There is no convincing a smoker to quit. So what was the secret for Betania Victor, who used to burn through a pack a day just six years ago?“Find something that makes quitting feel like a fair trade.”Born in Brazil and now living in Canada, Victor, 44, is an engineer by training who today works in the maritime industry. For much of her adult life, she had been sedentary and exhausted, and she had been hooked on smoking since the age of 14.“As a smoker, we like to smoke,” Victor says. “People say, ‘You’re going to die fast.’ We don’t care. Quitting is a sacrifice. To give up something that made me feel so good, I had to exchange it for something bigger.”Going cold turkeyThat “something bigger” began in her thirties when she discovered callisthenics and dance. Yet she remained a closet smoker.When a shoulder injury sidelined her from callisthenics in 2020, a friend suggested trail running and planted an absurd seed: training for an ultra-marathon.
She quit smoking, then ran an ultra-marathon. How she finally kicked the habit
On World No Tobacco Day, we discover a marathon runner’s secret to quitting smoking and look at Hong Kong’s goal of a smoke-free generation.
TL;DRAI
Betania Victor, 44, quit a 30-year pack-a-day habit by trading cigarettes for trail running and ultra-marathon training. The key insight: habit change works only when the replacement feels like a fair trade—health warnings alone don't move the needle.
166 words~1 min read
