Click HERE to learn more about the Shape Up G.I. program at the Grand Island YMCA.
It's getting down to the wire for people making New Years resolutions. And, like other years, some of the most popular include eating healthier and exercising.
Gyms across Nebraska are gearing up for their biggest membership surge of the year.
By this time next week, staff members at the YMCA in Grand Island expect participation in fitness classes to multiply significantly.
Membership Services Director Ashley Parmenter says the YMCA facility sees an increase of about 200 visits each day at the beginning of each new year.
But she says 2012 could be even bigger than previous years.
"Programs like The Biggest Loser have been on TV and they've showed the success stories and they've showed the life-changing events that can happen and that has spurred a lot of the increase in fitness," YMCA Health and Well-Being Manager Denise Kingery says.
That program inspired Grand Island resident Jeffrey Doose to make a resolution in 2008.
"I came to the Y and signed up for their weight loss program," Doose says. "I weighed 432 pounds, now I weigh 240."
With that success, he's now volunteering as one of the coaches for the program that helped him get into shape.
He says after all the help he's received, he's eager to pay it forward and help motivate others to realize the lifestyle changes that helped him.
"It changed my life," Doose says. "It saved me. Two hundred pounds is a huge difference in life."
Kingery says it's a difference anyone can realize, no matter how hectic your schedule.
"We like to take you slowly through the program and make it a sustained, life-long change," Kingery says. "We're very busy, but a key thing is you have to make fitness and your health, that part of your life, you have to integrate that in."
Doose says doing that has not only helped him lose weight and shape up, but changed his attitude, too.
"It makes you happy, it makes you joyful, it gives you confidence," Doose says. "My coworkers even say I'm a totally different person."
