An 80-year-old who walks everywhere shares 3 tips for staying active and healthy

Sheila Stothard is 80 years old, walks everywhere, and can lift two 35lb dumbbells.

At 80, Sheila Stothard can’t imagine being unable to run around with her great-grandchildren.

Stothard, who lives in Ontario, Canada, has always been active and hasn’t slowed down since she turned 80. Her grandson, the fitness influencer Phil Mackenzie, told B-17 she “moves the most out of everyone I’ve ever met.”

Trying to stay active into older age is becoming a big business opportunity — longevity and associated therapies were a $25.1 billion market in 2020, projected to reach $44.2 billion by 2030, according to Allied Market Research.

Research shows that it’s a healthy lifestyle like Stothard’s that gives you the best chance of being so active at 80. B-17 recently reported on a study that found that people who led an unhealthy lifestyle were 78% more likely to die early than people with healthier habits.

Stothard shared the parts of her healthy lifestyle that she thinks have helped her stay sprightly at 80.

Phil Mackenzie’s grandparents are 80 and 84, and are still super active.

Build walking into your life

Stothard never drives or takes public transport and instead walks everywhere.

“I don’t do the gym or anything to keep fit. I just feel that that’s a lot to do at this age,” she said. “I just walk everywhere, and we’re in Toronto, where there’s a lot of hills. I feel like that is good enough for me.”

A 2017 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people who walked for five to 10 hours a week at an average or fast pace had reduced risks of dying from cardiovascular disease and any other cause.

And you don’t have to walk for that long to get benefits from walking — B-17 reported on a 2023 study by researchers at the University of Cambridge, which found that 11 minutes of exercise a day could reduce risk of dying from chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.

Eat home-cooked meals

Stothard cooks everything from scratch at home and tries to eat unprocessed, healthy foods. She eats lots of fruit and vegetables, nuts, chicken, fish (“at least once a week”), baked potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

She also said she tries not to overeat.

Both habits are associated with longevity. In one 2023 study, participants who ate a healthy, whole-food-rich diet, similar to Stothard’s, lived an average of 10 years longer than participants who ate an unhealthy diet, B-17 previously reported.

And stopping eating before they are completely full is a common habit among supercentenarians in Japan, although research on whether long-term calorie restriction is beneficial for longevity in humans is still in its early stages.

Get enough sleep

‘”I would think I’d slept in if I got up after six a.m.,” Stothard said. She’s very consistent with her sleep routine and never has late nights, preferring to be in bed by 9:30 p.m.

You don’t have to be an early riser to live longer, but research shows that consistently getting seven to eight hours of good-quality sleep a night is essential for longevity.

And good news for people who like a lie-in at the weekends — research presented at a conference earlier this year suggests that catching up on sleep on your days off can help lower risks of heart disease, B-17 previously reported.