Vaping But Still Having Cigarette Cravings? Here’s What To Do

When you browse through the online discussion groups about vaping, you’re not going to see many posts from people who tried to switch from smoking to vaping and were unsuccessful. You’re only going to see the success stories because the people who don’t switch successfully never bother participating in the discussion groups. From reading about vaping, then, you could get the impression that switching to vaping is easier than it actually is – that from the first time you pick up a vaping device, you’ll never think about cigarettes again.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way. As you’ve already learned, vaping doesn’t feel or taste exactly the same as smoking. It feels similar, but the differences are significant enough that vaping isn’t an exact replacement for smoking; it’s something that you need to get used to. There are some situations, though, in which your vaping experience might be less satisfying than it should be because your equipment or your e-liquid isn’t quite right for your needs.

So, do you feel like your vaping experience is less than it should be? Do you find yourself still craving cigarettes – maybe even sneaking a cigarette here and there – even though you’ve been vaping for a while? This article is here to help. Use these tips to complete your transition to vaping and give cigarettes up for good.

Make Sure You’re Using the Right Vaping Equipment

The first thing you need to know about making the switch to vaping is that a convenience store usually isn’t the best place to buy your first e-cigarette. Brick-and-mortar vape shops usually aren’t the best places for new vapers to get their first devices either.

Here’s why you may not have the best possible experience if you buy your first vaping device from a convenience store or a brick-and-mortar vape shop.

• Convenience stores sell e-cigarettes with pre-filled pods or cartridges. Those devices are fine for first-time vapers, but they have one major shortcoming in that pre-filled e-cigarette cartridges are only available in two flavors – menthol and tobacco – due to legal restrictions. Flavor is very important in vaping, as we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly.
• Brick-and-mortar vape shops often specialize in hardware for expert vapers. If you buy a full-sized vape mod, you’ll have a device designed for direct-to-lung inhaling, which is what long-term vapers generally prefer. That’s not going to give you the best experience as a new vaper, though, because you’re going to want to use the mouth-to-lung inhaling style that you would use as a cigarette smoker.

When you’re shopping for your first vaping device, your best bet is to buy from a good online vape shop like Vape Juice. The reason why you’ll have the best experience buying from an online vape shop is because those are the shops that tend to have the best selections of small refillable vaping devices. With a small refillable device, you’ll have hardware that’s optimized for the mouth-to-lung inhaling style that you prefer. You’ll also have the ability to use any e-liquid flavor on the market rather than just menthol and tobacco.

Make Sure You’re Using the Right Flavor

The second thing that you need to do as a new vaper is make sure you’re using an e-liquid flavor you like. The one common denominator among smokers is that almost all of them think they like the flavor of tobacco. You think that you want an e-liquid that tastes like a cigarette because you’ve conditioned yourself to tolerate the flavor of tobacco smoke. You don’t really like that flavor, though – you’ve just forced yourself not to hate it because you like the rush of the nicotine. Your taste buds have helped out with that by losing their sensitivity.

As soon as you quit smoking, though, you’ll start to regain your sense of taste. That’s a good thing, because the fact is that tobacco and menthol e-liquids don’t actually taste like cigarettes at all. The vast majority of vapers prefer e-liquids that taste like sweet things such as fruits, candies and desserts. If you aren’t enjoying vaping fully and aren’t using a sweet e-liquid, you really should try some sweeter flavors.

Make Sure You’re Using the Right Nicotine Strength

Vape juice is available in a huge variety of nicotine strengths, and you need to make sure that you’re using the right strength if you don’t find vaping completely satisfying. We’ll assume that you’re using a small refillable vaping device such as a pod-based system, which is ideal for a new vaper. When you use that type of device, you need to use a higher-nicotine e-liquid, which generally means that you should be using nicotine salt e-liquid.

Nicotine salt e-liquid usually comes in two strengths. There’s a lower-potency version in the range of 20-25 mg/ml and a higher-potency version with a strength of around 40-50 mg/ml. As a new vaper, it’s almost always the right decision to try the higher strength first and switch to the lower strength if you feel like you’re getting too much nicotine. That’s because, if you’re using a very small vaping device, your e-liquid should have a strength somewhere in the range of about 50 mg/ml in order for your vaping setup to deliver about as much nicotine per puff as a tobacco cigarette.

Don’t Give Up – Cigarette Cravings Are Normal in the Beginning

The final thing you need to know about switching to vaping is that, even if you’re using the perfect device, flavor and nicotine strength for your needs, you’re still likely to experience cigarette cravings for the first few days after making the switch. That’s because nicotine is the only chemical in cigarettes that vaping replaces. As you probably know, cigarette smoke contains thousands of additional chemicals other than nicotine – and your body is used to receiving a steady supply of those chemicals every day.

Did you know, for instance, that cigarette smoke is an MAO inhibitor that helps to reinforce the body’s reward response to smoking? Nicotine alone doesn’t have that trait – it’s unique to cigarette smoke. That’s just one example of how cigarette smoking has a chemical intake profile that differs from vaping. Vaping only replaces the most addictive component of cigarette smoke. If you give it a few days – and you don’t smoke cigarettes at all after switching to vaping – you’ll find the cravings manageable as long as you’re gettin