Top resolution for 2012: Staying employed

With another flip of the calendar offering a fresh start, Long Islanders are making many typical New Year's resolutions: quit smoking, eat better, lose weight. But during economic times when holding on matters as much as shedding, many were like Larry Hall, who said his goal for 2012 is to work hard and "stay employed."

Hall, who was shopping at the Walt Whitman mall in Huntington Station, said -- like several interviewed -- that he also wants to quit smoking, "just because cigarettes were $2 a pack when I started and now they're $10. I'm in my 40s now, and I can't keep doing to my body what I used to be able to do.

"I want to make sure I'm around for my kids."

But of equal concern to Hall, 40, of Amityville, was his job, as a hospital equipment company truck driver, "especially with this economy. I just heard on the news that hundreds of people are getting laid off from [Nassau] county." He said he'll be working hard next year.

So will John Keiren, who was taking a break as a salesman at Best Buy.

Money's tight, said Keiren, 26, of Levittown, so he's working weekends, "taking all the shifts nobody usually wants," hoping to be recognized -- and hoping to get a little bump in his paycheck. His resolution: "to get promoted."

Sheri Zirimis, 22, who was visiting her parents' home in East Northport from Salisbury, Md., said she needs to "stop being lazy" and throw herself into her career goal -- becoming a legal mediator.

There were, of course, others with the perennial goal of dropping some pounds. However, at the Huntington Station office of the Jenny Craig weight loss program, all was quiet.

Manager Vonda Wells, 46, of Lindenhurst, said, "losing weight is one of the big resolutions" and the winter rush is coming. But, she said, the office typically does not see a large increase in clients until February.

"People make their New Year's resolution to lose weight. But a lot of people think they can do it themselves. And some people are able to do that. But for us, February is usually busier than January."

Ralph Mastrangelo, 57, of East Northport, walked out of the Whole Foods store in Jericho on Thursday carrying a shopping bag.

"Lose weight," he said of his resolution, adding as he glanced at his stomach, "I could be Santa Claus next year."

He opened the bag to reveal not veggies or something organic, but tiramisu cake. "We're going to pour Cognac on it," he said.

"It's called a New Year's resolution," he explained, "because it starts on New Year's."