Over the next few weeks, the Sunday Observer will share the stories of each challenger, how they got to where they are and their commitment to becoming better versions of themselves.

CHANCES are she is the only one who will be seen at Gymkhana working out in garb that would be considered regular gym wear, such as leggings and a T-shirt, plus a skirt and head covering.

Sandrine Waite admitted to the Jamaica Observer that she is very much aware of the several heads she turns while running on the treadmill or just moving about in the gym, but she finds the curious stares amusing.

“I know I turn heads, because I look weird… but I enjoy the stares, like ‘da girl here look weird eeh’,” Waite told the Sunday Observer. “I get a kick out of looking different, different in a good way.”

She explained to this newspaper that in her denomination, which she described as a Holiness church, women must always have the head covered and should dress as modestly as possible. She said the overall attitude of people in her denomination as well as how they relate to others should be modest.

So, before she decided to enter the Jamaica Observer/Gymkhana Absolute Fitness Challenge, she had to contend with one restriction, coming up with a mechanism to also look modest while working out. She told the Observer that this is an issue many women in her faith face as they might want to get into fitness but would want to do so without exposing themselves.

“Trying to be obedient and all to the teaching, I went downtown (Kingston) and was looking for a skirt. I found nothing,” shared Waite. “So what I had to do, I saw them selling dresses, which if I were to wear that as a dress, it would actually look like a blouse on me.

“So you know how Jamaicans say ‘turn your hand make fashion’, I turned the dress into a skirt,” said Waite. “So I could get the appropriate length, (which is knee-length) as well as the material was workable for the gym.”

Appropriately attired, Waite is committed to becoming a better version of herself. She said there is an image she has of herself in her head and that she is not seeing that image when she looks in the mirror. She therefore decided to enter the Jamaica Observer/Gymkhana Challenge in hope of bringing that individual out. She also needed the motivation to get in shape because although she knew she wanted to lose a few pounds, and even bought a pair of sneakers that eventually started gathering dust because of lack of use, she just couldn’t start.

“My mother had broken her leg and she asked me to run some errands for her,” Waite explained. “I went to her workplace and was there sitting down. I took up the Observer and I was there reading and I saw this ad and thought, ‘but this must be divine intervention’.”

There and then Waite said she started writing. She wrote a poem in the hope that it would make her entry stand out and result in her being chosen as one of the challengers. She succeeded.

“So far it has been good, I have been getting some tough love from my trainer (Mark McDonald) and it’s the best thing that he has done for me so far,” said Waite. “I needed it, I needed that tough-love approach. It actually pushed me to do something for myself, try my best to see if I can motivate myself because that was the biggest challenge for me, like I will start but then half-way through I just fall short.”

She no longer has breathing problems and feels a lot healthier than she did before she started the challenge.

Waite told the Observer that she has already picked out a spot for her trophy and is just waiting to win the Absolute Fitness Challenge to take it home.