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Former gymnast Georgeanna Johnson experienced the transformation of a lifetime over the past year, and her story will air Tuesday night during ABC's hit show "Extreme Weight Loss."

Each episode of "Extreme Weight Loss" features a full year in the life of someone determined to shed pounds while gaining a healthy new lifestyle. Tuesday's episode follows Johnson, who was chosen among thousands of applicants to work with celebrity trainer Chris Powell and his wife, Heidi.

Johnson in 2013 with celebrity trainers Chris and Heidi Powell

Johnson's lifetime love of gymnastics features prominently into Tuesday's episode, as she was able to return to the mats to tumble again with encouragement from Olympic champions Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller and Mary Lou Retton.

Johnson competed for Southern Kentucky Gymnastics in Bowling Green in her youth and later coached at Logan County Gymnastics in Russellville, Ky., when her daughters were young.

"My gymnastics 'career' was a big part of my childhood," she told IG. "I am 5'7", so I was never going to be a high-level gymnast, but I just had a love for the sport. I spent many hours in the gym with friends, went to camps and competitions. I may never have been a super star gymnast, but like so many young girls, it was important to me. It gave me confidence, and I feel like the flexibility and agility I gained from it helped me so much this year as I tried to regain my inner athlete."

Through the show, she was able to get back in the gym and once again experience the thrill of being a gymnast.

"Doing gymnastics again was so fun!" she said. "I had no idea what to expect and if, at 44, I could really make a go at learning my back handspring again. But, as I began with the basics, I realized I had some muscle memory and the movements began to feel natural. My body may have been heavier and older, but I loved feeling the familiar feeling of pushing into a backbend, doing cartwheels, being spotted on back handsprings."

The year-long process for "Extreme Weight Loss" is divided into four three-month phases, each of which includes a weight-loss goal set by Powell.

"Mentally, Phase One was the hardest," Johnson said. "We went to 'boot camp' for three months this year for Phase One, so being away from home was very difficult. I had never been away from my husband or daughters for any extended period of time, so being away was emotionally draining. And physically exhausting. I went from never working out to working out four to five hours a day. I missed my family terribly during that time."

After the mental stress of Phase One, Phase Two was physically the most demanding for Johnson, she said.

"I came home for Phase Two, and that is when I began training for my six-month milestone, a gymnastics 'meet,'" she explained. "So each day I had a two-hour workout with my trainer, an hour of cardio, and training with my gymnastics coach and some days meeting with my choreographer. So, it was very physically taxing for me. I wanted my routines to be good, and I wanted to complete the skills I had been working on, so I was really pushing myself. It was worth it, though. I had such a great time at the milestone with all the Olympic gymnasts there."

The experience was such a life-changing event that Johnson said she now wants to focus on paying it forward and helping others. "I have had such a wonderful experience, and feel so much better about myself, that I want others to get motivated to make changes too," she said. "I am launching a website, fitiswell.com, the night the show airs. Even though I have lost weight, staying healthy will be a lifelong journey, so I really am looking forward to sharing my journey with others, with insight about the show, recipes, exercise and diet tips. I even have a free e-book outlining the three big diet changes I made to succeed."

The support of the Powells as coaches was "invaluable" through it all, Johnson said.

"Working with Chris and Heidi incredible," Johnson said. "They are as nice as they seem on TV! They are truly friends and having their support makes a huge difference. Chris and Heidi could believe in me when I still had doubts and didn't know if I could succeed. They want the best for each of us, and push us to become better. They will be lifelong friends."

External Link: Georgeanna Johnson Official Facebook Page

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British Olympian and world championships all-around silver medalist Daniel Keatings told IG that representing his native Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this month offers him a challenge comparable to the sport’s most prestigious competitions.

“I think the pressure is just the same as a world championships or an Olympics,” said Keatings, who trains at Huntington Olympic Gymnastics Club in England. “You are in the spotlight and there is an expectation and a hope, particularly this time with a home crowd, that you do well. In terms of motivation, as the event comes around only every four years and it’s my only chance to represent Scotland, it will be quite special and something I will be very proud to do. So there is definitely high motivation there.”

Keatings, who finished 20th all-around at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and second all-around at the 2009 world championships in London, said the Scottish team is looking strong in the final approach to the Games, which will begin July 23. Team members are working out at the British national team training center in Lilleshall, England.

“Training’s being going well,” Keatings said. “It helps that all of the British boys have been raining together at Lilleshall, even though we compete for different home nations, so we can keep pushing each other on and keep the intensity high.”

Keatings’ Scottish teammates in Glasgow will include Daniel Purvis, a top-seven all-around finisher at the past three worlds and a member of the bronze medal-winning British team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London; Frank Baines, the 2012 European junior all-around champion; Adam Cox, the 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist on high bar; and Liam Davie.

The Scottish women’s team for the Games: Cara Kennedy, Erin McLachlan, Amy Regan, Carly Smith and Emma White.

Keatings, the 2010 and 2013 European champion on pommel horse, said he plans to perform a pommel horse routine with a 7.2 Difficulty note in Glasgow. He is optimistic for team and individual success at the Games.

“Team Scotland has never won a team medal, so that’s a huge goal for all of us and something I think we are capable of,” he told IG. “Personally I’m aiming for the top five in the all-around and to medal on pommel and parallel bars.”

International Gymnast magazine related coverage:

Daniel Keatings interview and center poster (June 2009)

"Nervous Purvis" – Daniel Purvis profile (November 2012)

"Pure Purvis" –Purvis interview (March 2012)

"Lilleshall: Backstage in Britain" – cover story on British national program, Purvis cover photo (November 2011)

To order back issues, or subscribe to the print and/or digital edition of International Gymnast magazine, click here.