Hotmail‘Moose’ details hardship of being an overweight kid
Celebrity reading room |
Read juicy excerpts from these celebrity biographies. |
 |
 Kid chef cooks holiday treats Nov. 27: A 13-year-old cook teaches the TODAY hosts how to whip up a turkey risotto that is perfect for the holidays. |
When I reached the checkout counter, I picked at my nails. People are going to think this is all for me. Well, it’s no wonder, they’ll think as they eye my arm lard. What am I doing? Just look at yourself. You have no control. But she gets to. Yeah, but she doesn’t eat it. For her it’s just decor. Go home to your husband, the one who thinks you’re too fat to f__k.
I abandoned the cart in the checkout line, pretending to double back for a forgotten essential item. I left the store empty-handed.
I went home and filled my empty hands with folded slices of white pizza. I annihilated the pie and wondered how her date would go without the props that told the story of a life she didn’t live. I ate until I felt ill. I stepped on the scale and became afraid of myself. That was it, my moment. That moment you have when you know you’re out of control. I didn’t want to undo all the summers I’d spent at fat camp, all the times I’d exercised and suffered. I didn’t want to become Moose again. In that moment, everything stopped spinning and I was left with a quiet truth that wept and hung on my insides.
I couldn’t continue to live like this anymore. Like Waif Worker, I too needed someone to make me seem normal.
That someone, I hoped, would be Michelle, the second coworker on my list. Maybe she’d have an answer. If she could do it, then so could I. I demanded she share with me her weight loss secrets.
“Oh, I just eat right and exercise,” she said.
“Bullshit. Tell me.”
“What? It’s true.”
“No it’s not. You love food as much as I do.” She’d gone from a size 12 to a size 2 in approximately eight months, and now she had sculpted arms—guns, really. A woman with chiseled triceps is never hiding fat elsewhere. It’s the telltale sign that she probably even looks better naked. I wondered who’d pissed her off; that kind of thin only came from hate.
“Why are you asking me this?” Why? Because I’m fat and miserable, and that never happens.
“Because you look so great.” Because I need help.
“Well,” she softened. I leaned in. “Okay, so you have to promise not to tell anyone.” I shook my head quickly, my left hand in the air.
“Browse Inside” MOOSE: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein
Excerpted from “Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp” by Stephanie Klein. Copyright © 2008 by Stephanie Klein. Reprinted with permission by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM TODAY BOOKS: BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS |
 Brother West: ‘Being true to the funk of living’ |
| Add Today Books: Biography/Memoirs headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links
Resource guide