Leslie Sansone is the creator of the original Walk at Home program. What started as a few classes in church halls has grown into the number one walking program in the world, grossing over $200 million. Her walking DVDs can be found internationally in retail stores such as Wal Mart, Sam's Club, Costco, Target, K Mart, and Best Buy. Leslie produced more than 100 popular DVDs, several successful infomercials in the U.S. and Great Britain, and has written four fitness books, including Walking The Walk and Walk Away The Pounds. Leslie has been called on by the President's Council on Physical Fitness, the PA Governor's Council, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and TOPS. She has created walking workouts specifically for NutriSystem which are included and recommended as the activity component to their highly successful meal plan program. Leslie Sansone has been featured in popular magazines and publications such as the New York Times, People Magazine, Prevention, Walking Fit, Health, Guideposts, and is a contributing editor of Women's Day. She contributes her time, expertise and financial support to health organizations including the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Diabetic Association, and MDA. Leslie has served on the Leadership Council for IDEA and holds eight certifications including the prestigious American College of Sports Medicine and Cooper Institute: Group Exercise Leader. Leslie was chosen to be one of three keynote speakers for the American College of Sports Medicine national fitness and health summit in 2008, and will be featured on The Today Show --Thursday, February 28, 2008.

Leslie Sansone--

If you know me, you know I am passionate about getting healthy and celebrating the body by keeping it active. I discovered long ago that staying fit simply means moving the body. What better way to do that than by doing what comes natural to us….walking!! I am going to share a secret with you what I have known for many, many years… being active does not have any “prerequisites” and it certainly can be done by anyone…especially YOU! Fitness has gotten such a “bad rap” lately or should I say “a bad press agent”….many people are given the impression that in order to be fit, exercise must cause you physical pain. In other words, if you are not encountering “blood, sweat, and tears," you are not doing it (meaning exercise) right. I say no, no, no, no, and double no! The age of the famous mantra, “no pain no gain," needs to be pushed to the side because the reality is that walking is the number one recommended form of exercise by physicians across the country! That’s right…simply walking! However…I am going to take this idea of walking and “shed a new light” on it for you!

Nothing beats a healthy dose of fresh air and a heart pumping walk around your neighborhood or nearby track! However, let’s be honest… with walking outdoors, the weather can definitely play a factor. What can you do when the weather “turns” on you!? Surely walking isn’t an option unless I invest a pretty nice chunk of change in a treadmill for my home. I am here to tell you that is simply NOT TRUE…you can walk right in your home!

I remember twenty years ago, when I posed that very same question to myself one late-October day. I was driving around town running errands and I happened to notice a group of walkers bustling past me. Good for them I thought, even on this chilly day, they are walking. But what would they do in a month or two when the snow comes? It is hard to keep up exercising and maintaining that healthy lifestyle choice if you have to shelve it four months out of the year. Walking was obviously an exercise chosen by many…after all… I had been seeing people walking for years…it obviously appeals to many but what can I do to help these people ascertain this commitment all year around?

BINGO! That very day, I drove back to my exercise studio and placed a tiny ad in the paper for an introductory Walk Aerobics class. I knew that brisk walking could raise people’s heart rates enough to deliver the same benefits as dance aerobics. I knew it wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea, I just hoped we would get fifteen or twenty students needed to cover expenses. Well…let me tell you…when I walked into that studio room a few days later, there were NINETY people waiting to take the class! I realized at that moment I had tapped into a vein I didn’t even know existed.

People were interested…not to mention curious...about what Walk Aerobics truly was….how could you walk indoors…the concept puzzled people! They soon came to discover what millions of people have learned throughout the years….it is simply a low impact aerobic workout minus the “fancy dance steps." The ultimate beauty about walking at home was that ANYONE could do it…people of all shapes, sizes, and ages…they could actually complete a fitness program and here is the best part of all…have fun doing it! No more “blood, sweat, and tears”….just my own personal fitness recipe of “heart pumping walking mixed with a little laugher." My fitness program I presented to that first class twenty years ago is the same today…based on a four basic step approach to walking. I have always said if you can walk to your refrigerator, you can walk with me every day! Pretty soon even the skeptics became my walking buddies and every day I began “walking” with more and more people across the world from our beautiful USA, to our neighbors up in Canada and expanding even further to Great Britain, Iceland, and “down under” in Australia!

What makes my work so fulfilling to me, day in and day out, are the women and men I hear from, those whose lives I have touched in some positive way. What started out as a simple idea, has truly evolved into something greater than I ever thought possible. My “simple solution” to a fairly easy question...how can I make walking doable for people all year long…has created a phenomenon of helping people to not only continue to achieve their personal fitness goals straight to the “most precious prize” of all….getting the inactive to become active and healthy! There is no better feeling in this world than having someone come up to you and say that they have turned their lives around, and that you had some small role to play in that!

What an awesome opportunity to be a part of an industry twenty years later that continues to allow me to give people new tools to help them achieve their personal goals. I am so blessed to be able to continue to spread the word to millions of women and men that staying active and feeling great is not just for jocks or models; it is for all of us, large and small, mother, father, daughter, son, and grandmother/father too! We can ALL do this simply because we love life! Whatever your beliefs are we have been given an amazing gift…the chance to live a life on this planet. It would be a shame to waste it sitting on the couch!

So…what’s the weather like in your neck of the woods today...is it raining, snowing or just too hot outside? Are you still ready to walk? I know I am! Let’s lace up our shoes…I would love a new “walking buddy” I can celebrate this life with by stepping together toward a healthier, happier us!

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Update on Feb 27, 2008 by At Basil & Spice

Seen At Reuters!      FOX News!