“There are countless excuses people use for not losing weight or exercising more – I’m too busy, I don’t have fancy workout equipment, it’s too hard for me to get out, etc. Well, this eighty-six-year-old woman isn’t let excuses stop her from getting the activity she needs to stay healthy and lose weight.
Jessica Slaughter lives in St. Louis, Missouri in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. Since she was in elementary school, she’s struggled desperately with her weight. In an interview with a local news station, she said, “”Even as a kid in Mississippi, I was always the fattest kid in the class. I got teased a lot…I didn’t know how to stop eating. Fried chicken. Bacon and eggs. Desserts, like cakes and pies.””
It took Jessica until her 70s to finally find a solution that worked for her. She was a borderline diabetic and knew that she had to find something to get her health to where it needed to be. Taking the advice of a vegan, Jessica stopped eating meat and then added daily walks in her small apartment.
Jessica’s granddaughter suggested getting a Fitbit to help record and keep track of how many steps she was taking during her walks. At first, this elderly lady had no idea what a Fitbit was, but after some help with it, she found that it helped tremendously.
Jessica continued to eat vegan and used her Fitbit to keep track of her steps from her living room to her kitchen. The determined grandmother walks 3,000 steps in her small apartment every morning before she stops. The result: she ended up losing 120 pounds!
Now exercising and eating healthier, Jessica is the healthiest she’s ever been and is no longer pre-diabetic. At a recent checkup, her doctor told her that she was healthier than he was, and she knows that’s because of the changes she made.
In her interview, the feisty woman encouraged fellow seniors to follow her example: “”I just want seniors to know just because we’ve gotten a certain age, we don’t have to stop living…I want to tell them that there’s a better way of life if they choose.””
You don’t have to do crazy diets and go fast in order to get into shape; you only have to go. American poet Emily Dickerson said, “One step at a time is all it takes to get you there.””
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