Fit2Fat2?
By TheOwl
By TheOwl
The Idea
Mike the owner of the gym where I work left a message on my mobile to say that he wanted to see me in his office this morning, before I do my Zumba class. He has never asked me to come to his office before in the three years I have worked there and I will admit to be more than a little worried he is about to make me redundant. I make a reasonable amount from the personal training I do but I would struggle without the classes I teach at the gym to make a living.
So I arrived fifteen minutes early to see what he had to say and the welcome he gave me did not make me feel any better, if I was reading his face right there was clearly something on his mind that I was not going to like.
“So Louise take a seat.”
“What is this all about?” I said as I sat down, not wanting to waste time on chit chat, if he was about to sack me I wanted him to get it over and done with.
“Well as I am sure you are aware with the economic downturn the gym has been struggling and well I have come up with an idea that might help us to get the membership back up.”
“You taking my advice and opening later at night?”
“No, I thought we could do an experiment to show that it is easy to lose weight with a balanced diet and good exercise, so we would get a member of staff to spend half a year not exercising and eating lots of junk food and then the next half a year to get thin again and show how easy it is. Charting it all chart with videos and blogs on the internet, with lots of plugs for the gym thrown in.”
“It sounds like it might work, but who is the unfortunate who would actually do this?” (Okay I think I knew where this was going, but I was hoping I was wrong)
“Well I was thinking you, all you need to do is put on about fifty pounds and then lose it again, we will pay you the same as you make now for the classes you do here and the personal training sessions you do in an average week for the year of the experiment.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“Deadly, I really think this could work to help promote the gym, otherwise I’ll have to start laying people off.”
“But why me?”
“You will look good on camera, what with the long blond hair, blue eyes and pretty face and also you are one of the few people I could be sure you would not get fat and stay fat.”
“Now that is true, Nicola (one of my fellow instructors) is already looking like she has put on a few recently, but I could not stand getting fat in the first place.”
“That is a shame because it is do this, or join all the others on the dole queue.”
“That’s blackmail, what if I just told Dave, (the gym chains regional manager) he would never let you do this.”
“I already ran it by him, he said if this proves popular we could use it plug all the nearby gyms in the chain. He even praised me for my outside-the-box thinking. So blackmail or not this is a reality, now I’ll give you a day to decide, be here tomorrow at ten if your in. Oh and don‘t worry Alison (another of my fellow gym instructors) is doing your classes for the rest of today.”
I wanted to carry on arguing but it was clear it would get me nowhere so I left. I had walked to the gym so I decided to go for a run from the gym to help to alleviate some of the rage I was feeling. Having pushed my way hard through around eight miles I was starting to feel better about things when I arrived back at my house exhausted.
*****
Not having to do any of my classes then left me with half the day to fill, I am not the kind of person who likes doing nothing so I ended up sorting and resorting the spare room, just to fill the time. Finally at five I could leave the house to meet April one of my personal training client at her place after she had finished work to do her workout.
April had proved to be one of my most difficult clients in the year I had been her personal trainer, she had only lost twenty three pounds, leaving the red headed pear, still two hundred and twenty six pounds, being only five foot four means she is certainly still fat. Her fitness has improved from our workouts together but she is clearly not sticking to the meal plans I’d given her. It is a shame because although she looks kind of good, if she dropped a few she could clearly be a real head turner.
*****
When I got back Robert my boyfriend was back from work already and dished us up dinner as I got in, salmon steak, couple of potatoes and steamed veggies, our Thursday regular. Don’t know why anyone would want or need more than this it is quite adequate.
After we finished I decided I could not hold it in any longer and had to tell him all about the outrageous plan of Mike’s.
“Your not going to believe what Mike asked me to do at work today.”
“Not for sexual favours again.” he said chuckling to himself a little.
“No cheeky, this is not good.” and I went on to explain it all.
“He can’t be serious, can he?” Robert said after.
“Deadly.”
“You know you don’t have to do it, we might struggle to pay the mortgage without your salary, but I am sure we could get by.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think we should take the risk, especially with the economy the way it is.”
“Well if your sure.”
“I am, but fifty pounds so much, eww just think how fat I’ll be.”
“Don’t worry babe, it will only be temporary.”
“Yes I know I can lose it, it is just about a little effort and a bit of self control.”
*****
So the following morning I went to Mike’s office to say yes and still not believing I was going to do this.
“I take it from the fact you are here today that you are going to do this.”
“Sure, but I just want to clarify a couple of things first, I take it the gym will pay for the extra food I’ll be eating.”
“Of course, so long as you don’t expect to be living on lobster and caviar, we will reimburse your food bill every week.”
“Okay and also you will pay for some new clothes when I outgrow the ones I have, I don’t expect a new wardrobe full as I don’t plan on staying that way for very long but I will certainly need some new stuff.”
“That wont be a problem, like you say so long as your not spending loads it will be fine.”
“Okay then I guess we are doing this.”
“Great, then I plan to get this launched by next Monday, do you mind setting up a site for videos and a blog and I will start finding way to promote it in the gyms”
“That is fine.” At least it was something to do for the next few days.
So now I am committed to doing this, even if I hate the idea, it might have been more palatable if Mike did not look so happy and even a little smug looking behind his desk.
(Continued in post 4 of this thread)
