One of the biggest fitness influencers on Instagram is none other than a 75-year-old woman who started her weight loss journey just five years earlier.
Back in 2016, Joan MacDonald, from Ontario, Canada, was 70 years old, weighed 198 lbs. and was on medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and acid reflux. She was dealing with painful arthritis and was rarely active.
"I was really huffing and puffing climbing up and down the stairs," MacDonald told MSNBC. "My daughter got really, really concerned. She thought that if she wanted me around, she'd better intervene."
Her daughter Michelle happens to be a fitness coach and bodybuilder, and got Joan to 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 that ultimatum to do something about my life, I figured it's now or never," Joan told Good Morning America. "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. It was existing, not living."
With a focus on weightlifting, water intake, eight hours of sleep and a revamped diet that prioritized macronutrients, Joan lost about 10 lbs. during the first month. She had hard days, but pushed through by thinking about how much better she already felt.
"It was tough in the beginning," Michelle told GMA. "People don't realize that [my mom] was there in the trenches, trying to figure it all out and getting frustrated."
And Joan saw plenty of non-scale success. In that first year, she was able to stop taking her high blood pressure medication, and now five years later she's off them all, down 68 lbs. and can bench press 80 lbs.
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"Nothing is magical. It's work, but it's work that you can enjoy," she said. "In the end, you are going to be stronger and healthier, and that's all that really matters."
Joan now works out five days a week and has become an Instagram sensation, with more than 1.6 million followers of all ages. It was Michelle's idea for her mom to start using social media and share her late-in-life success.
"I guess because I was so late getting to use an iPhone, I didn't realize these apps are how people communicate," Joan, who now also has a YouTube channel and fitness app, told MSNBC.
There, she encourages followers to "get up off the couch or the chair and move," and emphasizes that if she could make a change at 70, anyone can.
"I'm a heck of a lot happier than I ever was," Joan said. "Now I'm living. When I started, I felt that I was just existing, waiting for the day when I'd check out."
