While four local people have been sweating it out in the Losing It Across The Alleghenies Program, their work is paying off.

One participant, Renee Ford, is a doctorate student, a minister, a wife and a mother. But somehow, she's still been able to fit in exercise classes at the Fitness Circuit five days a week.

"I would say that my schedule is the biggest challenge in this. 5:30 in the morning isn't my time of day. But there are a lot of days if I can't make it at that time, then I can't make it just because of the craziness of my life," Ford, of Centre County said.

After two months in the program, she said she has made progress with the help of The Fitness Circuit.

"The gym here -- I love that there's variety. So we're not just doing 30 minutes on one machine, and then 20 minutes on another and then you're done. I mean we literally do, probably 16 different exercises in every 50 minute workout."

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She admits that up until a couple of weeks ago, she was nearly ready to throw in the towel.

"I've had points where I wanted to have instant results and that wasn't what I was seeing," she said. "I felt like OK, 'I'm exercising five days a week here, plus at home, I'm doing the diet thing, when am I going to start seeing changes?'"

But, thanks to her support system at The Fitness Circuit, at her church and at home, she's stayed focused on her weight-loss goal.

Scott Ludwig, of The Fitness Circuit, said, "Possibly the most important thing we're at a point, or at least in talking with Renee, that we're getting to the point for sure, where we've adopted a lifestyle."

Regular workouts are now part of her busy days and her body has started to respond. She's lost more than 10 pounds so far.

She is also working on changing her eating habits by planning meals and making healthy food choices.

"I see people get very limited results while working out for hours and hours a day and not changing their nutrition," Ludwig said. "But people who workout just an hour a day a change their nutrition get better results. … My beliefs are, no fad dieting, we don't want the super low carb diets, we don't want the calorie restriction, fat restriction we want all of those things, we want portion control, we want the calories to be in check. We also want to make sure that we're eating foods that are actually nutritious."

Ford said she's stronger, healthier and closer to her goal, but she said she can't take all the credit.

"The accountability of being a part of the Losing It Across the Alleghenies has been a huge asset and benefit to me. … I know there's lots of folks checking in with me, but also I just can't withdraw without there being larger ramifications besides just my health," she said.

She said she has met several new people through her progress blog on WJACTV.com, including the three other people taking part in the program.