THE SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS

Jenny’s heart is troubled this morning. She woke up thinking about it and now, after her favorite cup of coffee (with three spoons of sugar), she is still unable to erase the acrid remark. As she sat down for breakfast –bread with lots of butter- those words ran through her head yet again….

“Christ! Have you ever seen yourself in a mirror? Do you know what a fat pig you are? How could you possibly imagine that I would go out with you?”, Chris said, a mixture of contempt and disgust quaffing his face.

Jenny stood rooted to the spot-dumbfounded, confused, hurt and angry while Chris made his way back to his desk. She could hear Chris talking and her colleagues burst into guffaws. She felt their piercing stares on her back, like a million scorpions’ sting, and suddenly, she grew conscious of her fat bottom. Her face turned a beautiful red and it seemed impossible to lift her gaze from the floor.

Jenny looked at her plate and took in the four slices of bread and the extra load of butter. Suddenly, she felt sick and pushed her plate away, perhaps for the first time in her life. She did not feel like going to the office knowing only too well what awaited her. Giggling behind her back, finger-pointing and cloying sympathy; she couldn’t face it. But she had to.

On her way to work she was brimming with fury and odium. That embarrassing event with Chris, which took place the day before, had stirred in her an unnatural temper. She wanted to prove them wrong-all of them! “I ll show them how sexy I can get!..bastards!!” she shouted. At that moment she promised that she would lose weight.

Next morning, Jenny was up early and ready for jogging. She stepped out and started jogging along the pavement with tremendous will power. Obviously, she changed her mind by the time she got out of breath (which was half a kilometer from her doorstep) and all her will power had dissolved into sweat. “That’s enough..I mean for a start”, she thought. Jenny obliged.

That month, an observer would see Jenny in several attempts at exercise, her failing low-calorie diet and her monotonous and perpetual cribbing in front of the mirror. “I just want to lose weight without much trouble.” she cried desperately.

One fine morning, as Jenny drove to work, she cursed every vehicle that happened to impede her speed. She knew it was the Guilt talking that morning. The albatross that she did not get up early morning for her promised jog, especially when she helped herself to a large piece of chocolate cake the day before. Jenny had lost a few kilos here and there, BUT IT WASN’T ENOUGH!! She punched the horn in frustration and stepped on the accelerator.

It all happened in a split second. She didn’t see the truck coming around the bend and when she did, the car skid off the road and crashed into a tree.

The doctor told her it was a broken leg and that, probably, she needed an operation.” But nothing to worry”, said the cheery doctor,” we ll have you up and running in no time!” Run. Oh, that word irked her. Jenny’s operation went smoothly. With all that anesthetics and pain-killers she was transmuted to a world of oblivion. Anesthesia can give the most peaceful sleep, an absolute bliss.

“We need to check your weight for the final report ma’am. Besides, it’s high time you start walking with those clutches. So why don’t you come this way?” Jenny struggled with her clutches and made it to the weighing machine (which was brought to her room; she wasn’t allowed to walk a lot either).”Well”, said the nurse,” you have lost almost twenty pounds! That accident scared the hell outta ya, dinnit?”