There’s a particularly awesome trainer at my local Ballys. Her physique reminds me of Demi Moore in 1997’s GI Jane. The sum of our interaction since 2005 has been a wave and a smile and the occasional, “are you still using this?” when she’s training someone out on the weight room floor.

Yesterday I was laying on my back doing my ab workout and she walked right over to me.

“Want a tip?” she asked, and walked over to grab one of the half-circle balance platforms and placed it under my feet.

I had been doing leg lifts and touching my heels all the way back to the ground before pulling them back up to my chest. She put the balance platform under my heels and it made a big difference. I wasn’t bouncing when I hit the floor any more and there was a lot more control in the motion.

I thanked her for the tidbit and we got to chatting about my struggle with losing weight, what kinds of things I’d been doing, and of course, the GeekFit Podcast. She was really nice about everything; said she’d noticed how hard I’d been working and that she remembered where I was when I started at Bally years ago.

It was a really nice bit of motivation and one that was perfectly timed with me heading to Chicago for 3 weeks this Sunday. I’m armed with my national gym membership, a reservation at an extended stay, and a determination to return either 6–8 lbs lighter or 1.5 – 2% lower in body fat. It’s going to be awesome.