Fitness Fall Offs

Jyoti still hadn’t fully caught her breath, & her legs felt as though they were about to fall off.

She was trailing a few steps behind Kimber as they both staggered back to the locker room, wheezing & beleaguered.

“It’s… going to get easier,” Kimber huffed, unconvincingly. “We just… have to be… diligent. Keep puttin’ the work in.” Jyoti would’ve rolled her eyes. At least if she had the energy to expend. But she was too busy trying to not keel over.

“Yeah…” winced Jyoti, as they finally reached the corner for the locker room, getting lapped by younger, more energetic girls from their same spin class, barely feeling it at all. “Yeah so… About that…”

“Don’t-“ Kimber warned. She knew Jyoti, & had a sense of where this was going. But Jyoti’s pulse was pounding too loud in her ears to hear her coworker’s stern warning.

“I know we’re really trying to stick to our… fitness resolutions here,” the caramel-skinned young Indian woman softly tried pace her breath, as her round body lumbered towards their locker. “But like-“

“Here we go,” Kimber scoffed. But Jyoti focused on getting out what she needed to say.

“I’ve been really bustin’ my ass these past few weeks,” she insisted. Which Kimber couldn’t deny. At least here, Jyoti had been putting the work in. “And STILL! I’ve somehow managed to put on another five pounds this year so far! I’m up! I’m actually fatter than back when we started this!”

“It- sounds like water weight. We go through this every year, Jyo,’” Kimber rasped, trying to run the towel through her curly red hair. “And every year, just when we’re about to make a little progress, it ‘gets too hard,’ we cave, throw in the towel a few weeks in, & then go hog wild the whole rest of the year, just to inevitably put on more weight.” And there was some fact to that. Both women had consistently grown larger, year after year. Though, if Kimber were being totally truthful, she was mostly calling out Jyoti here. Sure, while Kimber herself had put on about a solid fifty or sixty pounds since the two of them had started working together, developing a plump, chubby hourglass figure that was slowly curving outward, Jyoti had practically ballooned over that same time period. Becoming significantly heavier. Rounder. Obese.

And yet, she also always seemed a lot less bothered by it than Kimber ever was. That’s probably why she always lacked the discipline, despite all of Kimber’s best efforts to keep pushing the both of them.

“Yeah well,” Jyoti sighed. “I’m really starting to think that this is maybe just my lot in life.” She exhaled through puckered lips, while running her hands along the silhouette of her round, flabby body. “I think I’m just like… destined to be BIG!”

“C’mon, Jyoti, that is quitter talk!” Kimber admonished. On some level, she recognized that if Jyoti caved, she wouldn’t have the motivation to keep going on her own. She wouldn’t admit it, but selfishly, she was just a little more invested in pushing Jyoti more because of what it meant for her personally. “Remember how we were going to slim down, get on a bunch of dating apps?”

“Um… I already did get on one,” Jyoti fessed up. “And I’ve been talking to someone for about a week & a half. It’s… going well.” Kimber squinted, skeptically. Jyoti knew that look. Kimber got it whenever she was about to get a little too honest.

“And they know you’re…”

“… A complete fat ass?” Jyoti snickered, not beating around the bush. “Let’s just say, they made it clear in no uncertain terms? They like their ladies.., quite a bit on the larger size.”

“Oh. So that’s why you’re ready to leave me here, high & dry.” Kimber lamented. “For a chubby chaser…”

“C’mon, Kim. Did I say that?” Jyoti huffed, lowering herself onto the bench next to her coworker. The whole thing shook, creaking under her bulk. “I’m not proposing we just totally quit what we’re doing here. Because I do need to work on being just a bit more active.” She admitted. “Just… can we stop kicking our own asses so damn hard? Take it a little easier?” She extended the same pinky they always shook on each time they started one of these New Year’s gym resolutions.

“And… if taking it easy, say I don’t slim down any,” Kimber pondered, thinking out loud. “The person you’re talking to… do they have any friends…?”

|||

I read something that typically January 17th is the typical unofficial day that most people cave & give up on New Years Resolutions. I heard it after I had already started this one. And that was the day I was originally aiming for (& could’ve just posted with flat colors), but I spent a little time adding some shading. You might remember her from that last sketch dump I put up before getting sick as a dog. She was featured pretty prominently.

This may be something that won’t happen as much with GLP-1s now, but there’s something about someone just lucidly coming to the decision that working out is ‘just too hard,’ & getting them nowhere, so they just begrudgingly accept being fat from here on out. Like ultimately, nothing is really stopping them but proper motivation. They could totally keep at it if they wanted. But it’s just so much easier, resigning themselves to the notion ‘they’re just big now,’ & rolling with it. Anyway here, Jyoti’s new flirty friend might’ve helped her reach that conclusion a little easier. But I enjoy it all the same. And that was what I was looking to capture here for the sake of posterity. Just wanted a little something quick & cute.

Have the day off today, & was originally planning on going out, but it’s still just a little too cold to be out & about with how much of a cough I’ve still got going on. So I’m going to do a few chores & maybe hone in on some writing this evening!