chapter 2

Kelly immediately knew she had made a mistake. She definitely bit off more than she could chew. She was NOT the most spontaneous person in the world. But when that big cow Britt challenged her like that, well, she just lost her temper and accepted the dare. Trouble is, Kelly knew she was compulsive about her weight. She counted every calorie going in and every calorie she burned up. She weighed herself every morning and she weighed herself every night. She didn't know HOW to let go. BUT, she also didn't want that fatso Britt to lord it over her until graduation. What she needed was a plan!

Sure, it sounds stupid, planning to be spontaneous. But for Kelly there really wasn't any other way. The key was to keep things simple, which she did. She would eat her regular meals at the normal time. BUT in between time she would snack on SOMETHING every waking hour of the rest of the day. Not exactly what you'd call spur of the moment, but you have to start some place.

Frankly, the first week was an ordeal. So many decisions to make. What to snack on. How much. If she ate a lot of junk food, she'd gain more weight but how would that affect her health? Finally Kelly came to a decision. In the mornings she'd eat her regular breakfast at seven and then eat a large banana every hour until her lunch at noon. After lunch she'd switch over to a cup of brown rice and a cup of unsalted peanuts every hour until dinner time. Evenings were the real problem, she just didn't know WHAT to eat. But about mid-week she developed a taste for pretzels and found she loved them. So she'd eat about a cup and a half of pretzels every hour until she went to bed.

Once she got into a groove with her routine, Kelly did better than she expected. She had never been what you'd call a snacker, so she was used to being hungry between meals. With her new eating schedule, it seemed as if the minute she felt hungry, it was time to have something to eat. And so she was always pleasantly full. And she LOVED it. Even better, it seemed as if her new diet calmed her down. She wasn't on edge the way she'd always been.

One of the fall-outs of this development was that Kelly didn't feel compelled to exercise the way she once did. Used to be if she ate something she felt she had to burn off at least SOME of the calories. She'd take a walk, go jogging, or head for the gym. Now she would plop down and read or watch TV or even take a nap.

Another big change for Kelly was that she stopped weighing herself so compulsively. After all, NOW she wasn't afraid to gain weight, in fact, she rather looked forward to it and she knew if she saw that needle on the scale go up, she might panic and give up the whole gaining thing. And THAT would mean that Britt would win and the competitor in Kelly wouldn't let that happen!


Not surprisingly, after that first week, Kelly gained a whopping three whole pounds. Well, three pounds may not have sounded like much to a sow like Britt, but it was a LOT to Kelly. In fact, Kelly was SO proud of herself that she made herself a milk shake in her blender that night, with extra chocolate fudge, extra ice cream and a BIG dollop of whipped cream!

As she slid into the second week of her gaining program, Kelly wasn't quite so meticulous. If she snacked every half hour, well that was OK. And so what if she ate TWO bananas occasionally or even two cups of peanuts, wasn't the point of this whole thing to put on a little weight?

What Kelly didn't realize at the time was that gradually she was starting to let her self-control slip away. She wasn't quite so careful about what and, more importantly, how much she ate. More and more she'd just indulge herself with an extra dessert or seconds on the mac and cheese. So that by end of the second week, Kelly just gave up her weekly weigh-in altogether. After all, the important thing was that she felt GOOD.

Kelly was so wrapped up on how she FELT that she stopped paying attention to how she LOOKED. Make no mistake, she wasn't fat, chubby or eve overweight. But her belly was a little rounder than it had ever been. Her boobs had grown just a tad, enough so that wearing a bra had become a bit uncomfortable, which is why Kelly uncharacteristically stopped wearing one. Thing is, Kelly seemed oblivious to what was going on. But Britt wasn't!