Americans in Motion: partners in health, partners in fitness by Toni Lapp

When the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) created a fitness initiative in 2003, there was a certain amount of discomfort in the organization. How would it look to unveil a program encouraging physicians to lead active, healthy lives, when the incoming AAFP president tipped the scales at 286 lbs.?

Similarly, how could physicians logically lecture their patients on becoming more active if physicians themselves did not model an active lifestyle? That question went to the heart of AAFP’s Americans in Motion (AIM) initiative: teaching by example.