Hurt again

By the time it ended, I never wanted to see his face again.

All the pushing, prodding, extending and sweating was too much for a first encounter. I still see him: staring down at me, slightly laughing as I made my way through it.

I felt like a failure.

I figured I was doing a good thing by getting up early -- and on a holiday, no less -- to meet my potential trainer for our first session. We'll call him Adebisi, since that's who he looked like.

Adebisi was about 5-foot-8 with dark skin, a bald head and bugged out eyes. The shirt he had on stretched across muscles some people will never see. It was a change from the trainer I had in Florida, who gained nearly two dozen pounds as he was putting me through several weeks of rigorous hour long sessions. We exchanged pleasantries, then got down to work.

I need to eat more.

I know four times a day isn't enough, but it's sometimes all I have space to squeeze in. This week, I'll work on adding some fruit between meals or something to make sure I'm stuffing my face about five times.

I have good lower body strength.

That's what he thinks. The only reason it looked like that was because everything he said do, I did. I hate coming off like an underachiever. The fact that I'm not little like most of my friends makes me strain under pressure to make sure I'm not the one calling "Uncle" first. Maybe I really do. I mean, I play tennis and run regularly. I'll take that.

I need a real gym buddy. And FAST!

OK, so none of my friends locally are into the whole working out thing like I've been this year, so consistency has been a deterrent. And while I'd rather be there with someone I know, I'd rather be there with someone who will motivate me. Adebisi would have to. Problem is, he wants $1,400 to do it.

I told him to let me mull it over. I walked tall from the gym as I headed to the car. When I got out at home, my legs weren't working. I'd gotten home on adrenaline. I felt new hurts from the practice session (he told me the actual workouts were more than that), and I'm excited about the prospects of working with Adebisi to make it work. I'll just have to be able to walk, upright, into the gym.