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This story will definitely make you smile and encourage you to get that workout in.

Jessica Slaughter, an 86-year-old, wants everyone to know that you don’t need a gym to exercise and lose weight. You can do what she does—simply walk around your home.

The St. Louis grandmother lost a whopping 120 pounds by clocking her steps in her living room.

Slaughter told KSDK News that she has struggled with her weight since she was a young girl.

“Even as a kid in Mississippi, I was always the fattest kid in the class. I got teased a lot,” she shared.

“I didn’t know how to stop eating. Fried chicken. Bacon and eggs. Desserts, like cakes and pies.”

And she continued to pack on the pounds over the years, as she entered her 70s, she found herself weighing 245 pounds and having to walk with a cane. Her doctor told her she might even have to rely on a wheelchair in the near future, PEOPLE reported.

That’s when Jessica decided it was time to make a serious change.

Her first step was walking 3,000 steps in her living room every morning for exercise. In terms of adjusting her diet, she initially went with the Atkins diet because she loves eating meat. But in 2007, upon advice from a friend, she decided to go vegan.

“The weight just dropped off,” she told PEOPLE.

“I was very surprised. I never, never dreamed I would be the size that I am now.”

Not only has she lost more than 100 pounds, but she’s no longer pre-diabetic.

“I went to my doctor for a checkup. He told me my health was better than his,” Slaughter told KSDK.

“I was a borderline diabetic. I’m free of all that, and I know it came from my way that I eat and exercise.”

Even better: She’s kept that weight off for almost a decade.

Slaughter hopes that by sharing her story, other seniors will realize that when it comes to weight loss, age ain’t nothing but a number.

“I live in a senior citizen apartment, and there’s so many who have given up,” she stressed to PEOPLE.

“You reach a certain age and they stop moving. They stop going. They start living in house shoes and robes.”

Adding, “I want seniors to see they don’t have to get out and go anywhere. They don’t have to go to the gym, they don’t have to go run in the park and take a chance at breaking a hip,” she says. “They can do it in the comfort of their homes.”

You go Jessica!

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Meet The 86-Year-Old Grandma Who Lost 120 Pounds Working Out In Her Living Room  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com