“It's the walking.” How 1 woman lost 25 lbs and transformed her mental health in 6 months

Welcome to Start TODAY. Sign up for our Start TODAY newsletter to receive daily inspiration sent to your inbox — and join us on Instagram!In late 2021, Jessica Miller, then 44, had a physical where she recalls, “Nothing was good. My cholesterol was terrible. My blood pressure was terrible. I needed to lose some weight.”

Her doctor asked if she was thinking about getting any exercise. “I said, ‘I was going to try to do something when I get older,’ and he said, ‘Older is today. It’s knocking. It’s here. Maybe you should jump in on that,’” she tells TODAY.

She says, “He wanted to put me on medication for blood pressure and cholesterol, but I don’t like taking medicine, and I’m not good at remembering to take it. So, he said, ‘Let’s try walking and see how it goes.’”

As a virtual teacher, Miller spends a lot of time sitting every day, and she needed something to counteract her inactivity. She had been what she calls a “stalker” on the Start TODAY Facebook page for a few months, and seeing how group members improved their lives through walking motivated her to give it a try.

Within six months, she:

• Saw significant drops in her blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
• Lost 25 pounds and has maintained that weight.
• Greatly improved her mental health.

Here’s how she did it.

She worked her way up to 10,000 steps a day

Miller was walking almost zero steps: “As many as it takes to get from my desk to the coffee machine.” When she started walking, she didn’t count her steps. She walked for 10 minutes, then 15 and then 20. After that, she started tracking her steps and worked up to 10,000 — sometimes more.

Most days, she wakes up around 5 or 5:30 a.m. and gets her steps in first thing in the morning. She uses audiobooks as motivation — she only plays them when she’s walking. “If I want to hear what happens in the book, I have to be walking to listen to it,” she says.

In the winter, when it’s cold near her Connecticut home, she switches to indoor walking at the mall. She tries to finish 10,000 steps in the morning, but if she doesn’t have time, she walks more in the afternoon or the evening with her boyfriend.

She’s also started walking to places like the grocery store, a friend’s house or a frozen yogurt shop. “I used to think, ‘I’m not walking someplace, that’s weird. I don’t want anyone to see me walking. They’re going to think I can’t drive or something,” she says. “Now I try to do it, and if I walk someplace, I have to walk home. That forces me to walk more.”

She turns to the Start TODAY group for encouragement. “If I don’t feel like doing something, I look on the Facebook page, and people are walking. They have all these other problems, but they’re still getting their steps in. If they can do it, so can I,” she says. “It’s motivating to see so many people going for walks and doing some exercise, and I have friends I’ve met through the page I keep up with.”

Miller also tries to do the Start TODAY monthly challenges, but she says walking has been the constant for her. “I know that’s what helped me,” she says. “I try to eat better, too, but I like to eat. Mostly, it’s the walking.”

In June 2022, she had the opportunity to appear on TODAY with Stephanie Mansour. “I was walking 10,000 steps a day by that time. My cholesterol had gotten better. My blood pressure was lower, and I had lost 25 pounds,” she says.

She kicked a heavy caffeine habit

Miller’s virtual teaching includes motivational classes for young girls from across the U.S. and around the world. “I have to be energetic. They want to talk and socialize. I don’t want them to be bored,” she says.

She turned to coffee for the caffeine boost. But she was overdoing it. She was starting her day with a pot of coffee, then adding mugs from her Keurig throughout the afternoon and evening — 20 cups a day.

She gradually shifted her intake down to about two cups of coffee a day. She had to take it slowly because cutting back too quickly gave her headaches.

First, she mixed regular coffee and decaf 50/50. “I had to trick myself into thinking it was regular, because I can’t tell the difference in the taste,” she says. Once she adjusted to that mix, she transitioned to only decaf in the afternoons and evenings. She also makes iced coffee, which lasts longer, since as the ice melts, it gets watered down.

She drinks a bottle of water before she has her first cup of coffee in the morning. “It’s the worst bottle of water ever, but it helps because then I don’t feel like I need to drink the whole cup of coffee really fast. When I have water first, I’m not as thirsty,” she says.

She also stopped drinking soda and alcohol. She felt like alcohol was affecting her sleep, and she didn’t want all the sugar and empty calories: “It wasn’t helping me with my stress. Exercise was doing a better job with that than sugary margaritas. It was easier to have water and go for a walk.”

Her lifestyle changes improved her mental health

Miller didn’t realize how her lifestyle habits were fueling stress, anxiety and negativity. “I didn’t think it was all connected. I just thought I had a lot of anxiety, and I was stressed out and hyper. On top of that, my clothes weren’t fitting, and I felt like I was lazy because I wasn’t working out,” she says. “I feel like all that negativity goes away when I’m walking. When I can get my steps in, I can clear my mind, and I feel better.”

She has noticed how her healthy habits all combine. “Exercising makes me feel better about myself and improves my mood, which makes me not want to eat junk food or drink coffee. I can change my mood by walking, and it changes my whole day. It gives me a chance to expend some energy and feel good about myself. Starting my day doing something positive makes my whole day better. It all comes together in a cycle.”

Her improved mental health is also helping her come to terms with aging and the changes that it can bring: “Losing the weight helps me feel better. I feel like I have 20 pounds to go, but that’s because I’m comparing myself to Jessica in 1995. I have to remind myself that I’m not going to look like I did when I was 16. I’m almost 50, and I need to put my expectations in perspective.”