Fat Dragons are Easy Prey, Part 3

“In which I become a Titan and give the Fat Dragon a sound thrashing.”

My wife, Laura, set me up with a personal trainer three Christmases ago. At my first appointment, Kael asked me what I wanted from working out.

“All I want is to not be fat again,” I told her. She laughed.

“That’s not going to work! For this to stick, you need to know who you want to be.” Kael said it very kindly, with confidence, and in a tone that also made clear there was to be no argument about this.

I felt lost. I truly didn’t know what else to want. I told her my story. Kael pulled a pencil out of her pony tail and began taking some notes. She stopped me a few times to ask questions as I went along. Then she smiled, with a look of determination in her eye.

“Okay, first thing we’re going to do is get you to a base level of fitness. Once we get there, we can figure out what’s next.”

The following Wednesday, Kael took me through my first routine. I learned about how to stand while holding free weights, how to do a proper crunch, three different kinds of lunges, and what to do with a few of the weight machines as well. The hour flew by and I spent another thirty minutes hounding Kael with question after question, which she answered thoroughly.

On Friday, I went through the workout on my own and my body came to life. For the first time in ever, my body felt right. It was a shy feeling at first, but after a few more sessions with Kael, my body was gaining confidence with every rep, every sit-up, and every minute with a jump rope.

Three months later, Kael asked me to sign up for an outdoor bootcamp and before I knew it I was in class with three middle-aged women and a sixty-five year old woman, all in considerably better shape than I was. The five of us formed an unlikely team. Three times a week we met with Kael outside on a sand volleyball court and worked ourselves silly: sprinting, crawling, running up stairs, lifting weights, and doing everything we could to improve ourselves for those forty-five sand-filled minutes.

I came home sweaty and covered in sand, my body rejoicing. Laura hosed me off outside before I ventured back into the house for a proper shower.
A year later I was in the best shape of my life. I moved my family to Bend, Oregon, kept working out and feeling good, but Kael’s question still haunted me.

“Who do I want to be?”

I confided this story to Patricia, a bootcamp instructor I met in Bend. I’d been working with Patricia for awhile. Like Kael, she laughed at me.

“Leslie, you’re an athlete! Can’t you see that? Your body wants to be an athlete.”

I broke out in a big smile. Patricia was right; I had become an athlete without even realizing it. Then a surprising thing happened. My body spoke up.

“I want to be a Titan.” My body said.

“You mean a big weight lifter?” (I felt weird talking to my body.)

“No. A Titan. The original athletes. The ones who were always ready for battle, capable of handling any physical situation. That’s who I am supposed to be.”

“Okay body, let’s do it.”

So that’s what my body and I are up to. We’re working together to become a Titan. We work on that two to four times a week with an amazing trainer named John over at Elite Fitness along with two other partners. My body and mind are whole and connected for the first time in my life. I want more.

I’m not telling this story to brag or show off. I’m telling this story because there are other people like me. People who need to know that it’s possible. It’s incredibly difficult; it’s absolutely worth it.

The Fat Dragon sometimes shows up and tries to drag me back into the old ways. But now I turn, laugh at him, and he runs away. I usually chase him down and give him a good beating as payback for the decades of abuse because Fat Dragons are easy prey.