79 year-old weightlifter uses experiences to uplift others
79 year-old weightlifter uses experiences to uplift others
79 year-old weightlifter uses briefly experiences to uplift others Making Shephard’s story evenmore amazing is that she didn’t begin bodybuilding until she was 71 having not even begun physical fitness until she was 56.
“What inspired me to get into physical fitness was the fact that my (older) sister and I didn’t like the way we looked in bathing suits,” Shepard said. “So we began a program of aerobics. But (my sister) died of a brain aneurysm.” However, before passing, Shephard’s sister suggested they both go into bodybuilding and shoot for the Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
After her sister’s sudden and untimely death, Shephard said she, herself, suffered for years with depression until, at age 71, she decided to follow her sister’s dream of bodybuilding. So she contacted former Mr. Universe and Pan American Games gold medalist, Yohnnie Shambourger and began working out with him. Months later she won first place in her very first bodybuilding competition.
Working out under the nickname “Granny Six-Pack,” Shephard said her experience has been “unbelievable. I didn’t know that from being a bodybuilder, I could inspire so many people, so many others, to lead a healthy, happy lifestyle. I’m so thrilled for that—for having inspired so many others to just get off the couch and move around.”
Shephard was in Chicago over the weekend at the Chicago Theological Seminary to help kickoff UnitedHealthcare’s, A Better You series of health and wellness educational events to help African American seniors and other beneficiaries learn more about Medicare and their health care coverage options.
A Better You events, which are supported by the American Association of Retired Persons Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans, insured by UnitedHealthcare, aim to provide information about the basics of Medicare – including the different parts of the program, eligibility requirements and enrollment windows - to help African- American seniors make confident health care coverage decisions.
Shephard credits more than just weightlifting and exercise for her phenomenal physical achievements. She follows a healthy diet that includes lots of egg whites—scrambled as a food and swallowed raw as a beverage—baked and roasted chicken and turkey, tuna fish, baked white potatoes and sweet potatoes and lots and lots of water. She also avoids sweets and acidic foods at all costs. But there’s also a healthy spiritual diet included in her daily regimen. “I believe in prayer,” Shepard said. “I pray about a lot of things.”
Shephard says the hardest part of her journey has been the discipline required for her to stick to her routine and “practice what I preach to others. If I tell you not to eat such-and-such a thing, then I better not eat it,” she said.
