Sitting on a gym mat, Joan MacDonald does a series of pelvic lifts... With a bar weighing more than 90 kilos on her thighs.
This sports coach, like many others, feeds her Instagram account with muscle-building exercise videos and healthy meal ideas.
Nothing exceptional therefore, except that the influencer is 75 years old.
Retired, Joan MacDonald goes to the gym five times a week, two of which are devoted to cardio training, understand endurance work.
“
I like this routine because it gives me goals
,” she comments in a video shot by
ABC News
and published on February 15.
In poor health five more years ago, her journey to preserve her health has already attracted 1.5 million subscribers on Instagram.
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5 meals a day
If the septuagenarian is an "
inspiration
" or even an "
example to follow
", according to the comments of her subscribers, it is because she undertook this change late, just before her 71st birthday, after a consultation with his doctor.
Joan MacDonald, at the time very tired and suffering from arthritis, learns that her blood pressure has deteriorated further.
It's a click.
"
I was tired of being sick and tired
," she told
ABC News
.
She then decides to go to Mexico, where her daughter Michelle runs a gym and is waiting for her with a tailor-made program.
On the menu, initiation to fitness and review of her eating habits: hypertension and excess cholesterol oblige, the influencer learns to eat healthier.
"
Before, if I was busy doing something, I could skip a meal or two, then I snacked
," she explains.
Now she eats five meals a day and makes sure, using an app, that she meets her essential macronutrient needs (fats, carbohydrates and proteins).
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Encouraging results
The beginnings are nevertheless difficult.
“
Several times I considered throwing in the towel.
But Michelle and her husband stopped me, and I'm happy because without that, I wouldn't be here today
,” she admits.
If she doesn't let go, it's also because she quickly observes the effects of physical activity on her health.
After a few months, the needle on the scale is already leaning slightly to the left and Joan sees her list of medications cut in half.
Five years later, the influencer has lost more than 30 kilos and has definitively got rid of her hypertension, her high cholesterol level or gastric reflux.
"
It's not magic,
" she says
.
It's work, but it's work that can be enjoyed.
»
More and more urgent work.
Tuesday, February 15, ANSES (the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety) sounded the alarm against the sedentary lifestyle of the French.
38% of them do not move enough.
And 95% of adults between the ages of 18 and 64 don't exercise enough to stay healthy.