The Buddy System and 5K Exercise Walks

To Those not enrolled: Come, and we will fit you in. And you don’t have to be a member of this Church or any Church to participate in our (LTL) Losing To Live program.

Good Rules For Losing That Weight: (1) Walk a 5K Exercise Walk. (2) Get a Buddy to support you, in pursuing your goals in the LTL (Losing To Live) program. 

It helps to have at least one Buddy to be there for you through thick and thin. You can call this person Buddy, Teammate, Sister, Brother, Partner, or whatever, it doesn’t matter. But experience teaches us that to accomplish some of the most difficult things in life, it absolutely helps to be able to share at least part of the burden, and joy, with some other person, or persons. We all know the value of people helping people. We do it on our jobs, in our families, and many other places. All of the addiction breaking programs, like AA, usefully employ some type of Buddy system, because they know it works. The Buddy is the person that keeps you more accountable than you would be otherwise. You will often "Show Up" because you don’t want to let your Partner down.

Some of you may already have a great support system that is working for you, someone who goes to classes with you, and walks and hikes with you on the 5K Exercise walks each Sunday. If so, you may be pretty much set, but if you are doing this alone then you need to team up with someone compatible, so when you are tempted to miss a class, drop out, or not do the 5K exercise walks, that person will encourage you to get back on the routine. Nothing beats a bit of accountability when we are faced with life’s most challenging tasks.

Each of us must make it a continuing goal to make sure everyone involved is matched up with at least one other support person. This is not always that easy to arrange, and may require some persistent attention from all of us to get everyone supported. On the 5K exercise walk, slow walkers need to be teamed with other slow walkers, and so on, and matched as to the length of course they are going to walk. Everyone needs to be encouraged to do the 5K Exercise Walk each week, and those who can need to set an example by doing the 5K Walk with others.  The reason the 5K Exercise Walk is so important is that it is a physical and concrete expression of our whole commitment toward achieving our Weight Loss, Fitness and Health goals. It is the only thing physical we do together that symbolizes the Dedication, Inspiration, Exercise and Eating, Team aspects of the LTL D. I. E. T. Plan. As we all know, “Faith without works is void,” thus the Exercise Walk is an important part of our “Works.” 

The Bible supports the Team idea repeatedly:. For example, it says, where two of you are gathered together of one mind, there am I. God always responds better to two than He does to one. Thus, it helps to have our brother by the hand when we ask for God’s help. Note: He sent out the disciples two by two, not one by one.

Find someone in your group that needs your weekly encouragement, and you will find you will be encouraged in turn.

We have planned courses. These planned courses are only guidelines to provide some structure. But, note: The least able of us are the very ones that need the 5K Exercise Walk the most. Thus, if you can only do one block, or a half block, we want you to do that, unless your doctor has told you not to do any walking at all, in which case you always follow your doctors instructions.

The Route of the 5K Walks are the most beautiful and inspiring imaginable. Every week the scenery is different. The shades of green vary as the seasons slowly change. The light from God’s heaven is always different, and God’s weather and climate are different each time we walk. The 5K Walk is a ministry to our souls as well as our body as we take this scenic nature walk. And the awesome fellowship of walking for some part of an hour, at least once a week, helps to focus us as we dedicate our bodies and minds to God. It is OK to mix and match your walking partners, anything to keep you interested, happy, and challenged. Just imagine Jesus walking all over the Holy Land, up and down those hills, talking, witnessing and teaching with His disciples.

When we walk and talk with fellow believers, we are truly being Christ like, and will have our reward.

Exercise Walk aka 5K Update

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Hi Fellow Exercise Walkers:

Several have expressed an interest in working to develop this ministry. All are welcome. We need all the help we can get from all quarters.

We are also getting some networking going here and some of the "field telephones" (cell phones) are now in operation, so we can proceed better equipped from this point forward.

The "Exercise Walk" (and we are thinking of using that term as an alternative to 5K, for the reason that the word itself, 5K, may scare off some less able folks who need this exercise more than anyone,) is on a roll.

We want the message to clearly be that no matter how much of a beginner you are, even if you can only walk a block, WE WANT YOU, MOST OF ALL. Everyone has to start somewhere, and we want to be there for those who need us the most. The athletes among us are great role models, but they need this program the least, though they too also need it.

Thus the "newbies" are the focus of our attention. There is hardly a person among us who can't walk a block if he, or her, doctor says they can, and we want as close to 100% participation as possible.

The whole course takes less than an hour, so everyone can spare that much time to save their lives. 

However, nothing is set in stone so this program can change as need be to serve our fellow losers. We can look at changing any of the parameters if we get together and decide on something better. We are willing to do just about anything to move forward, but want to make sure that people really want to do it, hence we need to get ourselves together, and develop some leadership from within our ranks. Anyone who wants to do a little bit more, please contact us.

It is crucial that all start at the same time, unless there are stragglers which is OK, and we don't want to discourage someone who arrives late, but starting early is not OK, as we have to have some set-points here. Therefore, the Whistle will blow and off we will go in a spirit of togetherness. After that people have different speeds and they tend to string out, and that is OK. Just try not to walk alone. Latch onto someone or some group of a few and hang in with them, enjoying the brotherhood and sisterhood of communing with God in the midst of His creation.

