chapter 2

Kim was happy to be back from vacation and was pleasantly surprised that she hadn't gained any weight while she was gone. She went back to work tanned and happy. Kim decided to relax her hard and fast rules and go out with friends for drinks more often. For the past year she had really not gone out much because she was trying to sleep 8-10 hours and get up early for her run. The first time Kim asked the other girls in the office about happy hour, they were surprised. Of course they were happy to have another member of their Thursday night happy hour group. Kim would generally drink wine. After a few glasses she would begin to accept bites of the other girls' appetizers. She was really enjoying her life more now. For months, Kim was having a great time at work, spending quality time with different groups of friends and maintaining her gym workouts. She had gained a little weight but thought it was muscle since she was still doing crossfit. Her size 4 clothes still fit but were a little tighter. She was too happy with her life to worry about a few pounds. She got rid of her scale because she didn't want to get obsessive about weight again. As the two year anniversary of her divorce approached, she started to think about dating again. She asked Cindy for her advice and Cindy said she should try online dating to really figure out what type of guy she wanted to be with. They made a profile together and uploaded some great photos of Kim. The next day Kim was greeted with several messages in her inbox from interested guys. This was going to either be fun or a lot of work. She started chatting online with several guys and accepted some first dates. She generally would order wine and salad on the first date. She could tell a lot by what the guy ordered. She decided that she needed her next boyfriend to be a good influence of diet and exercise. Not that she didn't find heavier guys attractive but she was afraid that she'd gain her weight back if those temptations were always around. One guy started to stand out. They had been on two dates. His name was Joe and he was a manager at a local bank, 34 years old and divorced for 3 years. He also participated in triathlons and was hoping to train for an Ironman next year. On their third date they were talking about their pasts. It came up that Kim's husband had ridiculed her for gaining weight and had cheated with a skinny girl. Joe smiled and kindly said that was entirely a problem with her ex, not with her. He told her women are beautiful at any size and he felt very bad that she'd endured it. Turns out that Joe's ex didn't like all of the time that Joe spent training for his triathalons. Kim asked why his ex didn't do some training with him. He smiled again and said exercising wasn't ever her thing.
They started spending more time together. Joe trained so much that he could really indulge in his two favorite treats- chocolate and wine- as often as he liked to. He offered Kim some Godiva chocolate one night and she replied "No Thank you, I didn't work out hard enough today." Joe seemed sad and gave her "those eyes". She accepted the chocolate. It was so delicious. Joe told her how happy she looked when she truly enjoyed something. He reminded her that she was beautiful and she works out plenty to join him in a treat now and then. Kim decided he was right. She started to relax and join Joe in more frequent treats.
About 6 months after they began dating, she could no longer get her favorite jeans over her hips and she noticed her bra wasn't quite big enough either. Since she still owned no scale she had no idea what she weighed but she decided to get some bigger clothes so that Joe didn't notice how much she'd gained. While shopping at the mall, she came out of the dressing room in a cute size 6 dress and another girl said "I wish I was skinny like you. I can't wear that style." Kim went back into the dressing room and was feeling very good about herself. So what if she was a size 6 and a D cup. She didn't look very big. She was confident she could keep working out and enjoying treats with Joe without gaining more weight.