Chapter 1 - the beginning

A little history about Jake and myself. We met a couple of years ago at a bar, when we were both 25. He was (and still is) six feet tall, 180 lbs of defined, beautiful body. I am 5´9 and was 155 lbs then, which was about 30 lbs heavier than when I started college. But I really like to eat and only workout so I can eat a bit more without becoming fat. At 155 I felt pretty good about my body, wore form fitting clothes and constantly sucked in my tiny tummy so I would look as close to perfect as I could. About six months ago, in January, we moved in together. He is a wonderful chef but has great self control so he always eats smallish portions in order to maintain his weight.
I am in love with his cooking, roasted chicken in cream sauces, pasta with rivers of cheese sauce, fresh bread with lashings of butter. I always do the the dishes so I can sneak eat the leftover food, just bits of gravy here, an extra egg roll here, a large spoonful of chocolate mousse there. I've been laid off for the last four months, and had a good severance package, so have been just lazing about at home, cooking a bit myself during the day, watching TV. The gym I used was at my old job, so stopped going to the gym and started spending a lot of time on the sofa, relaxing. A couple of months ago I had a job interview so had to actually change out of the yoga pants that had become my new uniform at home, so comfy and forgiving if I overindulged a bit.

So I pulled my favorite top and skirt from the closet, they had not been worn in a few months. After showering I put on my underwear (my old panties had shrunk in the dryer so I had recently purchased new ones. It was weird though, the Victoria Secret large size felt snugger than they used to... they must have started making them a bit smaller. My bra was feeling a bit tight, so I must have washed it in hot water or something. I put on the top, noticing it felt quite snug over my boobs and it seemed to cling a bit to my midsection. When I put on the skirt, I had to struggle with the top button, pulling it tighter and finally getting it. I felt the waistband digging into my tummy and it stretched across the hips a bit. Strange how normal clothes feel so tight when you've got used to wearing yoga pants and big tees all day.

I looked in the mirror and was completely surprised. I looked, well, a bit bigger. Gone was the almost flat stomach, replaced with a bit of a potbelly and now a muffin top edging over the skirt. My arms seemed to have some jiggle and the top clearly outlined a roll of back fat. What? how did this happen?

I hadn't weighed myself recently, so thought maybe I was up about 5 or 6 lbs from my normal weight. That would be easy to lose, a month or so and I'd be good. I stepped on the scale and watched as the numbers lit up. Hmm. That can't be right. I stepped off and on the scale again and the same numbers came up. 169. 169 lbs. 14 lbs in two months. And I didn't notice. And obviously Jake didn't notice either, he never said anything. Okay. Need to take control and lose this before he notices.