How Pray it Off Works

We meet once a week on Thursday at Holy Family. The church provides the space and the paper for the copies. The meeting starts at 6 pm sharp and gets out at 7 pm SHARP. I am a stickler for time. I get there between 4:30 and 4:45 to start the weigh-in's. The group now has 80 members and I try to weigh most of them before 6pm. Each participant fills out a food log that includes exercise and water consumption and that is handed in to me at the weigh-in. Without it, a member is not weighed.

At 6:00 we start with the Pray it Off prayer and then awards are given for losses in 10 pound increments. The phrase Praise the Name of Jesus is used for the first 50 pounds lost. For 10 you get a sheet that says Praise, then Praise the for 20 and so on until at the 50 pound level you get a framed image of Jesus with the whole phrase. Give thanks to the Lord is given for losses of 50-100 pounds and St. Pio Pray for Us for over 100.

Each week a chapter of the Bible is read at home and then we discuss it for five minutes. I call it a "Taste 'O the Bible". We relate the Word of God to our weight loss journey.

Then I give a presentation each week on a different subject or group of kindred subjects. For example, Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Worry, Offering up Suffering, etc. I believe that we have to address the "why" we overeat to make a change in our eating habits. Then there is a blurb on exercise and a recipe, or two each week. A packet is given out to each member each week. I will be putting most of that weekly packet on this Blog each Friday. I hit the high points in the meeting, then the group reads the full materials at home. We end this part of the meeting when I play a different Praise and Worship song each week, then we say, as a group, our Intercession to St. Pio. (Our group's patron Saint).

Once the "formal" part of the meeting is over at 6:35-6:40, the group breaks into their Small Group Discussions (each member sits at a round table with the same group each week.) I give out an Agenda for this discussion, related to the topics of the week. As they are meeting I weigh in those people that I didn't get to prior to the meeting. At 7:00 pm each table says The Hail Mary and the meeting is over.