Cost Cutting

[chango14]

 First story, with where its going foreshadowed. I have written a few of these but not published but thought maybe publishing some will get some further finished. Any thoughts appreciated. I have ideas of where this goes having the ending but lots of space in between

Looking back, I didn't have to be in the position I was in now with my wife, now tipping 78kg, picking my 68kg frame up and carrying me to the bed after dinner.But then again who wouldn't want to be ?

You see when Corona Hit, my wife and I had been together for 5 years and had a good relationship and was relatively happy with our fitness and physique. TI was the fitter and in turn more interested in fitness out of the 2 doing gym 5 or 6 days a week and now about 75 to 80 kg depending on eating and other things. I had lost the fat and gained a decent physique by the age of 30 and was thinking pre corona of bulking up a few more KG and competing in more local Crossfit events. I was doing weighted push and pull calisthenics a few days a week and Crossfit already and my work and everything else was going well so why not. We had developed fitness friends and that was seemingly pushing us further into everyday fitness as a part of life.

My wife is of Eastern European descent and a similar 5 8 and at the start of Corona was about 64kg after following a similar path to me. I was into cooking so our nutrition improved and I also made a point to have her work with a PT 2 times a week as we all know how much easier it can be with a trainer to guide you. We also we would do a Crossfit class together at least 1 x a week which like me pushed her interest and focus on fitness outside of work further. 

The other 4 couples are all PTs and now I think about it that definitely helped us reach such high fitness levels. Just 2 years before I had been about the same weight but a totally different physique and I was doing light weighted pulls with a squat of 110kg. 

But with my wife and I both working jobs where we set our own hours we quickly afforded time to eat and train more.

My lifts were now competing with all my friends of higher bodyweight and with my focus on weighted calisthenics was pulling 30kg for 5 reps in pulls and dipping 50kg for reps while squatting 180 and other similar lifts.

It was great watching my wife seemingly grow a bit with me and she was already at the top of the fitness levels possible without a pure focus on fitness as a career. She was now doing weighted pulls and dips for reps with a few kg and squatting close to 100kg pre corona herself.

My job was less demanding and so i naturally took on managing our financials and our eating because of my love for fitness. it was a time of surplus and we were benefitng from it fully. Looking back actually we were both in incredible shape for our age and not having fitness as a job.

And then Corona Hit and our entire lives changed...

[chango14]

March 2020 -

My Weight 83KG -10-15% est bodyfat

Jamie Weight 62kg 23%ish est bodyfat

Everyones worlds changed and for us it was mainly our jobs. Jamie lost her job and was now a bit stressed about what to do. I was furloughed, but really tried to assure her we had plenty saved up and there was no chance of me not getting my job back or a similar one in the field. She had time to relax and figure out whatever she wanted to do next or get a job again in the same field. She was also paid for 3 months severance so had some real time to spare if she wanted.

To start I wasn't in a terrible spot mentally or physically but had been working really hard before Corona hit and was about to take a 2 week holiday. On top of that I had been focusing the past 6 weeks on my olympic lifts for comps and was having some back issues so I decided to do a 6 week rehab focused program with most of the gym gear we ordered not yet arriving.This meant my training for now was far more rehab than strength building. But with dog walks I wasn't too worried about staying active enough with the rehab.

We ordered some gym gear in the name of a full olympic set And a pull up dip bar combo for the wall and weights and weight vest. Basically an entire gym ! why not it made sense to really focus on ourselves while we had the time and maybe this Corona thing was going to continue a while. Jamie decided to start a free gym class mainly focused on push and pull workouts for women as many could do this from home.

Although many couldn't do pull ups or pushups she scaled everything as needed but also had some strong girls in the group as well. She was learning quick how to teach and before she knew it she had many asking her to do Paid PTs.

Looking at it financially I realised with we were in good shape with a lot of saving from not travelling and in Jamies old job she brought in about 1500 GBP per month after tax. She was been offered 50 GBP to teach per hour so I quickly told her she could make about the same after tax if she could do 40 x 40 GBP PTs a month or 10 a week... 2 a day. That was the napkin math and I explained it was probably 3 x a day 5 days a week to cover costs and extra insurance and things she would need to incur. But she was super motivated by this number and decided to grow into that. She had her friends who could help her anyway and was really enjoying training herself. why not

[wowser1016]

Good start and looking forward to following along. I like how you have chosen a backdrop situation we  have all been living thru. It helps us relate to the motivations and needs of your characters. K+!

[jhunter]

Noce work so far, I look forward to more. Hope to see things escalate.

