Laverne Banks before
In this modern day and age, it can be complicated and intimidating to start on the path to a healthier lifestyle. Many strive to lose a few pounds, but struggle with how to start or where to start.
Do you download an app? Which app should you download? Does it help you track the food you eat? What about logging data like weight and BMI?
Cutting through the noise and crowded field of eating healthy foods and being physically active is one of the many reasons why Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare started the Healthier 901 movement: give people free, accessible information and tools to help them decide how they should begin their own journey.
For Laverne Banks, a 74-year-old who’s been a Memphian for almost her entire life, she decided she need to lose weight and get fit after retiring from a long career in the information technology field.
“I weighed 198 when I was on my own trying to lose the weight and had got to a plateau,” Banks said. For her, the plateau was 172 pounds and holding. It was a significant amount of weight she shed doing things on her own, but she was not satisfied. However, she couldn’t seem to get any lower than 172 pounds and became frustrated with little to no progress being made.
It was during a meeting with one of the navigators from MLH’s Congregational Health Network—a faith and community relations outreach program that helps connect church congregations with healthcare education, awareness and resources— that Banks had a lightbulb moment in how she could reignite her weight loss journey.
“Our navigator, Jennifer Garrott, she always lets us know what’s going on with Methodist. And so, when the challenge came out, I jumped right on it…I decided that I would join the Healthier 901 [movement],” Banks said, referring to the Healthier 901 initiative that encourages the Mid-South to get fit and live healthier lives by losing weight.
Banks said those conversations with Garrott about healthier living really made her stop and think about the mission behind Healthier 901.
“As I’m getting older, I just try to be conscious of getting healthy. You know, as we age, we don’t know what’s going on inside of our body,” she said. “So what we put in, you know, we have to watch carefully whether it’s good for us or bad for us,” Banks said.
Banks and several of her friends from church downloaded the Healthier 901 app after that meeting with Garrot and began using it to log their weight, daily step counts and the calories they were consuming each day.
“We all downloaded the app, and we tracked our nutrition, our food, and we also tracked the exercises that we were doing, along with the number of steps and calories that we were taking in,” Banks said. “And there’s a little chart that shows you all of that information,” she said, illustrating the convenience the app provides.
Having a free app that consolidates fitness tracking and nutrition using easy-to-achieve goals made it a no-brainer for Banks to push through and find the determination and inspiration to keep getting healthier.
Laverne Banks today
After she started using the Healthier 901 app and talking with a friend from her bible study, she decided it was time to join a gym to really take her fitness to the next level.
She joined a gym in Cordova and connected with a retired military nurse that’s now a fitness instructor. She goes three days each week and gets additional information about nutrition, food plans and various exercise routines to keep things fresh and exciting.
“Methodist has really provided us with a lot of the resources that our navigator has shared with us,” Banks said. “Matter of fact, we’ve had health fairs at our church and different events,” she said. Adding details about visits from the fire department, the police department and organizations that have come to talk about being an organ donor.
In the three years since she started using the Healthier 901 app and going to her gym, Banks is happy to report that she is now down to 137 pounds.
“Well, my goal is to get down to 125,” Banks said. “And if it takes me 5, 6, 10 years, I’m going to do it,” she said with a laugh.
As for any advice Banks has for people looking to join the Healthier 901 movement, she says it’s important to build community and stay determined.
“I would only suggest to them that if there’s something serious that they really want to do, then to reach out to someone. Don’t try to do it on your own because it’s a process, and it’s a process that you have to be committed to,” Banks said.
Healthier 901 Fest is a great way to interact and build community of your own when the celebration kicks off September 5, 2026 at Shelby Farms Park from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Among the new offerings in the fourth year of the festival is a one mile walk and a timed 4k run, which attendees can sign-up to participate online.
