Table 2.

Multi-level Activities of FBAS Intervention

Week	Core Sessions	Individual Level (led by Church Health Advisor)	Group Sessions (led by Church Health Advisors)
1	Welcome to FBAS: Getting Started Losing Weight	Build individual commitment. Assessment of personal values, motivation and confidence levels. Identify personal weight loss goals.	Build group commitment; introduce intervention goals (7% weight loss and 150 minutes/weekly PA activity; introduce self monitoring of food intake.
2	Be a Fat & Calorie Detective	Introduce self-monitoring of wt. (i.e., assign fat gram goal based on initial weight). Reinforce self-monitoring as key behavioral modification.	Introduce self-monitoring of fat and calorie intake; instruct on reading food labels; provide fat and calorie counting book. Introduce behavioral modifications to reduce fat and calorie intake.
3	Healthy Eating	Practice self-monitoring skills (i.e., measuring foods, estimating food portion size). Reinforce diet behavioral modification.	Teach components of a healthy meal. Teach healthy meal planning.
4	Move Those Muscles	Add PA to self-report. Assess personal PA likes and dislikes.	Introduce physical activity. Advise of plans to gradually build to 150 minutes per week. Begin PA self-monitoring.
5	Tip the Calorie Balance	Provide an individually tailored meal plan at reduced calorie levels. Reinforce self-monitoring	Teach the fundamentals of energy balance and necessary actions to lose 1–2 lbs. per week. Self-evaluation of progress.
6	Taking Charge of What’s Around You	Identify cues in individual’s environment and develop action plan.	Introduce the principle of stimulus control; identify cues in the environment that lead to unhealthy food and activity choices, discuss behavioral strategies to overcome cues.
7	Problem Solving	Apply the problem- solving model to eating and physical activity problems; develop an action plan.	Present the 5-step model of problem solving. Make an action plan and evaluate success solutions.
8	Four Keys to Healthy Eating Out	Develop eating out action plan. Reinforce self-monitoring.	Introduce four basic skills for managing eating away from home.
9	The Slippery Slope of Lifestyle Changes	Discuss personal triggers; develop action plan for managing slips.	Stress that slips are normal and learning to recover quickly is the key to success. Teach participants to recognize personal triggers for slips, their reactions to slips, and behavioral strategies to resume lifestyle change after a slip. Self-evaluation.
10	Jump Start Your Activity Plan	Reinforce positive behaviors.	Introduce the pedometer and instruct on use. Issue pedometers. Review ways to boost activity. Teach to identify time to include short bouts of PA.
11	Make Social Cues Work for You	Develop action plan for social cues. Trouble-shoot problems with pedometer.	Teach how to identify social cues, behavioral strategies to change social cues, strategies to add positive social cues.
12	Ways to stay motivated	Develop action plan for self- motivation.	Review progress. Teach ways to stay motivated and manage stress. Setting new life-style goals.
Month	Post-Core Sessions
1	Bulk Up Your Diet	Assess barriers encountered during last 4 wks. Encourage periodic continued self-monitoring.	Continue self-monitoring. Teach strategies for adding volume to meals.
2	Regulate Your Mind	Assess efforts to increase dietary bulk.	Review reasons for seeking weight loss. Practice countering excuses. Overcoming barriers. Review strategies to manage diet and PA slips.
3	Muscle Matters	Assess use of strategies to manage lifestyle setbacks.	Introduce safe use of resistance bands, flexibility, and balance activity. Issue resistance band. Develop a resistance activity plan.
4	Too Blessed to be Stressed	Review safe use of resistance band.	Review the barrier of stress; teach ways to manage stress including sleep and laughter.
5	The Inside Scoop on Indoor Activity	Assess use of stress management techniques and addition of resistance exercises.	Teach ways to stay active indoors. Exercise session with DVD.
6	Pressing Forward Toward Long-term Weight Maintenance	Encourage continuation of lifestyle modifications.	Review shifts in thinking patterns of those successful at weight reduction.

Abbreviations: FBAS-Fit Body and Soul; PA-physical activity; MI-motivational interviewing; wks-weeks;

Notes: Tailored individual-level intervention using MI to assess barriers and reinforce behavioral modification occurs during weigh-ins, weekly and monthly phone calls. Self-monitoring logs collected and previous log returned during private weigh-ins. Organizational and congregation- wide events implemented throughout the intervention include: pastor announcements of total weight loss, announcements of upcoming session, pastor recognition of participants, congregation-wide health event such as speaker, grocery shopping trip, cooking demonstration or physical activity class. Policy change implementations such as: change in types of meals served, change in vending machine items, etc.