The Christian Broadcasting Network
Watch Pat, Terry, and Gordon on your iPod as they bring you amazing stories and celebrity interviews.
Have you experienced the presence of God?
Ron DiCianni: Painting the Resurrection?
Become a CBN partner and receive The Transforming Word: Verses to Overcome Fear and Experience Peace, our special DVD/CD gift to you.
CBN Partners are making a difference sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Find out how.
Creator, Walk Away the Pounds, In-Home Walking, and WalkAerobics, 25 years
Author of four books, her latest, Walking the Walk, FaithWords, 2007
Host of numerous DVDs, videos; has appeared on QVC as original fitness host
Holds Guiness Book of World Records for leading largest indoor walk of all time
CBN.com – Leslie Sansone says many people have been touched by how her walking program has helped them lose weight and get fit. She says faith has always played a part in her walking programs.
“I was never shy about keeping a spiritual theme in my classes,” says Leslie, who started teaching aerobics in the eighties in church basements after she discovered how incredible working out made her feel.
“It seems perfect to me that it all started in church basements,” says Leslie. “It was my calling after all; the best way for me to fulfill my Christian commitment to serve God by serving others.”
Leslie found the people who were looking for what she offered through church networks. What has developed is a whole community of people embracing a whole and healthy lifestyle.
Today, Leslie reaches people through TV and videos, but she believes that much of what binds her fitness community together is the belief in the goodness of what she does.
“The foundation for that is our relationship with God,” says Leslie.
Many church groups were participating in walk groups. Over time, the walk groups contacted Leslie about the impact her walking program had on the health of their group members.
“In the busy modern world, women love that they can walk and worship,” says Leslie.
Leslie put together this inspirational 30-day program. Her book, Walking the Walk, includes a DVD, a 30-day walking guide, daily reflections on spiritual quotes, fit facts, and testimonies from some of the millions who have achieved success in walking off their excess weight.
One church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is one of those witnesses for fitness. A group of women started meeting on Saturdays to walk the perimeter of downtown Pittsburgh. On Sunday mornings before church, the women would also walk around the park. Through the winter, the group used Leslie’s videos so they could keep walking. Now they meet three times a week at the church to walk and stretch. The response was overwhelming: the group grew to 52 participants consisting of infants, toddlers, young adults, middle-aged and elderly. One woman lost 120 pounds!
Leslie says we all need tools to help keep us moving forward.
“It’s wonderful to watch someones spirit lifted when they are hopeless,” she says.
Unfortunately, Leslie says that many of us let our weight get us down. Her message is simple: “It’s about being the best I can be,” says Leslie.
“I am an ordinary mother of three children but we need to be good stewards of the temples we have been given.”
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
