New Year's Resolutions: Get Fit!

[Annalyse Castova]

All it took was one step, one step and she would be closer to her goal. Annalyse knew this, yet was having trouble stepping into the community gym. She knew that she should be working out and getting fit, after all she was still over weight. Annalyse hovered outside the door before slowly opening it and looking around.

For being right after the new year's it seemed to be a bit empty. Heading over to the lockers Annalyse shed her coat and stuffed it into her locker before locking the metal grated cubicle. She flipped her braid and shrugged out of her hoodie carrying it with her.

Approaching one of the open stair machine's Annalyse put her headphones in and started to put it on random on Pandora. She hoped she wasn't bothering anyone as she slowly started to work on her new year's resolution. She also didn't realize she was horribly humming along to the song on her phone.

"L'amore non ha un senso, l'amore non ha un nome, l'amore bagna gli occhi." Yes. Yes she was badly singing in Italian. The worst part was that she didn't even realize it.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Like most of the people occupying the gym in January, Josh was here in the hopes of turning his fitness around for the New Year. He wasn't getting any younger, as his general practitioner constantly reminded him. He had managed to keep his blood pressure under control with a combination of medicine and calisthenics and jogging and massages with Sean, but lately he had seen his weight creeping upwards.

This was possibly a result of all the baking he had done the last few years, but he was reluctant to quit; he was still too proud of having learned a new skill at such a late point in his life. No, the better option would be to hit the gym after work.

He had informed Sean of this decision, and although Sean had been pessimistic he also hadn't managed to talk Josh out of it.

His other resolutions included finally learning how to drive (preferably without wrecking the car this time) and, with a little bit of soul searching after admitting just why he hadn't mentioned driving lessons for the past six years, attending therapy for his anxiety.

He still hadn't shopped around for a therapist yet, but he didn't need to shop around for a gym, because the community already provided one.

It was a little crowded, and the young lady next to him was singing in a language he didn't understand. It sounded like it might be a Romance language, but he wasn't entirely sure.

He waited until there was a pause in her singing before nearly shouting at her, "What are you singing?"

[Annalyse Castova]

Annalyse knew that the gym was a place of opportunity. It was a place where she could achieve a body that she wanted, regardless of what society wanted. The jabs and looks she got when she wore a bikini, though, those hurt. No matter. They were just more motivation.

She knew that coming to the gym needed to be a regular thing, but she could barely bring herself to head there. Given it was the middle of the winter, though, she didn’t have much choice. Many of the trails and paths that were more readily available in summer were still covered in the harsh winter and snow.

She wasn’t sure if she liked all this snow. It was nice to cool off, but she supposed her favorite things about winter were the things that could be done inside. Like hot cocoa, and cookies, and a fireplace, just... things that were cozy. Just like the summer could be too hot, the winter could be too cold.

Going to the gym was just about the opposite of cozy. In fact, it was strenuous and sweaty and just plain gross. This was evidenced by the way her curls hung to the nap of her neck, even though they were supposed to be held up in her braid. Strands just kept escaping when she got sweaty.

What would wonder woman do? Power through? YUP! Annalyse gave more of a grimace than a grin as she tried to set a pace on the stair machine, she was entirely focused on the fact that she was going to do this. No matter how hard it seemed.

After going on the machine for about fifteen minutes Ana was thoroughly sweating. She knew she didn’t have the lung power for this, plus, the singing wasn’t helping. She started to slow down and went to pause pandora. The darn thing on her phone wasn’t responded so she was mumbling in the romance language that was a third to hers.

“Si prega di lavorare il telefono stupido!”

Ana suddenly became aware of the fact that someone was nearly shouting at her. Glancing over she realized someone was trying to talk to her. “Mon dieu...”

Analyse was mortified. Feeling a blush come over her already very sweaty face she stopped on the machine altogether. Looking over at the man she pulled her headphones out. “Oh my God, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean for anyone to hear...” She winced, knowing how bad she probably sounded. Her parents and sister made sure she knew how bad she was at singing. Or anything rhythmic.

Turning to face the guy as she got off of her machine she smiled. “Sorry again, I was singing L'amore esiste By Francesca Michielin.” She gave a grin and wiped the sweat from her forehead before taking a drink from her water bottle. “Those particular lyrics mean Love doesn’t make sense, Love doesn’t have a name, Love wets eyes”. She grinned and put her braid behind her shoulder. “It is a good stair climbing song, again, I’m really sorry I disturbed you.”

Honest. She really didn’t mean to.