“In the wake” of Jean-Luc Loiseau: the pre-walk
Remember, we spoke to you in a previous article, last year, of a march against overweight and obesity, organized by Jean-Luc Loiseau .
Jean-Luc Loiseau, an ordinary man, a sales executive for a software company, decided at the age of 48 to travel around France on foot in order to raise public awareness of the importance of “moving” to fight against ‘obesity. A great initiative!
And it was last Saturday, April 19, 2014, in the city of Strasbourg, that Jean-Luc Loiseau began his concept by carrying out a pre-walk .
The sales executive likes to build social ties and it is with people from the Strasbourg program Sport sur Ordonnance that he sets in motion this generative process.
Since September 2013, when we presented the project to you for the first time, it is clear that the project has grown in importance and that many partners have made themselves known.
Some reminders
Jean-Luc weighed 211 kg in 2011 and it was that year that he decided to walk for him. But he realizes that losing so much weight is no small feat. Alone and isolated, the process is all the more difficult. Yet Jean-Luc decides to do a few meters a day, he sweats, he suffocates and with each climb… he stops. And no matter what, he perseveres. Today he weighs less than 130 kg and hopes to show that he can go down to 110 kg while being in excellent health. For him, he did the hardest part: the first step!
A triple message of hope
Jean-Luc Loiseau does not conceive of this initiative as personal but considers that the objective of this march is to “give a future to someone who no longer has one”. It is therefore a message to fight against this scourge of obesity , it is also a fight against physical discrimination (that related to appearance) and finally it is to reiterate how diets are generally a factory to obesity .
Through this action, he also delivers a political message. It does not start by chance with the city of Lille: the north is strongly affected by these epidemics of overweight. After Lille, it will continue via Lens which has the highest unemployment rate in France and continue with fifty stages of 8 to 25 km. Depending on the elevation, the distance varies in order to motivate the troops. Because, it is planned that each person who wishes can join, at any time of the course, this citizen march. And in the evening, constructive exchanges between the participants will be organized.
Important partners at its side
More and more partners feel concerned by this concept. Admittedly, the Sport for All association was one of the first to support him in his approach. Then, the INSEP (National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance) and the UNSS (National Union of School Sport) joined this project.
Jean-Luc Loiseau then obtained the high patronage of the Ministry of Sports, Youth, Popular Education and Community Life. The action is increasingly known and many general practitioners or specialists, laboratories like Privat, the spring water union, are all institutions, organizations and individuals who have faith in this ambitious project.
For more information
A website, entirely dedicated to this initiative, has recently been set up. This action starts on May 4 in Lille and ends in Strasbourg on September 28.
Jean-Luc Loiseau gives himself a whole summer to lose a few pounds and get France moving with him. He plans to expand this march throughout Europe .
And if you want to run with him and participate in this action, you can do so on his website (see sources).
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.