John and Tammy Wright are a dynamic fitness military couple who founded ABC Wellness and Fitness Center in Waldorf, MD in 2009. They’ve been married ten years and have two boys, ages seven and six. While Tammy (who holds a Master’s in information resource management) is “behind the scenes” and heads the overall strategic planning of the business, John (who is a certified personal trainer), manages the recruitment. The couple has been featured in several media publications including Black Enterprise magazine. They’re on the same page when it comes to a lot of things, but their stories differed slightly when it came to how they actually met and started dating.

Her story: We met in the gym at Bolling Air Force Base. We both worked out a lot, and it just so happened that I was looking for a chef for an event I was having at church. He would come and talk to me while we were in the gym, and I wondered why this guy was bothering me during my workout time. Come to find out, he was a chef and he gave me his phone number. Although we ended up not needing him for the event, we kept in contact. When I saw it was going in a positive direction, I prayed on it and we decided to move forward. Some people were trying to discourage the relationship because we’re ten years apart.

His story: This is what really happened. I was a chef at the base and I was there at the gym training. We had a mutual friend that introduced us, so that’s how she found out I was a chef. I gave her my business card, and when I didn’t hear back from her, I just checked in with her to ask if anything ever happened and if they would still be in need of my services. Everything gets a little fuzzy after that [laughs].