“True,” Marissa admitted.

“I’m not saying it’ll be two years. I’m saying it’s an investment of time to get a result you think is important. Like taking a night class to get a better job. This is about scheduling your life to get a better physical machine through consistent exercise and good nutrition. If you don’t think that you are worth this investment then you will never succeed. You have to like who you are, right now, enough to want to spend time on yourself for the payoff of a body that will carry you healthily into middle and old age.”

Off to Marissa’s right, someone asked, “Are you going to cover diet plans and approaches at some point?”

“I will. My program is this series of five classes. Next week we’re going to do metabolic math and talk about hunger hormones and the recent suggestion by some researchers that fat is an organ, like the pancreas, and it acts and reacts on a very complicated level. In addition, you’ll each get two hours of consultation, scheduled any ol’ way you like. If you want more, we can talk about private consulting.”

The woman next to Marissa raised a hand laden with chunky rings. “You’re not going to tell me I need to stop having caffeine and diet soda and eat seaweed pills, are you?”

Helena laughed. “I believe that there are herbals that can help some people and if I think that’s the case with you I have the names of a few homeopaths. Caffeine—no one can decide if it’s good or bad, in excess or moderation or what. Some people eliminate caffeine and feel great. But the last thing I want to do is tell you to take all the joy out of your life. What’s the point in that?”

“Damn right. There’s no point in me doing something that just makes me want to die.”

Nodding with understanding, Helena paused to look carefully around the room. “I want to be clear—I’m a licensed nutritionist and a veteran of the weight loss wars. I’m not a doctor, a homeopath, a fitness trainer and I’m certainly not a therapist. I will tell you if I think you need any of those things—”

“Oh, please,” the woman next to Marissa scoffed. “I just like food too much. I wasn’t abused as a girl and now I stuff myself because of the trauma, boohoo poor me.”

Marissa, feeling as if her eyebrows had hit her hairline, said, “Maybe not, but some of us here were.” Reflecting on her epiphany that wanting to be unattractive to boys had led her to put on extra pounds, she added, “Some of us probably haven’t figured out that one’s got to do with the other.”

Helena took back control of the session with a quiet, “As I said, we’re all unique. Our issues and histories are all different. What we need to do for ourselves will vary.”

The session went on for another twenty minutes of question and answer. When it was over, Marissa got out her checkbook to enroll in the full series of classes. She wished she’d been able to convince Heather to come as well. Though she still went to the gym, she too was dejected that she’d not really had any results either.