People and places of Anderson County
Nikki Tewalt
I found out her name was Nikki Tewalt, and she was a beast in the weight room. We watched as she did many, many pull-ups, and again as Smith spotted her as she lifted weights.
“How long have you been training here?” I asked.
“I started the second week of March,” she responded.
I assumed she meant that’s when she started training at this particular gym.
“And how long have you been training in general?” I pressed.
“Second week of March,” she reiterated with a laugh.
She said that she was trying to get in shape. She was turning 40 in August and was looking for a lifestyle change.
“I felt myself deconditioning,” she said.
She has never committed to an exercise routine for more than six weeks and hasn’t run a 5K in her entire life.
“I never really worked out,” she said. “Anyone can do it.”
She said she comes to Clinch Valley CrossFit four days a week now.
Commitment beats experience any day.
LaFollette resident Joe Bonomo is a prolific, successful artist, and is passionate about portraiture. He spent many hours in Anderson County recently photographing people in town and learning a little about them, and then going back home and creating their portraits.
To find out more about Bonomo’s art, visit bonomoart.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/artofjoebonomo, and on Instagram at @bonomoart.
This series, however, is only available in The Courier News.