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Fitness Trainer Travails
When relationships become too sweet, they can decay!
I work out 5 days a week with a fitness trainer who’s both fun and fierce.
Since starting in September 2021, I’ve done close to 1,000 workouts with her, and she’s been a breath of fresh air. Under her guidance, I didn’t just improve physically — I started saying “why not” instead of “no way” to things that might make me happy. I even became more punctual, consistent, and less judgmental.
“Know all to forgive all,” she’d say. It rubbed off on me, and I spread the gospel of her wisdom far and wide.
Back then, I was her only client. It took a year before someone else signed up — her husband’s colleague’s wife. Then came my brother, who had a shoulder issue she fixed in nine days while he was visiting India. He continued classes online after returning to the U.S.
Daylight Saving Time left my trainer marveling at “spring forward, fall back.” My brother’s workout classes, at 5:30 a.m. EST, translated to either 4:00 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. Indian Standard Time, depending on the month. She had no idea this biannual time shuffle even existed before.
Meanwhile, she kept up her traditional Hindu ways — fasting for festivals and mentioning it during workouts. My brother, who hadn’t heard about Teej in…