Page 17 of Bewitch

“You’re insane.”

“You enjoy this.”

“It’s torture.”

“Then quit.”

I’m furious all over again. I try to go deeper with the moves to prove to him that I deserve to be here, that I’m not wasting his time.

“Let’s go. More. Faster. Get it. More. Deeper. Slower.”

“Faster or slower?”

“Well, slower is better usually.”

“When isn’t it?”

“When I want you to get your heart racing.”

“This isn’t cardio.”

“It can be. You want cardio with your leg moves?”

“Kill me now. This is the last leg move. Now what? Arms?”

“Back. Over to the bench again.”

He has me lie back with just my head and my shoulders on the bench. Fists used instead of dumbbells, I do pullovers, and he yells at me that I need to get my biceps by my ears, but my shoulders don’t like the move. Then he has me do bent over rows and then one-arm rows.

Arms and shoulders, three moves each, none with weights, and I am so over all of this. I’m dripping in sweat, and I’m sure I look a mess. I sure feel like that.

“Are you hungry?” he asks.

“Starving,” I admit.

He wrinkles his nose.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“It’s not too surprising. Being hungry after exercise is normal, after all. Food is fuel, and you need to replenish yourself. What you should do is have a banana or something like that once you get to your car. It’ll help with the main hunger, and once it’s cooled down some, then you can eat, but don’t overeat. You cannot eat past the point of fullness. Try to eat to the point of being satisfied or even just before that point.”

“Oh, good. We’re finally at the diet part of our talk.”

“Yep. Come with me.”

Surprised, I follow him to a back area and then to a small room. He sits behind the desk in a tiny cubicle, and he types away and then prints out a single piece of paper and hands it to me.

Breakfast: two eggs or four egg whites

Lunch: salmon and baked potato, no butter, no oil, nothing

Dinner: chicken, rice, broccoli, and avocado with lemon

I glance up. “That’s for one day.”

“That’s your diet for every day.”

“No snacks? Not even healthy ones?”

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