Hannah had it all: a handsome, devoted husband; big house in suburban Sycomore Hill; a fancy car; expensive wardrobe; and a membership to the local country club.
In spite of her good fortune, Hannah was bored and somewhat lonely. While she had some acquaintances that she called friends, she spent most of her time alone, longing for something that she couldn’t name. She loved her husband, but his job kept him busy, and she had hours and hours to fill on her own each day.
Recently, Hannah had discovered that cooking was enjoyable, and she began to try new recipes on a regular basis. She liked brunch food the best, and with those hours wide open in her usual routine, she began making herself brunch almost every day. The cooking challenged her, and her abilities improved with each new dish.
With this new hobby, Hannah noted that her clothing was getting a bit tight, but saw this as more of an indication that she should probably upgrade the clothes in her closet rather than a problem with her weight. She had never been much of a workout buff, but she did use the country club fitness facilities sometimes and thought that this would keep her close to the 5’7” 130 pounds at which she had begun her marriage a couple of years ago, regardless of other activities. As such, she invested in some new yoga pants, bras, and tops, willfully ignorant of the fact that she now weighed 147 pounds, the heaviest she had been in her life.
In her search for new recipes, Hannah discovered Carmen Colazione, an Italian-American YouTube chef who shared some amazing concoctions. Hannah had yet to find one of Carmen’s creations that she didn’t love, but was also intrigued by something else about Carmen. Scrolling through Carmen’s channel, one could see that she had changed. She had begun as a sort of normal looking girl teaching cooking techniques, but as time passed, she had morphed into an increasingly large woman. With that, Hannah noted, she took on a more outsized personality, dressing to show off her ever bigger boobs, and adopting her catchphrase, “For some, it might be too much, but I’M EXTRA!”, usually uttered when adding things like more butter or additional chocolate chips to a dish.
The more Hannah watched Carmen and ate her recipes, the more she was mesmerized. She was constantly googling Carmen, looking at before and after pictures, and engaging in her favorite activity, often performed while eating: reading comments that people made about Carmen. They could be loosely categorized into three groups: comments about the dishes; fat shaming remarks; and Hannah’s favorites - encouragement to keep eating, how hot Carmen looked, or best of all, a combination of both.
Hannah’s searches for Carmen led her to others that were interesting: entertaining chefs, cam girls and celebrities who had inadvertently gained weight, and women who stuffed themselves gleefully and meticulously tracked the progress that they were making as they added pounds to their bodies.
While she found some favorites, Hannah was consistently drawn back to Carmen. She fantasized about what it would be like to be her, growing in size and in confidence before an audience, flaunting her curves, letting people know that her size and her personality might be too much for some people, but that she was unapologetically EXTRA.
Hannah was spending more and more time eating, browsing, and fantasizing. She wiled away hours, grazing through dishes meant to serve 4-6 while focusing on flattering photos of Carmen and the others and the encouraging remarks made by their adoring, anonymous audiences. She hadn’t been to the gym in weeks, and wasn’t really missing it.
Not surprisingly, Hannah found that her new clothes were becoming progressively ill-fitting, and one morning, after squeezing herself into an outfit, she began to reckon with herself. As opposed to her indifferent response previously, this time Hannah found herself conflicted. She had gained weight, to be sure, but how much? Was she getting fat? What did she expect, sitting around all day, eating and not going to the gym? She dusted off an old bathroom scale and stepped on. The digital display bounced around before settling at 162. 162?! That was 32 pounds more than on her wedding day! She looked in the mirror, noting her stretched out yoga pants. She pulled her top up to find her soft belly bulging over the waistband. She felt her breasts, straining a bra that now dug into her back.She was getting huge!
This thought echoed for a moment. “Hannah, you’re getting huge.”
“Hannah, you’re getting fat.”
“Eating all that food you’re cooking, Hannah?”
“If Hannah gets any fatter, she’s going to roll away.”
The thoughts were scrolling through her head like comments on a website, and then she paused.
“Keep eating, Hannah.”
“You look amazing, Hannah!”
“Will that recipe give me boobs like you, Hannah? I’ll make a double batch!”
“Hannah, that body is EXTRA!”
As Hannah considered all of the positive reinforcement that people had showered on Carmen and the others and transposed her own name, Hannah’s doubt and negativity didn’t disappear, but it lessened. Just as she focused on the good things that were said online, she magnified them in her brain. And she knew what she would do next: get some better fitting clothes. But first, brunch...she had been craving a cream cheese French toast recipe that she had learned from Carmen a couple of weeks earlier.
From that moment forward, Hannah began to embrace what had been a desire hiding in plain sight. She wanted to live confidently, showing off her body, feasting on decadent meals, and feeding off of the positive attention. She devoured the desired French toast as she admired Carmen’s largesse, and then made her way to the shopping center, where she loaded up on push up bras, low cut tops, and tight clothing of all manner before having some ice cream, just because.
When her husband returned home that evening, he found Hannah showing off an impressive and unprecedented amount of cleavage. He smiled and said, “Went shopping today?”
“You like?” Hannah asked.
He blushed, and she knew she had his undivided attention.
“Some people might think it’s a bit much, but I’m EXTRA.” She said, before tackling him onto the couch and smothering his face with her boobs. As he grabbed at her, all she could think about was how she was just getting started.
And as the days passed, Hannah lived as she wanted, but it wasn’t too much longer before she realized that there was still something missing...