When your client schools you in your own kitchen

Michelle shows up for our Sunday session carrying a grocery bag that definitely wasn’t workout gear. “We’re making tamales today,” she announces, already unpacking masa and corn husks like she owns my kitchen. Apparently this is what happens when your training client discovers you’ve been living off protein bars and Jake’s experimental pasta dishes for three weeks straight.

When your client schools you in your own kitchen

Twenty minutes in and I’m watching her fold these perfect little parcels like she’s been doing it since birth. Meanwhile, my first attempt looks like a corn husk that got in a fight with a blender and lost. “It’s about the technique,” she says patiently, for the fourth time, while I wonder if there’s a YouTube tutorial for people with absolutely zero masa intuition.

Teaching moment turned into comedy hour

Plot twist: turns out Michelle learned this from her grandmother, who learned it from her grandmother, and here I am thinking I could just wing it because I can meal prep chicken and rice. Jake walked through an hour ago, took one look at my disaster zone versus her assembly line, and quietly started researching tamale-making classes on his phone.

Three hours later and my kitchen smells incredible, I have enough tamales to feed a small army, and Michelle’s officially graduated from client to life coach. Also, pretty sure she’s never letting me complain about “not having time to cook” ever again.