[phil123]

Great start and hope for some monthly chapters about her growing.

[chango14]

OK so as I started to write about their personalities and dynamic changing and knew I needed to create a dynamic that they started with ... aka life with Jamie and James before cost cutting.

Oct 2019

Before Corona and changes, Jamie and James assumed and seemed to have a fairly average marriage. They both loved each other and were honest and open and aimed for a equal marriage. They had sex regularly, nothing too crazy but certainly enjoyed pleasuring each other and having the space to talk about their needs and wants in this area. Ultimately it was probably slightly traditional with James earning more and handling their finances but never in a way Jamie asked for anything and she kept a current account separately as well. He simply managed the bigger picture for their house purchase etc.

James always loved Jamie both inside and out and regardless of muscles or not thought she was the most beautiful woman. When they started dating she was still naturally very good looking and played sport before college but was a ways from an athletes body. More a product of her environment than anything else.

Then when she and James started taking their fitness interest further and her figure transformed to a more womanly hourglass with toned arms, James was fully supportive. He loved it and loved being able to train with his best friend and soon to be wife. It was in just August 2019 that Jamie signed up for 2 x a week at the crossfit gym in addition to the trainer she had been working with for 2 years. Fitness was now becoming social for both of them.

 

As Jamie gets home she asks James "Hey James, OMG what a workout we did today it was 10 pullsup10 clean and Jerk 400 m run x 5 for time. I did all the pullups unbroken! what do you think of my arms and shoulders lately ?!"

"10 unbroken pullups for  5 sets in that workout that is crazy tough, I am super impressed! amazing!"

"Yeah I know so you don't think my arms are getting too big"

"Big HAha Jamie these are big! "flexes" but seriously, hell no jamie I love your arms whatever the size I haven't seen you flex em before?"

"Wow thats awesome baby I love those" James grabs her and kisses her arms softly"

"and look what I can already do with arms like these" Jamie play tackles James to

the couch wrapping her arms around it"

"haha no way haha let me go damn that is a grip! but .... and in one quick move James flips Jamie and she pouts a little"

"your definetly getting stronger baby!

James helps Jamie undress and takes her on to the couch for some of their more standard love making with James riding Jamie fairly quickly to orgasm

"mmmm I love your muscles girl honestly you could never be too big for me!"

"haha yeah I'm not that interested in the look but I do love the feeling with working out and being strong"

"yup its so healthy"

[Jaguar]

Cvideod - Terrific writing, very timely.  I'm anxious to read more.


Please keep going, Jamie and James deserve to have their story told.


K++ (Newbies, granting Karma just means clicking [Applaud+] on the left, below the member's name.  Please applaud the authors to encourage them to keep contributing. 


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Please keep writing CV.  I know it is a lot of time and effort, but you're doing a terrific job so far.

You are good at it!

[jhunter]

Nice so far. Like the description and progression. Keep up the nice work.

[phil123]

Seems she will outmuscle him very soon. Would like to read more.

[chango14]

May 2020:

At this point 2 months had gone by since lockdowns started. We had developed a new routine in Corona and in it seemed things would not change outside of my return to regular training. This included the government update from 5 to 6pm everyday. But things weren't all too bad, Jamie was now loving teaching calisthenics to multiple girls! She focused on calisthenics, mainly pullups pushups and dips and decided to start being trained by a Calisthenics PT 2 x a week so she could learn more. I never would have known she would be this passionate about it all but it was great to see. At the start she was so worried about her office friends but was now getting plenty of socialising through the fitness space online in and between classes and training

She was also doing a ton of training herself... as a distraction maybe as well as finding something she really seemed to be excelling at and enjoying. We already had gear before the lockdown but it was the one thing we spent on early as I did anticipate a shortage of equipment if things continued and we all had to work out at home so along with the weights we had pulleys and bands and it really did provide for everything. we were both doing some yoga together upon waking to keep our bodies moving as the walk and train commute and active lifestyle was not quite there. But it was a good time where both of us were already interested in our fitness. I was learning a lot at an age for men when longevity becomes important, 30. I planned to keep fitness in my life for the long haul and knew that came from learning what was best for my body and different periods depending on what was around my circumstance.

That being said I am also a guy and made it a goal to focus on PowerLifting through Lockdown to be in better spot for Crossfit in the future. When my back wasn't an issue in such intense movements. SO with my back getting back to normal I was hoping to focus on Squat Deadlift and Bench until we could be back at gyms again along with weighted calisthenics. It wasn't as realistic to be doing crossfit lifts at home so this was a viable alternative.

