by Karen White
First published 2015
The story unfolds through diary pages that chronicle someone's fitness journey. Karen White creates a protagonist who records daily workouts, meal plans, and the mental battles that come with physical transformation. The entries reveal struggles with motivation, setbacks from injuries, and the social pressures of gym culture. Personal relationships strain as the narrator becomes obsessed with tracking progress and hitting new goals. The diary format exposes raw thoughts about body image, comparison to others, and the gap between fitness aspirations and reality. White captures the emotional weight of starting over after failures and the small victories that keep people moving forward. The central tension emerges between self-improvement and self-acceptance, as the protagonist grapples with whether fitness should define personal worth. Through these intimate entries, the story examines how exercise becomes both salvation and source of anxiety in modern life.
Genres: memoir, health, 21st-century, fitness
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: self-acceptance, self-improvement
120 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Content warnings: mental-illness