chapter 7

Mary completely took over jim's kitchen and his meals. She stocked everything up and kept it stocked up. She made sure he went to work with a good breakfast inside him, provided him with a decent, healthy packed lunch, then made sure he got a cooked dinner every evening.
She concentrated on giving him a healthy well balanced diet. The other stuff would come later. He could afford to get properly drunk a couple of times a week, but there was nothing wrong with having a can of beer on other nights as well. If he didn't have beer, she would supply him will Coke, fully loaded with sugar and caffeine. She wanted him to get used to and start liking sweet foods as well as savoury foods.
A month later her efforts were already having a positive effect. Her reward was not just Jim filling out, but he had more energy and more confidence in himself. His appetite was much better. He would start to get hungry if his meal was late.
Photographs of him in his work clothes revealed how much better they fit. His hollowed cheeks had filled out, he had some muscle on his bum, not just bony protuberances. He looked happier all round.

She taught him that skipping meals was not a good idea, especially if he wanted to be healthy and a normal weight. It didn't matter if he was not hungry or not he HAD to eat three meals a day.
She backed her words up by research from the internet. Of course, her research was very subjective and one sided, but Jim did not see it that way.
If she found out he had skipped a meal, she would be furious! She would stop all romantic attachments in bed, until he apologised and ate a chocolate bar.

She taught him that snacking between meals was good as well. It stopped the rises and falls in blood sugar level. She could back this up with internet research as well. What she didn't show him that the snacks recommended were a piece of fruit, a handful of nuts and seeds. She gave him the fruit and nuts now, but she left the way open for change later.

She told him that when he was happy, he should eat something. When he was sad and upset, he should eat something. It was the body's natural reaction to crave food when under stress. She made sure his packed lunch always had plenty of little nibbles in it for him to snack on when he needed it. Of course she had nothing to back this bit of research up. But it was a foundation that she wanted to build on later.

When he reached nine stones, he still looked very slim, but was less like a skeleton on legs.
He proposed.
Mary had turned his life around. He loved her. Life could only get better after they got married!

Of course Mary accepted his proposal. She wanted him to move into her house, afterwards. It was a much better place, in a much better area, just right to bring children into the world. (Although she had no desire to have children, she could still use jim's paternal instincts to bend him to her way of thinking.
She introduced the concept of always having something sweet after a meal by giving him a yoghurt to eat.
She pushed him to drink less tea and coffee and more Coke.
He was still gaining weight slowly and steadily. She didn't need to push him any harder than she was already.
She had also started to stretch his culinary experiences. She made him mild , healthy curries for him to try at home. She made him experimental Chinese stir fries, Moroccan rice dishes, Italian pasta with light tomato sauces.
He soon learned to accept Mary's 'foreign' dishes as tasty alternatives to traditional meat and two veg. He did enjoy one of her Sunday roasts, once a week, but he was starting to enjoy and appreciate a more varied diet

On jimmy's wedding day, he had reached his ideal weight. It was all thanks to Mary.
He had never imagined he would ever reach ten stones. And he felt so much better for it! He praised her culinary skill during his groom's speech. He would never have reached this stage before he'd met her. He could never have envisaged being too thin could be the root of many of his everyday problems.

The wedding pictures showed Jim as a a handsome, heathy young man. He was still ginger. Nothing could change that, but his cheeks had filled out, he was smiling on all the pictures. He had the strength to get through the whole day without going for a nap because he had no energy. He had enough muscle on him to lift up a small child and kiss them.
Some of the guests didn't even recognise him. A year ago, he'd been so skinny! they were beginning to think he was anorexic... or something. Oh he looked so much better now!

More intimate pictures showed him in a larger work top. (Small, instead of extra small). It fit him with no bagginess or extra bulging. His belt fit well enough to keep his trousers up. Under his clothes, he had a good covering of flesh, no sticking out bones, yet no pronounced muscles either. His belly was flat. His pigeon chest was gone.

His workmates could no longer tease him about being too skinny. They had noticed a difference in him too. He had even been promoted to a managerial role! His boss even suggested he had the potential to progress to regional manager or even higher!