We all want to make ourselves healthier, stronger. But sometimes, finding the inspiration to do so is hard.

When you’re an older adult, finding a way to get and stay healthy can be really difficult.

For one woman though, she was determined to make her later years the healthiest ones ever. And she said it all began with something everyone can do – by just making small changes.

Joan MacDonald, 76, started this journey when she was 70 years old. She had been taking medicines for a variety of health issues: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and more.

Overweight and tired, she knew that if she wanted to stop her medications from being increased and for her to feel better, she had to make changes to how she was living her life.

Joan MacDonald, 76, made major life changes to help get herself back in shape, as well as keep her off medications, as well. Photo from Instagram

So she asked her daughter, Michelle, for help. Michelle was a gym owner, had been a competitive powerlifter, and also worked as a yoga instructor. She had wanted to help her mother get healthier for a long time. Michelle eagerly agreed to work with her. 

Joan went to Mexico, where her daughter lived, and spent a few weeks learning how to exercise and eat healthier. Then she came back to her home in Canada, and began adding those lessons into her daily life.

For Joan, it all began with little swaps. Instead of having three meals daily, she switched to 5 smaller meals. She included walking, short distances at first, to improve her cardiovascular health. Joan used yoga and lifting weight to help round out her new lifestyle.

And it worked! More than six months later, she had lost more than 45 pounds. In addition to that, she had increased her exercise routine to 5 days a week at the gym, as well as adding in weight-lifting, and up to 30 minutes of cardio workout.

Joan recently told reporters for Men’s Health magazine

(Women) are strong [and] capable of change, but we’re often viewed as fragile. I hope that more women my age embrace being pushed and appreciate that someone is interested in seeing you try harder. Even though you can’t turn back the clock, you can wind it up again.”

She kept her diet to grains, veggies and meats. She also used an app to help her track if she was getting enough nutrients and food groups daily.

Joan also switched from eating three meals a day to eating five small meals daily. Her diet is mostly grains, veggies, and meats. She downloaded an app called Macros to track her food intake and bought a food scale. And all of this, she did in conjunction with her doctor, who eventually removed her off of all her medicines she had been taking.

She has turned all of her positive changes for herself into a way to help other women her age, and even younger, to find their own path to a healthier life. She runs her own fitness app, as well as a website that helps with workouts and meal plans. And her Instagram account has more than 1.7 million followers.

Her advice to other women who want to make a change but don’t know how to is “to believe that it is possible!”

Sources: My Positive Outlooks | The Sun