We were up early. Patti was going to make her first solo driving trip to the college this morning. I wanted her to have plenty of time so she would not have to speed. Wendy was going to come in this morning and work until noon and then Kim noon till closing. Jenny and I were going to work from 7 AM until 10 pm. Vicky, Marcy and Ching Lee were going to split the day up between them so we would have an additional person there to help. We planned to do the same thing Saturday and Sunday depending on how busy the place was.

Shelia and her boxer pals were starting their training class at three. We kicked the heat up from its overnight setting of 60 to the daytime setting of 68. We left the tanning booth, waiting room and office warmer over night than the gym. It only took the big heaters a few minutes the thermostats were shutting them down.

Marcy had left us detailed instructions for opening up. The book we had initially started had been updated almost daily. The computers turned on, coffee made and water for hot chocolate. The money went into the cash register from a prepared money bag. The checks were carried to the bank every couple of days. The credit and debit card transactions were processed every night at closing. The cash was being held to pay the part time girls until they went back to college. If things had not slowed down some by then we may have to hire another part time girl.

Wendy had already asked if she could work full time. She was going to wait to start college after her mom and dad received more permanent assignments. Changing schools every year was bad enough. She didn’t want to do college that way. Her part time job at the flower shop had all but dried up. Their kids had come home from college and were making all deliveries during the busiest time of the year. Jenny and I were going to try to talk her into going to KCC next year. She could ride up with Patti or me. Misty would graduate in June and I would be able to use my sponsorship for her now that I knew about it. It would be a good discount to encourage her to go to college.

The tanning was steady and at times a wait. Both Marathoners were in use. Both were scheduled for four hour segments this morning ad again this afternoon.

Mom was going to call for a fruit and juice order to bring before lunch time and bring it when she came. Sysco food systems delivered everything else from bath room tissue to paper towels and cleaning supplies. We were running towels through the washer and drier continuously in the afternoons.

I was manning the office most of the time. The Christmas tanning gift packages were selling like crazy. Buy a10 coupon book for the price 8 tans and they came with a gift envelope. Marcy might need to order more today. The radio adds had started running last night and it showed today in the sale of memberships and the specials. I never thought we would get much business from the western shore but eight out of ten sales were coming from there today.

At 11 I called Mom to come in if she could we were starting to have waiting lines. Mom had barely settled in when two ladies in EMT uniforms came in wanting to speak to the owner or manager. I introduced myself as one of the owners and asked what I could do for them.

“I’m Abby James and this is Kristen Block. We heard that you might be interested in some one that could help you do more advanced physical assessments for your new members.” Abby said.

“Yes we are. We are currently doing a weigh in’s, body fat check’s and body measurement’s. I think we need to be checking blood pressure and listening to heart and lungs and possibly offer free blood sugar test before we design an individual aggressive personal fitness work out program” I said. “We have several tread mills that will give heart rates but it might be beneficial to have more. What did you have in mind?”

“There are three of us Me, Kristin and Carla James who work for the county EMS system. We work all the different shifts and you can tell we spend a lot of time sitting with no exercise. We were wondering if we could do some kind of exchange where we helped with the health assessments for gym and tanning time. We have the BP cuffs, stethoscopes and EKG if it were needed,” Abby said.

“Let me call Marcy who is our treasurer. She controls all the money,” I said.
I made the call. Marcy would be over in 20 minutes. While they waited I gave them a tour of the gym while Mom was working the front office.

Marcy and I met with them in the class room. After everything was explained what we wanted and what they expected we had a good agreement that in the end with no money changing hands. One of them would be working all day Saturday and Sunday and Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. We would schedule all assessments during those times. In exchange for that they would get use of the exercise equipment, two tanning sessions a week each but no Marathon or massage unless they paid for it. We would work up an individual exercise program for each of them. Marcy left to go help Mom.

I handed Kirstin the form that we used and told Abby to strip to bra and panties. I helped Abby while she did the weight, height and took the body fat and other measurements that used and explained why. They swapped places and I watched as Abby repeated the checks and measurements on Kirstin. I then asked if the brought workout gear.

“It is in the car,” Abby said. “Go get it and let’s see what you got,” I replied. I spent the next two hours working out a program for them. As an EMT they need to build and maintain upper and lower body strength. The goal for them was to reduce the secretary’s ass they had developed and the abdominal fat and replace it with muscle in the upper body and legs. As odd as it seems fat weighs more by volume than muscle. Adding muscle would improve appearance and reduce weight. The draw back is that starting a weight and exercise program later in life causes the breast fat to shrink and adds a lot sag to the breast where if the program was started in the early teens the breast didn’t develop all the fat and the girl usually just ended up with a smaller cup size with out the sag.

