Hope in a Jar by Beth Harbison

Author:Beth Harbison [Harbison, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Contemporary Women, General
ISBN: 9780312381967
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2009-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Raise your hand if you’re sure.

—ad for Sure antiperspirant

In her first week of dieting—or lifestyle change as she was supposed to think of it, although who was she kidding? As soon as she reached her goal she was going to go out for a huge, fattening dinner—Allie lost four pounds.

She’d seen people on Oprah before who had lost more than that in their first week, spectacular stories of eight pounds in one week, but as soon as she expressed disappointment at the meeting everyone told her she was crazy and that four pounds was a great achievement.

It would have been nice to have lost all twenty-seven (as they’d determined her final goal to be) but clearly not realistic.

Week two, with more realistic expectations, she’d lost two. Week three it had been two and a half. This week she was down half a pound, but with a total of nine pounds off—nearly two bags of flour in weight—she was satisfied.

That, in and of itself, was a real difference for her.

It was progress. She hadn’t made progress in anything in a very, very long time.

“You’ve done a wonderful job,” Arlene told her after the weigh-in.

“Thanks,” Allie said, putting her watch back on. “It’s funny how good it feels to lose even a little bit.”

“It’s as addictive as Twinkies after a while,” Arlene said, then smiled. “Or whatever your particular weakness is. Mine was Twinkies. And Ho Hos.”

“Pizza.” Allie wasn’t over that yet. “And bread. All kinds of bread. Especially those Parker House dinner rolls when they’re hot with butter melting into them.”

“Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels,” Arlene parroted, then winked. “I know what you mean about the rolls, though.”

Allie finished putting her earrings on and went in to the meeting. Even after this short time, she had come to feel like the other people here were family, so when Marianne got up to speak to the group, Allie was really pulling for her and hoping she had lost this week after two weeks of gaining.

“I lost two point three pounds this week,” Marianne said, and everyone clapped.

Her apple cheeks went red but she smiled. Marianne was pretty, but she had told Allie she had a hundred and twenty pounds to lose and there was no convincing her that she was.

“I had an important revelation this week.” Marianne went on, clasping and unclasping her hands in front of her. “I started to gain weight after my father died ten years ago. You may remember me telling you that my mother died when I was little. Well, Dad was a mother and a father to me, and even though he didn’t always have the answers, especially during those stormy adolescent years, he never stopped trying.” Tears started to roll down Marianne’s cheeks and she swiped at them with the back of her hand. “I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry.”

“It’s okay,” Heather, the group leader, said, urging Marianne on. “We want to hear what you have to say. Don’t let a few tears get in the way of that.

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