Judy Peek was never a fat kid, has never been overweight.
But that doesn’t mean staying healthy has been easy for her.
Like everyone else, Peek said, she has to watch what she eats. She has to make the right choices every day.
The longtime gym owner and personal trainer wants to help those who need it the most make the right choices, too — for free.
Peek owns Snap Fitness in Riverside and knows the difficulty people face to eat right and exercise.
She sees it all the time, even from members of her own gym.
One woman told Peek she sometimes drives around the block 10 times before deciding to go in. Many others give up long before that 10th trip.
Sometimes it’s knowledge, sometimes it’s access, sometimes it’s confidence. Peek’s “Get Health, Give Health” challenge targets all three of those.
She will give 12 weeks of free membership and two days a week of personal training to help those committed to changing their lives. In addition, the Jacksonville Farmers Market will give fresh fruits and vegetables every week to people in the challenge.
Peek isn’t a nutritionist but as a former longtime Weight Watchers leader, she can advise people on how to eat properly.
Candidates have to have a body mass index of at least 30 percent, which is classified as obese. (BMI can be checked online at bit.ly/SnapFitnessBMI.)
They need to submit an essay (500 words or less) to [email protected] about why they’re ready to change. The deadline is Jan. 11.
The essays are important to Peek. One woman submitted a letter that only said she saw the contest, doesn’t like to work out but she’s overweight.
Another sent in three “heart-wrenching” paragraphs about why she was ready, Peek said.
“That’s the person I want to work with,” she said.
Peek has long been concerned about obesity but then challenged herself with this: “Yeah, I own a gym, but what am I really doing about it?”
Get Health, Give Health is her answer.
Peek has owned a Snap Fitness franchise for seven years — five years on Margaret Street and the last two years in a larger facility at 2216 Oak St. (She also owned one on Southside Boulevard but closed it after five years.)
Before that, she worked in real estate for 30 years, mostly flipping houses on her own and helping friends. But, for many of those years, she did personal training on the side.
As the economy began to wane, she wanted to get into another line of business, so she met with a man who sells franchises.
She loves animals, so she looked at pet businesses.
She had a crew when she was flipping houses, so she looked at handyman services.
But nothing sounded right.
The man called and said he had one more franchise to talk about. It turned out to be Snap Fitness.
Peek liked the concept of a smaller, neighborhood gym that was open 24 hours a day.
“Within five minutes of the conversation, I was like, ‘That’s where we need to be,’” she said.
She plans to choose four people for the challenge. The “give health” part comes from the hope that those four will become teachers and show a friend what they learned by bringing them into the gym at no cost for 12 weeks.
In the end, Peek knows the people she selects may join another gym after the 12 free weeks at her place. That’s OK, she said.
“Just go somewhere,” Peek said. “You know what to do.”
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