Chapter 3 - becoming a c.o.w.

Chelsea spent the rest of Friday night mulling over her decision. Even though she had secured Jason's support and felt confident that her plan would succeed, she also felt apprehensive about the challenge that now lay ahead of her. After all, she had just decided to transform herself in a fairly significant way and that required dedication and time; it wasn't a matter of just snapping her fingers.

Ruminative thoughts ran through Chelsea's mind: "What if I feel disgusted with myself? How will I react to having to get new clothes?" and worst of all, "What if I simply can't do it?"

Rather than dwell on her thoughts, Chelsea figured that the best thing to do was to take action. She drew up a grocery list that included her favorite forbidden foods and early Saturday morning she went to store on an empty stomach. Letting hunger and instinct guide her, the trip became a spending spree as she stockpiled candies, chips of all kinds, small desserts, pastas, TV dinners, and of course, ice cream. Chelsea felt a pang of guilt and embarrassment as she looked upon her unhealthy selections, but reminding herself of its greater purpose helped to tamp down any last-minute hesitancy.

The tall, handsome clerk eyed the petite blonde girl with a shopping cart full of junk food suspiciously, but then thinking he had pieced it together, uttered,

"Having a party tonight?"

"Uh...yeah!" Chelsea scrambled, lying through her teeth. "Can't wait to really cut loose."

"Well, enjoy!" the clerk responded.

Chelsea left the store feeling almost giddy as she reveled in her unexpected mischievousness.

When she returned home, she began her foray into purposefully gaining weight. She plopped herself on the couch with a bag of potato chips and began to watch a trashy and mindless, yet nonetheless entertaining TV program. Chelsea spent the rest of the weekend lounging around in this way, always making sure to keep some type of food within her grasp. She had always identified more as a grazer than a stuffer and figured that she should start her gaining journey by playing to her strengths, at least for now. As the weekend came to a close, Chelsea felt proud as she realized that through her constant eating, she hadn't even given herself the opportunity to feel hungry. She lugged herself to the bedroom on Sunday evening, swollen from her day of gorging and collapsed in a heap on the bed. She moaned with pleasure as she gently rubbed her full belly; it was the most peaceful sleep Chelsea had in months.

When Chelsea returned to the office on Monday morning, with her first order of business to stock up on enough home-made baked goods to graze on throughout the morning. After grabbing a danish, two muffins and a tall coffee, she ran into Michelle at her desk.

"Well, well, what have we here," Michelle said with a flair of "I-told-you-so". "Sure you have enough there, sweetie?" she teased, pointing at Chelsea's stockpile of sweets.

"It's just a little snack," Chelsea replied as she blushed slightly and smiled nervously.

Michelle eyed her suspiciously and raised her eyebrow to show her disbelief. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Chelsea quickly gave up the charade.

"Oh, fine, you win! I decided to take your advice about how to deal with Brent. I'm...trying to gain some weight." Chelsea reddened as she spoke. As awkward as it was say her plans out loud, a part of her felt compelled to continue. "I started over the weekend. Oh god did I stuff myself silly..."

Michelle's face lit up as she listened to Chelsea. "Atta girl! There's no need to be embarrassed. Like I said, you'll have our full support," she said, gesturing to the rest of the office. A co-worker walked by and Michelle pulled her into the conversation.

"Hey, Olivia. Our little Chelsea is looking to join our group. She wants to become a C.O.W."

Chelsea felt a bit insulted and although she already had a mouthful of danish, she managed a rebuttal: "Uh, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I said I'm trying to put on a few pounds, not become a total cow..."

Michelle and Olivia glanced at each other and laughed when they realized their mistake.

"Oh no, sweetie, that's not what we meant. C.O.W. stands for 'Chubby Office Woman', it's what we call ourselves around here. It's basically a term of endearment."

Chelsea felt less offended and even giggled a little bit at the clever acronym. Still, she figured that it might take some time before she got used to being called a C.O.W.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully as Chelsea tried to balance her work demands with frequent snacking. With no sightings of Brent, it was easy for her to remain sedentary at her desk, absent-mindedly snacking on little candies like M&Ms and getting up only to get her lunch from the breakroom and to use the restroom. By the end of the day, she was getting restless and she realized that her body was practically aching for her to go to the gym after work.

"Ugh, a part of me is screaming to go hop on the treadmill," Chelsea told her office-mate Michelle as the two of them packed up their things to leave.

"I know that feeling, but don't give in. If you want to do this then you've got to commit. In a few weeks the only desire you'll have is run home and cook dinner," Michelle replied with assurance.

"Yeah, you're right. It's also just that I feel so damn full...like, I can't even imagine eating dinner right now," Chelsea complained.

"I hear you. I'd say it probably took me about two weeks before I really got used to that feeling and my body adjusted. It makes sense if you think about it. After all, you're working to flip your metabolism upside down and your body is so used to being active and only eating so much, so of course it's going to put up a fight when you try to change those things. The trick is to ignore those reactions until it learns what you're trying to do."

Chelsea nodded. "Gotcha. So I need to just power through it for now?"

"Definitely. Tie yourself down on the couch if you must and don't forget to eat!" replied Michelle.
The two women, who were quickly becoming friends, shared a laughed and parted ways. Chelsea did as Michelle instructed and suppressed her urge to go to the gym. Instead, she lazed on the couch watching daytime soap operas on DVR and forced herself to have a large portion of pasta and garlic bread for dinner.

Chelsea's routine continued more or less this way for two weeks as she repeated the cycle of oversnacking at work, avoiding physical activity, and gorging herself on quick, carb-heavy dinners. Chelsea indeed found that she had to force herself into this new routine and there were even times that she began to stretch her muscles absent-mindedly as though she were about to go on a run. However, with diligence and dedication, she suppressed the urges of her slowly fading former lifestyle. Chelsea also noticed that while she went to bed each night with a taut stomach, she awoke each morning only to find that her bulge had essentially disappeared overnight. To make matters worse, after all her work, she had only registered a half pound gain after 10 days.

Still, Chelsea was determined and she adhered to her plan of attack, hopeful that she would soon notice dividends. On Sunday evening, two weeks after her fateful decision, she had finished an entire pint of vanilla ice cream prior to bedtime; it was the most she had eaten in one sitting to date.

"God, I hope this does the trick. If it doesn't I don't know what will..." she thought dreamily to herself while she rubbed her stuffed belly and drifted off to sleep.

Chelsea awoke and, as she always did, slid her hands down her night gown to her midsection. What she felt made her smile and caused her to practically jump out of bed and race off to work. When she arrived, she ran up to Michelle, unable to contain her excitement.

"Here, feel this," Chelsea said as she grabbed Michelle's hand and placed it on her own midsection. Michelle felt the hard lump of flesh that protruded from her friend's silky blouse.

"It's a food baby! I think it's finally working!" Chelsea exclaimed.

Michelle smiled knowingly and said, "Welcome to the C.O.W. club, Chelsea!"