New Year Goals

Over the last year I had become good friends with my personal trainer Mark. Despite having a body that looked like it belonged on Mount Olympus he was a down to earth guy and always made me feel like a genuine friend rather than someone who was lining his pockets. After some time we weren’t just hanging out during our sessions at the gym but also going to bars together and even out on double dates with our wives. Although he was a few years younger than me and in much better shape than I had ever been in my life, I felt like I could really relate to him. We just seemed to gel.

In early December during a long night of drinking, the two of us reflected on our friendship and how far things had come between us in just a year. Mark was the one who declared that I knew him so well I could probably live his life without anyone noticing anything different. I laughed the comment off, pointing out that I probably couldn’t keep up with his intense gym schedule nor his rigid diet, but Mark once again insisted that I could pull it off without any issue. “We should do it, dude. See if you can live my life until the end of the year,” he announced suddenly, eyes bright with excitement. 

I stared at him in utter bewilderment. “What? That’s… dumb. You’re drunk,” I retorted, the words slurring as they spilled from my mouth. “How am I supposed to pretend to be you for three weeks?”

“We’ll switch bodies,” Mark replied, as if that had been the only logical response. I couldn’t help but laugh because really, switching bodies. “Don’t laugh at me, man. I’m serious! It could be fun!” Yet more laughter followed as I tried to gauge whether or not Mark was really as serious as he claimed. “I tell you what - if nobody finds out that you’re not really me then I’m giving you six months of free training sessions. How does that sound, huh?”

The offer of free training sessions was enough to stop my laughter. As much as I thought he was a great personal trainer and I had seen improvements in my body over the last year, Mark’s sessions weren’t cheap. If six months worth of sessions were on the line then sure, what was the harm in playing along with his joke? “Fine, let’s do it. Let’s switch and get me some free training sessions, huh?”

Mark led me into his basement shortly after that and while I was left wondering if I was walking into some master plan to lure me into his basement and murder me, he began searching around through several drawers. Finally he produced a strange contraption that appeared to be two gloves stitched together at the palms, as if shaking hands. Aside from the odd shape there was nothing overly remarkable about it at all and I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.

“Get your hand in,” Mark instructed, putting one side of the glove on and offering the other to me. With a little hesitation I did as I was told and was suddenly caught by a ripple of electricity that rushed through my body. Instinctively I tensed and a bright white light swam in front of my eyes, temporarily blinding me. By the time my vision finally returned I was looking across at my own body - I was in Mark’s body, still completely drunk and suddenly dealing with a heightened state of nausea. Just how much had the other had to drink in comparison to me?

The following three weeks were a wild adventure like nothing else I had ever experienced. I used plans Mark had already drawn up to coach his other clients through sessions and even kept up with his husband duties, cooking healthy meals for his wife and even pleasuring her in the privacy of the bedroom, although that was something I kept from my friend. Then again, I couldn’t be certain that he wasn’t doing the same with my wife as he seemed to have slipped into the role of being me with just as much ease. I was just thankful that neither Mark nor his wife were overly close with their extended family because that would have presented a challenge I would have struggled to overcome. Thankfully they were content to spend the holidays alone, with occasional visits from myself and my wife for drinks, snacks and party games.

As the New Year loomed, I proudly told Mark that I had succeeded in his bet and made it through the full three weeks without anyone so much as suspecting that I wasn’t him. He had watched me closely throughout and approved, shaking my hand in a gentleman’s agreement to give me the six months of free sessions that had been suggested originally. Once that was sorted, we returned to his basement and the stitched gloves to switch back into our bodies just in time to start off the year.

We had anticipated that brilliant blinding light and jolt of electricity that we had experienced during our initial swap but were instead met with nothingness. Whatever power had been in the gloves was no longer responding to us, not even when we switched positions. Panic gripped both of us as we attempted to understand what had gone wrong, Mark in particular feeling distressed as he contemplated spending the following year in a body that was still somewhat out of shape. I knew that he likely never would have suggested the bet if he hadn’t been so copiously drunk and he was going to pay for it if we couldn’t fix the gloves!

After what felt like hours of messing around with the gloves, we decided to try one last time. Our hands clasped together and relief rushed through me as I felt a familiar jolt of electricity rush through my body, but there was no blinding light to follow. Instead an invisible force seemed to push us apart and in the process tore the stitching out that had connected the gloves. Not only had we not returned to our original bodies but now the device we had used was broken too!

I stood there in shock, staring across at the body I had left behind, trying to comprehend that I would not be returning to it any time soon. I was now Mark, a twenty-seven year old personal trainer with a shredded body and a side career as a fitness model. The real Mark had exchanged that to become a thirty-two year old office manager with a little pudge around the waistline and thinning hair. It was clear between the two of us who had received an upgrade and who was the unlucky one.

With Mark’s body now in my personal care I knew I would have to take things seriously when heading into the new year. I would have to commit to the intense workouts I had been pushing through in the previous few weeks with early morning cardio around the neighbourhood and long hours in the gym, as well as returning to Mark’s pre-holiday diet which consisted of minimal carbs and grease and maximum protein and greens. He had a skincare routine I would have to abide by and I’d even have to take control of his business, picking up new clients and organizing suitable workout plans for each of them. It wasn’t as if Mark would have the time to do so considering how gruelling my workload at the office could be.

Ringing in the new year by kissing my new wife and then giving my good friend and former self a high-five, I looked ahead to the days to come and realized that I was more prepared than I thought! Being Mark was second nature to me by now - I was just glad that I’d had three weeks of rehearsal before the main show began!