chapter 3

I had never really dieted before. I was a pretty active kid growing up. I ran track, played basketball, and swam in high school, so I was pretty lean and mean in my teens. Didn't really gain that much in college. Oh, I wasn't involved in athletics, but I held down three part-time jobs to pay tuition. Who had time to eat? I put on about ten pounds once I started hostessing, what can I say, the food was free and it was GOOD! But I lived about two miles from work and walked every day and I still did a bit of swimming and jogging to stay in shape. But I had never had to seriously cut back on calories or start a strenuous exercise program just to lose weight.

The first few days were a real bitch. I was hungry, angry and miserable all at the same time. All I could do was look forward to the weekend with Rick. THAT weekend was the beginning of the end of my diet and exercise days. Friday night we went to a German restaurant and ate a TON of food and washed it all down with a waterfall of beer. Needless to say, I wasn't up early the next morning jogging or walking, but I DID sleep past noon, which certainly didn't do anything to help me burn off all those calories. Saturday we ordered in a pizza. But the restaurant was offering free cheesy, garlic bread sticks, six cinnamon buns and 2 two liter bottles of pop. We pulled out some old movies and played them on the DVD while we at away. No post-prandial stroll after THAT meal. Sunday we had dinner at Rick's folks' house. His mom Mira was Polish and a GREAT cook. We feasted on roast pork, sauerkraut and bread dumplings with pork gravy. I ate until my eyes glazed over.

That Monday morning I literally waddled over to my scale full of fear and trepidation. The numbers the scale read back to me only confirmed my worst nightmare. I now weighed 149 pounds. Since I started going with Rick I had gained over twenty pounds and not a WORD of complaint out of the man. I was either the luckiest woman in the world or there was something seriously wrong with the boy!

Thursday is my day off from the restaurant and we went out to a French restaurant that serves the most delicious food in the entire Midwest. But this time I was ready. I ordered a small veal chop and a garden salad. No bread. No butter. No dessert. Rick asked if there was anything wrong. I said I was getting fat and I had to watch what I ate.

Rick just laughed. He assured me that he wasn't one of those guys who was hung up on thinness. He told me he started dating me in the first place because he LOVED my personality. He was especially impressed that I wasn't bored silly with his nerdiness. So if I put on a few pounds here and there, well, then that just meant that there would be that much MORE to love.

The crepe suzettes that evening were truly spectacular and I had a double portion. Somehow I had inadvertently stumbled on the road to gaining and it was to take me places I hadn't expected to see!