We were both early risers so up by 6 and I would take the dog to the park for a walk an hour away every morning and Jamie would teach her class then PT and then do her own training after. This was a daily routine at least 5 days a week and then we would eat breakfast together and catch up on the day around 10am. At this point I would do my rehab training while Jamie relaxed after her morning. On weekends I would sleep in but Jamie was always up before me I think training a client or two.

I mentioned looking back who wouldn't want to be in this position. Well to be honest how or why would I stop. I don't want to be controlling of my partner. And nor does she I don't think. It didn't affect me at all and she was sure to make up for sleep with a nap and early sleep in the evening. There was nowhere to go so we would just be watching tv or zooming with friends anyway.

If I had known at this point my partner had picked up a powerlifting friend she was also lifting bench/squat and deadlift with in addition to her cali and leg and other training would I tell her to stop ? No of course not! I mentioned earlier our friend group was fitness focused so these periods of enthusiasm went through members of the group at times and it clearly was Jamie's bug right now. Truthfully I assumed she was doing these sessions with our friend group just as much for socialising. We had always motivated each other and loved training together so I knew this would only help my journey back to the gym anyway ! She was seemingly more and more interested in nutrition and sleep and those were the things to be concerned about in this day in age now

By 2 or 3pm we would catch up again for lunch and then one of us would take the dog out. More and more Jamie was jumping into the gym space in our living room for PTs for clients after work so our evenings started together at 8 or 9pm.

I was running admin on Jamie's Pts as part of our family financials in the afternoons, which was a bit of work but she was already making decent money so I enjoyed it and had the experience doing so anyway. it also went in line with a venture of my own I was working on in case my job didn't come back. I was going to need to speak to her about creating a separate business and asked if she had an interest in monetising some fitness content or just PT'ing. That way I could choose the best financial structure for whatever she wanted to do. By running it as a business we could even expense our own gym coaching.

I had also started creating training and upskilling courses in my field and was realising I may just be able to create this content for a living if I didn't want to go back to my job. Currently with furlough money meant we actually were looking better, financially at least, than before. That being said Jamie had taken my initial chat to heart and was intent on taking more of a role in the financials and running her business finances herself. We now reviewed our purchases each week as part of our new routine. We were spending more on food with how much Jamie was training and eating and also as this really was the only thing to splurge on at this time... besides sweatpants and comfy clothes maybe.

By dinner Jamie I were exhausted from life, corona, training and everything else going well and sometimes ordered meals If I didn't cook or have meal prepped meals in. With everything else taken away food was one of the few vices. James thought to himself at this point "WOW!" they hadn't been having much sex since lockdown but also with the world how it was it wasn't really the mood and even for him he wasn't missing it. Though in prior times he had always initiated things so now he realised he needed to set up a date night for them!

James was glad his back was also healing now so he could switch up his end of the routine and train a lot more. It would be a welcome release from the lockdowns he couldn't get as much with his rehab. It would be a good occasion to celebrate together this weekend!

It had been 2 months since either of us had worn anything much but gym clothes around the house or maybe a shirt for a zoom call as with Corona there wasn't much of a point to it all. And then I realised I had rarely seen Jamie in anything but her sweats post workout, no wonder we had only had sex 3 or 4 times. I probably hadn't made an effort either. I am sure my dress shoes had dust on them.

Dinner that evening on the couch

"Hey Jamie, I realised since lockdown we obviously haven't been able to go out but I thought we could do a bit of a date night tomorrow, dress up and pretend we aren't stuck locked in our house 24/7 ? "

"OMG babe yes that's a great idea this whole situation is so depressing. I swear all I have been doing is training and eating and sleeping lately. I am loving it but yes that would be amazing. Now I think of it we've only had sex 2 or 3 times since this all started. Lets definitely do it it will be fun. Lets do a mexican night!

"Ok definitely. I will do fajitas for us then!"

"Yumm my favourite... Honestly the hardest part of all this training is eating so much. But I just can't wait. I have some really cool goals I want to share with you!

"Ok awesome lets discuss them over dinner tonight then as I gotta finish up here for my last call today?!

"yes I can't wait to dress up!

"me too!"

No measurements taken

[phil123]

Great again and the will grow more and more

[chango14]

Great again and the will grow more and more

Thanks so much honestly means a lot coming from you. Your writing defo helped me a lot and I have enjoyed a ton of your wokr

I am loving the process and writing down little ideas more and more for things to add maybe not this story but future,