This doctor and TV personality is stronger than ever at 56 – and has the bikini photos to prove it

What do posting bikini photos at 56 and being a doctor have in common? They can both be “inspirations,” Dr. Says Jane Ashton, former GMA3 chief medical correspondent, OB-GYN, obesity medicine specialist and nutritionist. When Ashton started posting pictures of her progress on Instagram, many women told her she was. “The word is only golden, because I became a doctor,” she says.

Her photos don’t hide what it’s like to grow old as a woman, but they also show the power of what spending six months to get stronger and healthier can do. Getting into the best shape of her life doesn’t mean Ashton lost weight—she actually gained six pounds. But Ashton now likes what she sees in the mirror and feels stronger than ever. “And it’s usually the opposite of our mindset,” she says.

When Ashton left her job as chief medical correspondent and co-host of GMA3 in June 2024, she called it an “experiment” to age better and become healthier and stronger. She then created a roadmap for other women to undertake their own fitness and anti-nutrition challenges. “Challenges can fail,” she says. “You can never fail an experiment because the goal is to learn; you will always learn something.” She’s educating women about their health, as she always has, through her newsletter and wellness brand Ajenda (which you can read now on Yahoo) and offering her Wellness Experiment program to help put her advice into practice.

It may seem like a major career pivot for Ashton, but it’s a natural next step for him. She has spent her entire professional life helping people, especially women, lead healthy lives. And now she’s doing it live and direct, sharing expertise from her work in medicine and science communication, as well as her own experience of becoming a fitter in her 50s.

How did she get here?

“My career in television has been nothing short of miraculous,” Ashton says. “I never planned or attempted such a career – it literally just happened and evolved, but I’m proud to say I’ve reached the top of what I can achieve in my role.”

Ashton wanted to become a doctor to empower people to improve their health, which she did for six years as an OB-GYN. The opportunity to work in television came unexpectedly, after industry friends suggested she would be great on camera, Ashton told Columbia College Today. What began as a weekend guest appearance on Fox evolved into a three-year post as the network’s first on-air female medical contributor. She then moved to CBS News and eventually to ABC, where she was chief medical correspondent and co-host. Pandemic: What you need to know. “In those early days, I really put a stake in the sand and told our producers and the network, ‘We have to have the honesty to say what we know,'” Ashton says. “Science isn’t black and white; it’s more nuanced than that, and I love providing that nuance for people.”

Ashton used her skills as a network TV correspondent to explain everything from pandemics to foodborne illness and wildfire smoke to millions of American viewers. He has a talent for communication and learned a lot by covering many different health issues. But after 18 years of covering the widest possible range, Ashton shifted focus. “What I want to talk about is that I’m certified,” she says. “When I resigned from that role, it was almost entirely because I felt I had too much work to do.”

She decided to devote her full attention to the agenda, publishing vocal articles on issues related to women’s health, obesity and nutrition. “And it just so happens that those are literally the biggest topics in the country,” Ashton says.

The turning point

While scaling the agenda, Ashton was embarking on her own personal wellness journey. “Even though I was going to the gym five days a week, I wasn’t fit,” she says. “I knew because I’d be at a party and I’d be dancing, and I’d be out of breath. Or I’d look in the mirror and see an image of someone, what I call ‘skinny fat.’

Ashton called in an expert to help her figure out a fitness routine that, in combination with her own nutritional expertise, could restore her tone and stamina. With the help of personal trainer Corey Rowe, his experiment is working out in spades. And, in response to her social media posts documenting the process, “literally tens of thousands of women asked me to share what I was doing with them,” Ashton says. So, she co-created a wellness “experiment” with Rowe that includes a fitness regimen, meal plans, Q&As with Ashton himself, video content and a community forum. It’s helped its members get active, and it’s helped Ashton do something it can’t do on network television: interact directly with the women in its audience.

Ashton’s ‘Ins’ ​​and ‘Outs’ for Aging Well

Out: One-size-fits-all health advice

One of the reasons Ashton is eager to reach out to people is that she’s tired of social media — and even mainstream media — painting health with too broad a brush. Ashton says she’s frustrated that “there are only influencers who really capitalize on people’s interest, need or desperation to improve their health and, in my opinion, dishonestly do something from a science communication standpoint.” She therefore frames her approach as an experiment. He shares what has worked (really, really well) for him, but emphasizes that each person needs to test it for themselves and make changes accordingly. “See how you feel. Make those observations. What did you learn? What do you want to eliminate? That, to me, is the sweet spot,” Ashton says.

In: Staying curious

As Ashton notes, it’s common for women to hit a weight and fitness plateau in their 40s or 50s, due in large part to the hormonal changes of menopause. It’s easy to get stuck, especially without guidance on what to do differently—something Ashton herself experienced. “If you don’t have the curiosity and open mind” to try new things, “you’re going to move the needle for your health,” she says.

Beyond: The all or nothing principle of well-being

non-vegetarian diet. Heavy lifting. Plant based only. Cardio only. If you consume health and wellness content, you’ve probably heard, if not all, of these single-object exercises are touted to solve everything from weight gain and menopause to back pain and more, with studies supporting the benefits of each. “It’s literally cherry-picking your data points to serve your message, and I’m fundamentally against that” all-or-nothing mentality, she says. She is particularly annoyed by advice that claims women only need to do heavy lifting and sometimes not certain types of cardio. “Before women got the message that all they needed to do was zone two cardio, and now there are other, louder voices saying, ‘No, you need to do HIIT cardio,'” Ashton explains. “And guess what? You need both of those. But the middle gray zone doesn’t get clicks and follows, and I think that’s the way life should go.”

In: Aging with Vitality

Ashton doesn’t care about the term ‘longevity,’ because it’s not just about how long we’ve been on the planet,” she says. Instead, she hopes to focus more on vitality and the end of ageism. “I think we’re already starting to see that 60 is the new 40, 70 is the new 50, and I think that’s great,” she says. It’s not just people who look younger than they are, but who live like them. And to accomplish this, she says, more work needs to be done to prevent diseases that affect women as they age, she says. She also suspects that using GLP-1 drugs for maintenance and prevention — not just weight loss — could become an important part of the women’s health equation.

Outside: Tucked into a smartphone

“It’s not earth-shattering, but I think the whole planet — and certainly our country — is seeing now that the screen life, the technological life, is not only suboptimal, but harmful in many ways,” Ashton says. Amidst teenage angst, tech craze, and a shrinking attention span, he’s living life on a smartphone. The good news is that Ashton believes change is on the way. “I think we’re at the very beginning of that pendulum swing back to real-life experiences and analogizing,” she says.