Note: This story was created in 40 minutes in one of our writing sessions. The story is based on the following writing prompts: The words ‘Hunter’ and ‘Hunted.’
Out of Shape and Back to my Senses: A Sublime Journey – Maria Karamanoglou
You know all these motivating stories in the magazines, with a picture of an obese person, and next to it the same person 30kg down? About how they were gained weight because they were miserable and then they decided to do something about it etc etc? Well, that’s my story. Only, the other way round.
I used to be a personal trainer, a health guru, a carb nazi, a lunatic if you ask me now. I would work out more than any of my clients, eat broccoli and chicken breast, do yoga, the whole package. My clients would come to our sessions all stressed that I would berate them. If we accidentally met at the movies, they would try and hide the popcorn behind their backs, and I would ruin their appetite whenever I saw them in the restaurant. I was the avenger of tasty food, the opposite of joy, the I-know-what-you-ate-last-summer kind of bully. They paid me, but they hated me. I was the Hunter that wanted to track down and kill every single gram of fat in this world. And then… nothing major happened.
Simply, as I was going to the gym one afternoon, the taste of caramel sauce on vanilla ice cream just like popped into my mouth – and instead of hopping on the dreadful treadmill, my legs decided that enough was enough and they walked me into a pastry shop. The baker had just finished putting on the shop window freshly baked butter croissants, two of which finished in my bag less than five minutes later. Next to them, eclairs. Chocolate mousse. Crème Brule. Handmade ice-cream. And that was the end of the world as I knew it. Now, five years later, I’m a pastry chef.
The place I walked in that day, I own it now. My gym bag is in the bottom of my closet, the gym never sees me, most of my Nikes I gave away to my old clients. I just kept my yoga pants that are comfy for home, and the occasional stroll next to the sea. Now, maybe you would think that I’m hunted, or haunted, by remorse? Fat? Calories? Ha! Not even close! My former clients hunt me now… not to get them back into shape, but to bake them my famous tarts, croissants, babas, and madeleines. And you know what? Never been happier in my life. People love me, desserts love me, comfy pants love me, I love me. Well… and if some health guru hates me, I can live with that. As long as there will be chocolate truffles in this world.
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