Cheryl

This is Cheryl.

She is my personal trainer. For the last 6 months I have been going to her house, 2 days a week, for torture sessions she calls “personal training”. It usually goes like this:

6:10 AM I leave my house with a sense of dread. I know how difficult this will be.

6:15 I go in her beautifully decorated house and get mauled by 2 enormous dogs that apparently get no love or attention so they demand it from me.

6:20 I warm up on the elliptical machine or trampoline.

6:30 We start the hard stuff. She sits primly on her wicker love seat and orders me to do pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, burpees, mountains and all these horrible exercises that she gives cute little names like: “reverse squat lunges with double triceps dips”.

6:35 I start to complain. We do countless reps in endless sets and I get confused and grouchy and accuse her of losing count.

6:40 Cheryl starts cheering. “Good Job!” she chirps as I tremble and wobble and grunt. “Doesn’t that feel great!?!” she joyfully cries as I collapse on the floor.

6:50 Cheryl jumps up to show me a new exercise. She does something perfectly impossible like balancing on one foot on a bosu ball while doing a sit up with a barbell. I say, “I can’t do that!” and then she makes me do it. It is ugly but it gets done.

7:00 We talk about anything, anything at all, to get my mind off the pain.

7: 30 Suddenly – after 60 minutes of pure hell – Suddenly I am done. I feel calm. All the stuff that was stressing me out the day before is forgotten. I am overcome with love and gratitude towards Cheryl. I leave her home peaceful and weak. Too weak to get worked up about anything.

To look at me you can’t tell I am a weightlifting muscle woman. But my whole physical life has changed thanks to Cheryl. I am strong and I have stamina. My diet has improved because I feel like taking care of myself. I won’t be a sexy swimsuit model this summer, but I will be able to hike, raft, bike and ride horses for hours. Besides, I am starting to feel like a sexy swimsuit model on the inside. Thanks Cheryl.