Shrink
It had been one month since the divorce had gone through and Lynette was still adjusting to life as a single mom. The reality of this new life had finally begun to sink in and she was starting to wonder if divorce was truly the right decision. Raising five children was nearly impossible with Tom there to help her and she found the idea of doing it by herself overwhelmingly depressing. It didn't matter that Bree, Susan and Gaby had volunteered to help her because it didn't change the fact that she was now alone. Nothing could change that. Lynette sighed and rolled out of bed silently cursing herself for thinking that way. All it did was upset her and the fact that she couldn't do anything to change it only upset her more. She stood up and walked to the bathroom to shower and get ready for work. After her shower Lynette stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked warn down. On top of that she noticed that she had gained at least ten pounds if not more. The divorce had definitely taken its toll on her. As she got dressed she made a mental note to take jogging back up in the mornings until she dropped the extra weight. Then she went downstairs to start breakfast.
Lynette woke up with a groan. Five fifteen was definitely too early to be up but it was the most convenient part of the day to jog. She quietly got dressed and slipped out the door careful not to wake her children up. Running was always one of Lynette's favorite types of exercise. In high school she was captain of the track team which eventually got her a scholarship to the college of her choice. After having the twins she took it back up to keep her figure and continued to jog every day after that until the divorce. Lynette started out slow, warming her muscles up so as to not overly stress them and after ten or so minutes she began to go faster. Lynette smiled; she'd forgotten just how much she loved to run. By the time she'd made it to the end of the street she was pumped and felt like she could run a marathon. Although Lynette would have had no problem going further, she turned and sprinted home to do her daily morning mom routine.
One week had passed since Lynette had started jogging and she had resisted the urge to weigh herself…until now. Lynette stepped onto the scale and watched as the digital reader worked to figure out her weight. The scale flashed her weight and she let out a disappointed sigh. After jogging for 45 minutes a day for one week she'd only lost four pounds. She'd hoped to lose at least six. While she got dressed for work Lynette decided to tack on another half hour of jogging at night to help her lose the extra weight. In addition, she'd cut back on the sugary foods and only drink water.
Gaby dealt the cards around the table chattering away about Carlos and the girls. Bree came in carrying her famous homemade brownies and Susan carried in big glasses of milk for everybody. Lynette sat and watched as they passed the plate of brownies around. When it came to her she passed it on. "None for me thanks. And I really don't want any milk either. I'll go and grab a cup of water." She hurried out of the room.
"She's been acting strange these past few weeks" Bree said before taking a huge bite of her brownie.
"I think she's just stressed" Susan replied. "I remember how stressful and upsetting mine and Karl's divorce was and I only had one child. It had me down for months. She'll bounce back, just give her some time."
"Well I think there's something wrong." Gaby whispered looking at the kitchen to make sure Lynette didn't hear her. "She's just not acting like herself. Since when does she not eat something Bree cooks? I'm telling you, there's something wrong."
"You're over reacting" Susan said with a wave of her hand.
They stopped talking when Lynette came back into the room smiling and carrying a large glass of water. "What are we talking about?" She asked as she sat down.
"Gaby was just telling us about how Juanita won the spelling bee in her class. She'll be going up against the other kids in her grade next week. If she wins that she'll go up against the school." Bree said giving Gaby a quick glance.
"Uhm yeah" Gaby responded nervously.
Bree turned to Lynette, "would you like anything else to eat? I can make you anything you want."
"No thank you. I ate a big lunch not too long ago. Thanks though" Lynette said. Bree looked at her for a moment longer before returning her focus to the game.
It was that time of the week again. Lynette took a deep breath before stepping onto the scale. It'd been just over a month and a half since she started to try and lose weight and she'd lost about fifteen pounds total. She looked down at the scale and saw that she'd lost another 3 pounds. It was ok but her weight loss per week was slowing down and that just wouldn't do. Lynette wanted better. She needed to be thinner. She decided to restrict her calories to no more than eight hundred a day. She was still well within a healthy weight limit so dropping five more pounds wasn't really a big deal and cutting down on her calorie intake was the perfect way to do it.