From Fat to Fit

This guide chronicles how one woman’s very public journey to lose weight mushroomed into a community quest to get fit. At the age of 60, Carole Carson broke the taboo of speaking about obesity when she openly admitted her shame and guilt about being fat and out of shape on the front page of the local newspaper. As she recounted her transformation from butterball to butterfly in a weekly newspaper column, she gradually inspired more than 1,000 people in her Northern California community to join her. People who had struggled with weight loss and fitness suddenly found that when they joined with their friends and neighbors they could accomplish together what they could not do by themselves. They learned a completely new way of living and discovered that getting fit was fun and in the process lost the equivalent of a school bus! Through the guide’s seven-step process, among other practical strategies and resources, readers will find a framework for duplicating the Nevada County Meltdown’s successes in their respective communities—their congregation, their office, their friends and family—realizing the power of partnership and revitalizing their ties with each other.