Days 1 & 2 - The Beginning

It has now been 2 days cigarette-free, not tobacco-free and certainly not nicotine-free, but no cigarettes.

Quitting on a weekend was a wise decision. This way I have more control over my triggers such as stress, ritual, and peer pressure. During the work week these things all play against me. When in the office, I typically take a smoke break every 1-2 hours and have a co-worker that shares these breaks with me. Also, many times additional smoking time is inserted due to a stressful meeting or avoidance of an annoying task. Now, I start the work week with 2 smoke-free days behind me.


Honestly, so far it hasn't been that difficult. Sure there have been moments when I think, “Man, I really want a cigarette,” but I pop a snus containing 16 mg of nicotine, distract myself, and the urge passes. I haven't been very social this weekend and I don't know if that facilitated not smoking or if my lack of social behavior is a product of stopping. I'm willing to acknowledge that it is most likely a mixture of both.

One positive aspect of snus is it makes getting your nicotine while reading a book much easier. You don't have to go outside and deal with the distracting aspects of nature: cold, sun in your eyes, the wind blowing around you book that is held open with one hand, and more importantly you can stay laying on your couch.

Drinking with the snus is easy and doesn't affect the taste of beverages. Granted, it's better to keep the liquid to the side of you mouth that does not have a snus shoved in it, but that's easy enough. Eating small bites of food is even doable.

One thing that does concern me is that I am definitely consuming much more nicotine. The average cigarette contains no more than 1.5 mg of nicotine. The snus I've been using each contain 16 mg or 8 mg. Granted, I'm sure I don't absorb the entire level of nicotine in each snus, but even if I only absorb half of the nicotine in an 8 mg snus I am still nearly doubling my nicotine intake. That and these last 2 days it seems like little time goes by without a snus in my mouth. No doubt this is a reaction to dealing with the elimination of a habit. I am slightly concerned that I may be forming another more nicotine riddled habit in its place. Ultimately, I believe it is a risk worth taking to rid myself of cigarettes.

Overall, I'd say my first 2 days of entirely replacing cigarettes with snus has been positive and successful.

If anyone has specific questions regarding my experiment, please leave a comment and I will try to address it.