Joan McDonald / Instagram Joan McDonald
One of Instagram’s biggest fitness influencers is none other than a 75-year-old woman who started her weight loss journey just five years ago.
In 2016, Joan MacDonald from Ontario, Canada was 70 years old and weighed 198 pounds. He was taking medications for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and gastroesophageal reflux disease. She was dealing with painful arthritis and was rarely active.
“I was really up and down the stairs,” McDonald’s told MSNBC. “My daughter was really, really worried. If she wanted me around, she thought she should intervene.”
Her daughter Michelle happened to be a fitness coach and bodybuilder and had Joan enroll in her next Wonder Woman transformation program at her home in Tulum, Mexico, where she and her husband own a gym.
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“When Michelle gave me the ultimatum to do something about my life, I wondered if it was now or never,” Joan said. Good morning, America.. “I was sick and tired. It existed and wasn’t alive.”
Focusing on weightlifting, fluid intake, eight hours of sleep, and a diet that prioritizes micronutrients, Joan lost about 10 pounds. During the first month. She had a tough day, but she rushed to think about how much she was already feeling better.
“It was hard at first,” Michelle said. GMA.. “People don’t understand it [my mom] I was in a trench and frustrated trying to understand it all. “
And Joan saw a lot of non-scale successes. In her first year she was able to stop taking medications for high blood pressure, and now, five years later she fell 68 pounds and left them all. And you can bench press 80 pounds.
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“There’s nothing magical about it. It’s a job, but it’s a job you can enjoy,” she said. “In the end, you will be stronger and healthier, and that’s really important.”
Joan currently works five days a week, is a sensation on Instagram, and has more than 1.6 million followers of all ages. It was Michelle’s idea that her mom started using social media and shared the success of her later years.
“I think I didn’t realize that these apps are a way people communicate because I was slow to use the iPhone,” Joan, who now also has a YouTube channel and fitness app, told MSNBC.
So she encourages her followers to “get up and move from the couch or chair” and emphasizes that anyone can make changes at the age of 70.
“I’m happier than ever,” Joan said. “Now I’m alive. When I started, I just felt like I was there and I was waiting for the day to check out.”