There are a long list of possible things we can do, as we move along, including of course actually Losing to Live. But things always have to start somewhere. So help us to jump start this area of our effort. Excercise is truly the weakest part of most people's struggle with weight.

There will also be available a new version of The Exercise Walk - 5K Brochure developed so that it will also make a good recruiting tools to get new people into the LTL program. So, feel free to make copies of it and pass them around to all the people you run across in your daily life. Try to hand them out wherever you can. God Willing, we will take this thing to the next higher level.

As to Maps: We will have them available at each walk start. 

Lastly, and for sure we are leaving something out, we always do, there is this website, www.FitnessClub.Blogspot.Com is where we intend to Post everything we create, so there is some permanent place of encouragement for all our "stuff." Anyone who wants to work on the website let us know.

Another point: We would never want to say we are just focusing on youth, because we don't see any age limits to participating in the 5K challenge. What we want to do is help people of all ages and sizes set high, yet achievable, personal goals for themselves, and then meet those goals.

That being said, we are attaching a draft of an idea for an initial assessment; a weekly plan for physical/mental and spiritual focus, and some points that would cover each person's story. 

We need to plot our alternative courses and any help in doing this will be appreciated. 


After thinking, and praying, about the whole thing a bit more, it would be best to recruit a small group (8-10 max) to work on this in a more intensive way. The way most of us are wired, is that we really need to invest some personal time into participants, like a mentoring thing.

When more folks step up to help with the challenge as leaders, then maybe we could accommodate more participants. but the intent is for participants to feel connected and supported and that is not possible with a too-large group to leader ratio.

The thinking is we should meet sometime soon, just us and the other folks who have expressed interest in helping as leaders to make an integrated plan and schedule for everything.

We just need more leaders to make this more effective, our work has just begun.

A New Cycle Begins

Hey Team! Wow! Today is the end of the current cycle of LTL, Losing To Live, and where you start the registering process for the next cycle. There are 4 cycles a year for most programs, and Joggers, Walkers and Crawlers go year around.

It gets so dark in the winter, what with "Daylight Savings Time" that it is too cold and dark to hike during the longest days of winter. Therefore, the times in the evening will be a start at sundown which will be different each day of the year. 

Note: There are many good books and DVDs on this mater of Fitness.We will do reviews on some of them from time to time. 

Edify One Another

Edify Ye One Another, means build each other up, and not to waste our time, energy and resources building up ungodly organizations and individuals, as such.

This is what true Brotherhood Sisterhood is all about. We need to return again to addressing each other as Brother, if indeed we are holding ourselves out to be brothers in the full biblical sense of the word.

Jesus when asked to simplify the law, said, Love God with all your heart and all your soul, and love your Brother as yourself. In these two are all the other commandments.

Eating Emotionalism

1) Do you sometime put food in your mouth before you realize you've done it?

2) Does eating cause you to feel stressed or guilty?

3) When you get into a disagreement with someone or you're bored, do you think of eating?

4) Do you eat more when you have a lot of time on your hands?

5) Have you developed a strategy for dealing with your emotions that don’t involve eating?

6) Does eating something fattening you early in the day negatively affect your food choices for the whole day?

7) Do you consider food your enemy?

8) Do you wonder around thinking you want something to eat but you don't know what it is?

9) Do you crave something to eat even when you're not hungry?

10) Do you sometime snack to avoid doing something else you need to do?

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• If you answer YES to the majority of these questions you are probably an emotional eater.
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• You are handling your emotions by stuffing them and in the process you're stuffing your body as well.
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It was a beautiful day the Lord made. The course over which we walked was 5k, or a little over 3 miles. It is gently rolling with only a few gentle hills, so no one needs feel unable to complete it.

BUT be assured, we don't require anyone to complete it. You may walk as slowly as you wish and stop and go back whenever you wish. If it is only a couple of blocks to start with, that is OK.

Those who are least fit need this more than the fit joggers and runners. Yes, the runners and joggers can benefit, but they are already in good shape. Therefore, our focus will be on the slower walkers and first timers.

Effort will be made to insure that everyone has at least one other person to walk with them, so no one will have to face this entirely alone. We also have maps to insure that you don't get off course.

After the first few times, you will get to know how to go through the course without your map. And the course we follow is approved by the police, and others, as a reasonably safe and appropriate route.

The scenery is magnificent at any time of the year, and that alone is worth the effort. The many trees shelter us from the sun and the wind as we go along.

After the first time, you will see that gentle walking, appropriate to your condition, is the most healthful thing you can do, for yourself, all those around you, and our loving Lord and Savior.

Of course your doctor is the best advice giver as to what you are able to do, so be sure to tell your doctor of your plans and get his OK. Most doctors are enthusiastic about their patients decision to walk on a regular basis.

In the future, we may offer additional walks during the week if the interest is expressed. There is no restriction on how many times we can cover the course. Let us know if you want to do some extra walking, and we will try to be there with you, or put you with someone who wants to do the same thing. Till next week, with God's help, let's Lose to Live....
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