you about SmokeSmart.

Honeslty, I don't really know how to describe SmokeSmart. I guess the best way to describe it is that SmokeSmart is a device that allows you to slowly reduce the amount of nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide that you inhale from your cigarettes. It does this by putting little perforations into the filter of a cigarette. It is really easy to use. All you have to do is insert the filter end of a cigarette into the hole in SmokeSmart and squeeze. That's it.

How does SmokeSmart actually work at removing the nictotine, tar, and carbon monoxide for a cigarette? I found the following information at quitsmoking.com:

SmokeSmart creates ultra fine perforations in the filter or tip end of any brand of cigarette. When you puff on a cigarette processed with SmokeSmart, the perforations allow cool air to enter the cigarette and combine with the hot gases from the burning tobacco. The blending of hot and cool air causes the "condensation" of harmful cigarette gases, trapping tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and TPM-Total Particulate Matter (hundreds of dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke) before they can enter your mouth or lungs. (Courtesy of quitsmoking.com)

So how much does SmokeSmart reduce the tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide of a cigarette? It all depends on how many perforations you put into the filter.

• 1 perforation reduces nicotine by 20%, tar by 30%, and carbon monoxide by 36%

• 2 perforations reduce nicotine by 28%, tar by 50%, and carbon monoxide by 58%

• 3 perforations reduce nicotine by 53%, tar by 63%, and carbon monoxide by 71%

• 4 perforations reduce nicotine by 62%, tar by 72%, and carbon monoxide by 80%
  

Unfortunately, I do not have any equipment to verify these claims, but I have been using SmokeSmart for a couple of weeks now and I have noticed that I feel like I need a cigarette more often. I feel as if my "nicotine fix" wears off quicker. I just have to make sure that I do not give into the craving right away. I also feel like I am not inhaling all of the normal "crap" that is in cigarettes. When I first start using it I noticed that it almost felt like I was not smoking at all. Have you ever smoked a "regular" cigarette and then switched to a "light" cigarette. It kind of felt like that, which I don't think that that is a bad thing. It makes me feel like I am doing something good. Sure, I am still smoking, but I am making steps on becoming a non-smoker. I started out with 1 perforation, and am now using 2 perforations. I will probably continue with 2 perforations for another week or so and then start smoking with 3 perforations.

The cost of SmokeSmart is only $5.95 over at QuitSmoking.com, so it might be a worthy addition to your quit smoking arsenal.

Questions or comments are gladly accepted.