Eau Claire city employees headed off to boot camp this morning, all part of the city's initiative to get its employees thinking about their health.

The new exercise class kicked off bright and early, but working out together isn't the only thing city employees are doing to get in shape.

“You can see the excitement of the people coming down here at 6 in the morning to exercise," says City Administrator Mike Huggins.

Transportation Clerk Janice White and other Eau Claire city employees are pushing themselves hard for the next eight weeks in a boot camp class at theYMCA.

"I would love to go down a pants size,” says Janice. "I'm still a little tired, but I'm looking forward to it."

But, she says it may be an uphill battle.

"I did 31 sit-ups and 23 push-ups, but I did do, let me qualify that, I did do the girl pushups,” she says, laughing.

Though many of the workers find it hard to get up this early in the morning to work out, they say the motivation from the workplace carries over.

“Boot camp sounds difficult, but my friend Janice is going to do it, my husband's doing it, and I thought this will be a good reason to get up in the morning," says Mary Anklam, a clerk for the streets department who sits next to Janice at work.

Janice and Mary are also part of the Weight Watchers program the city has started, which meets at City Hall.

"It has about 35 members and in the last 12 weeks, they've lost 460 pounds," says Human Resources Manager Jan Dole.

These life changes sponsored by the city all started about a year-and-a-half ago, when their insurance costs rose 57 percent. Their new insurance company, Group Health, required health consultations. But the city took its own initiative and created a wellness committee.

"What we're trying to do is save taxpayers money, that's really the whole point, the healthier our employees can get the lower the cost of health care," says Dole.

It also offers yoga. All classes are paid for by the employees, but are offered at a group rate.

"We've paid for it, whether we go or not, so that's even a bigger incentive to go," says Janice.

And the support system at work is an added incentive for self-improvement.

“My basic goal is just to feel better,” says Mary. “You know, everyone wants to look better, but really I want to be able to feel better."

We'll be checking back with the boot camp class when it ends in eight weeks to see how everyone fared.