New Balance Canadian Runner of the Week: Amy Grady

“Fitness and smoking are polar opposites so while I smoked, I didn’t feel like I could include fitness in my life,” says Amy Grady.

The 40-year-old mother of two is approaching her one year anniversary of the day she quit smoking: Aug. 31. By taking up running, she managed to kick the habit. It was a long time coming she says. “I tried to quit so many times and this time it finally stuck. It’s a very difficult habit to break.”

Grady had her last cigarette last summer. She’s one of many who has turned to running and fitness as means to help quit the habit by having something to replace it with. Several running converts have found that focusing on the sport is a great way to take their mind off of an addiction. She quit at the end of August and by the winter was regularly participating in boot camp sessions. By this spring, she was starting to run.

For Grady, running is about getting healthy and leading a better lifestyle. She’s also a mother of two boys and says that by taking up the sport, she’s aware that she’s being a better role model to them. Her running started little by little, building up distance. “I really enjoyed it,” she says. “Especially when I was able to run a bit farther each time.”

A typical run for her takes her through Oakfield Park, N.S. where she runs with her dog. There, she crosses three fields and one open space. It’s a route she runs fairly often that totals three kilometres. Afterwards, she’s motivated to eat healthy foods. “I don’t want to waste my run by eating junk food,” she says.

That’s the most important thing to her: the rewarding feeling of being able to run a little bit farther each time and have it feel less difficult the longer she continues it. Age is another factor to go alongside cutting out the cigarettes, she says.

“I also turned 40 at the end of 2014 so I really want to get in shape and stay in shape,” she says. “I’ve been told it’s all downhill after 40 so I don’t want to let that happen.”

Running is here to stay for Grady. As for smoking? That’s well in the past now.

“I feel healthier, I feel that my lungs are healing, and smoking is the farthest thing from my mind.”