By adding more qualified people to the gym convinced me to call Bob’s contracting once more. We had one space at the end of the class room. a 10 by 16 that we could use a meeting / assessment room. I wanted it prefab and set up after 10pm and quick. Bob would be waiting at nine to get final measurements and to discuss my plans for the room.

At three Mom called me to the front again. This time there was a lady that wanted to see me or Jenny. Jenny at the time was working with several ladies on the tread mills so I made the trip to the front.

Courtney Keats presented me with a letter from the Chief of the Annapolis Police Department in a sealed envelope. Jamie had class in the classroom in half an hour so. She was into the process of setting up for the class. The alternative was to grab a table in front of the refreshment center.

The letter was her introduction to be doing surveillance in our gym on the South Side Girls Gang as a result of the conversation last night. It was a 30 day assignment. While I was reading the letter digesting the information Jenny came over and joined us. I handed her the letter to read. I could tell be the expression on her face she was up set. Apparently she didn’t think they would take her up on her offer.

I made small talk milking as much information from Courtney as I could. I learned that she had just been promoted from meter maid to under cover just for this assignment and hoped that it would help her make the move to field work possibly detective division as trainee. She had graduated the police academy with good grades but had been pushed into a street cop writing parking tickets and collecting the money from the meters. Courtney was at least 35 pounds over weight. Thirty days wasn’t even a good start to get her in shape. It made me wonder about the physical requirements for APD.

“For this to work you are going to have look and workout like a gym member. The condition of the proposal was that there were to be no weapons or electronic surveillance equipment in the gym this is to be strictly visual surveillance. If you need protection for any reason we will handle it.” I said. ´There will be a body and health assessment. We just arranged for professional help with them. If you work out every night here and follow a reasonable diet you will see total body improvement. We expect that to be part of your goal while you are here.” I said.

“Honestly that is part of the reason I requested this assignment when I heard it being discusses. They have a pool on how much I’m going lose. I would call them bastards but there as many women in on it as men. They don’t think I will stick with it and lose any weight,” Courtney said. “I’m only going to e-mail them reports so they don’t see me to know how much I have lost and I intend to lose as much as possible. They are paying me and I will be here from 2 until 10 even if it kills me,” she said. “Do you have a diet guide?”

I looked at Jenny and we both said, “We need an in house nutritionist!” We were both laughing. “We can have Marcy use the members list to ask any are a nutritionist or recommend one.” I said as an after thought.

I took Courtney with a work up sheet to the machines to find out where she was physically. She was in much worse shape than I thought she had no stamina. She was going to be a project case. So much so that I wanted the new EMT connection to do an ekg and blood pressure just to make sure she was healthy enough for what she and I wanted her to do.

Abby was going to work tonight. Courtney would be the first new member to get the works. The storage room had a door that could be closed for privacy to do the weigh in, measurements and the rest. As soon as Amy had her first break I would get the scale and move it over to storage room.

At 4 the South side Girls Gang showed up. Shelia promptly told them to suit up and do the warm up exercises. We had given Courtney light exercises to do until the assessment said we could push her harder. She was watching the South side girls but kept it inconspicuous.

At 6 Jamie’s class took a break long enough for me to get the scale and the body fat calibers. Abby, Courtney and I went into the storage room where we preformed the first complete assessment; Courtney slightly objected to stripping to bra and panties but did it anyhow. I should say, granny bloomers were what she was wearing. She was 5’9 and 185 about 35 pounds over for her bone structure. I had hit the weight right on the money. Her blood pressure was up a tiny bit and Abby asked if she was on any meds. The ekg was normal. I felt much better about her condition. We decided to let her continue for a couple of days with the light load then get aggressive. The sit ups we had put in her workout were going to hurt her.

The TV crew was right on schedule. I cold tell a difference in just the few days they had been working out. One thing I noticed was that when they came into the gym they were now carrying bottled water instead of stead of designer coffee mugs.

The rest of the evening was quiet. The customers kept coming steady. The girls kept popping in and out to see if we needed more help. They had gathered all the Christmas decorations from the attic and were giving the house the holiday look. Tomorrow they were going to decorate the gym.

EDIT by Alfmeister