“I was hooked,” he says. He goes to the Linden Ponds fitness center three days a week and uses a variety of machines. “It’s a quest. I can do much more now than I could do 15 years ago.”

Walter Leefman, who has lived at Linden Ponds for more than three years, is also seeing the fruits of his labor.

As one of the first people to move into the community, he was given a free membership to the fitness center.

“I said, ‘Gee, let me try it,’” he recalls. “I’ve been progressing since then … I’ve become addicted.”

He has an added incentive since he was diagnosed with type-two diabetes several years ago. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exercise can control weight, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure—all important in controlling diabetes. Now Leefman makes use of the fitness center’s treadmill, weights, and stability balls five to six days a week.

“I’m in better shape now than when I was 40,” he says. “I’m much stronger.”

Social benefits
It’s not just the physical benefits, but also the social opportunities that keep Leefman and others frequenting the fitness center.

“The regulars come to the gym, so you develop a very cordial relationship with people. You chat with people you meet there,” Leefman says. “The staff are good; they’re helpful, and that makes it a pleasant place,” he adds.

From the fitness center to the on-campus restaurants, Linden Ponds community members can take advantage of healthy options that are always available. Even so, Leefman warns: “You can have options, but you have to make the choices. No one is going to tell you what to do.”

It is discipline, Diezemann says, that  keeps him fit, and he suggests others make a trip to the fitness center.

“Come down and give it a try; 99 times out of 100 you won’t regret it,” Diezemann says. “Don’t say, ‘I’ll go down if I can.’ Say, ‘I will go down.’”