0 comments/ 74228 views/ 6 favorites Lose the Pounds or Lose the Pussy By: zeke81 When I hung up the phone and walked into the living room there were tears in my eyes. "Mark, Beth just called. She said that Dave had a heart attack this morning. He's dead." I said. "Oh my God, that's terrible. I just saw him at the diner yesterday, he looked fine." Mark said. "From what Beth said, Jane found him in his chair when she got up this morning. When she couldn't wake him she called an ambulance." I said. "Oh man. What's Jane gonna do? She just had the baby 3 months ago; now that Dave's dead she'll have to raise little Grace by herself." Mark said. Dave was the 4th of the men in our circle of friends to die of a heart attack in 18 months. Tom was 39, Eric as 41, Brad was 38, and Dave was 40. None of them was very old, but they were all quite a bit over weight. I had been concerned before, but after Dave died I realized that Mark was the most over weight of any of the guys. He had an office job so he didn't get a lot of exercise at work and getting him to work out was nearly impossible. Oh and the junk food...the man ate more garbage than a goat and a pig combined. A few weeks after Dave's funeral I took the kids to my parents' house so Mark and I could be alone. "Okay Sara, the kids aren't here so that must mean that you want to talk about something." Mark said. "Yes, I do, it's very important." I said. "Well, let's get this over with, there's a ballgame on." Mark said. "Come and sit down." I said. I was sitting on the couch and he sat down next to me. I turned to look at him. "Mark sweetie, you know I love you right?" I asked. "Of course I know that, and you know that I love you too." Mark said. "Yes, I know you do. Mark, I don't know how else to say it so I'll just say it. Mark, I'm scared." I said. "Scared of what baby?" Mark asked. He took my hand and squeezed it. "I'm scared of losing you." I said. "What? You'll never lose me Sara, I love you, I'd never leave you." Mark said. "I know that you'd never leave me Mark, that's not what I'm scared of." I said. "Then what are you scared of?" Mark asked. "Over the last 18 months 4 of our friends have died of heart attacks and 4 of our friends have been widowed because of it. Mark, I'm scared that you could be next." I said. A few tears had started running down my cheeks and I lowered my head. Mark lifted his hand and gently tilted my head back up with his finger. He carefully wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumb and looked into my eyes. "Sara, you'll never lose me like that, I promise you." Mark said. "How can you say that? What about Dave, Tom, Eric, and Brad? I bet they didn't think they'd have heart attacks either, but they did. You're heavier than any of them were, your diet is terrible, and I'm terrified that you could have a heart attack any minute." I sobbed. "Sara, you're worrying yourself over nothing. Nothing's going to happen to me." Mark said. "You don't know that. I know you Mark, you've got that big macho male ego, and you think you're invincible, but you're not. You're just as vulnerable as Dave, Tom, Eric, and Brad were. You might even be at more risk because you weigh more. It could be an absolute miracle that you've lived this long." I cried. I put my face in my hands and cried. "Sara, you're getting way too worked up over this. Nothing's going to happen to me." Mark said. "You might be right, you could live to be 100 without anything happening, but right now you're at high risk. If you died tomorrow think about what it would do to me and the kids. Jacob is only 2; by the time he grew up he wouldn't have any memories of his daddy. Do you want that?" I asked. "Of course not, look, if you're this worried about it we'll go see Dr. Thompson and you'll see that you have nothing to worry about." Mark said. The next day we went to see our family doctor, Dr. Ed Thompson. He put Mark through a series of tests, took blood and urine samples, all that medical stuff. He had us come back late in the afternoon after he was done with all of the tests. We were sitting in Ed's office waiting for him. He walked in, sat down at his desk, and looked at us. "Congratulations, you're pregnant. Oh wait, that's Mrs. Williams' file." Ed said. "Doc, will you just tell Sara that I'm fine and nothing's going to happen to me?" Mark asked. "I wish I could do that for you Mark, but I can't. I'm actually very glad you came in today because you are at very high risk right now. Your blood pressure is very high, you're a borderline diabetic, and you're 140 pounds overweight." Ed said. "See, I told you it was serious." I said. "You're shitting me, right doc?" Mark asked. "No Mark, you are at a very high risk of a heart attack or a stroke, and unless you change your diet immediately you could end up as a diabetic." Ed said. We talked for a few more minutes then Mark and I went home. As soon as we got home Mark grabbed a beer and a bag of potato chips and flopped on the couch and turned on the TV. I walked into the living room and looked at him in disbelief. "Mark, didn't you listen to anything that Dr. Thompson told you?" I asked. "Of course I did baby." Mark said. "Then what the hell is this?" I asked. "Well, this is called a snack, and that's called a ballgame. I'm going to enjoy this snack while watching that ballgame." Mark said. "Mark, I'd hoped that talking to Dr. Thompson would have opened your eyes." I said. "Oh my eyes are open Sara, but they're focused on the ballgame right now." Mark said. I was pissed. Dr. Thompson had told him that he could drop dead at any minute and he didn't seem to care. I stormed into the kitchen, sat down at the table and fumed for a few minutes. While I was sitting there I looked over at the counter. There was junk food everywhere. Snack cakes, cookies, candy, toaster pastries, sugary cereals, brownies, cinnamon rolls, cases of soda. I figured there had to be close to 1 million calories on the counter alone. In the fridge I knew there were a lot more fattening and sugary snacks and drinks. The cupboards were also full of junk. There were 3 gallons of ice cream in the freezer. Sitting there looking at all that junk food I realized that I was part of the problem. I was the one that bought all of that crap. I decided that if he wouldn't stop eating it I'd stop him by getting rid of it and not allowing any more into the house. I knew better than to just throw it in the trash, Mark would have gone digging to save it. I bagged it all up, took it out to my car, and took it over to my parents' house and picked up the kids. I asked my parents to keep anything they wanted and spread the rest of it out between my brothers and sisters as they all had kids that would enjoy the treats. Of course it would contribute to their own health problems but none of them were at the same risk that Mark was. Now I'm not a vegetarian, and I never will be, but I hate those processed foods and big greasy slabs of meat. So when I went to the grocery store I got a lot of healthy foods, a lot of fruit, and things like that. I got home, put the groceries away and found Mark still watching the ballgame on the couch. "Hey baby, what time's dinner?" Mark asked. "Oh give me an hour or so, it should be around 6:00." I said. At 6:00 sharp I called Mark and the kids to dinner. When Mark looked at what I'd prepared he looked up at me. He didn't have to say a word; I knew what he was thinking. "I've decided that this whole family is going to start eating better starting right now. If you won't take what Dr. Thompson said seriously enough to do anything about it then I guess I'll have to take things into my own hands." I said. "Sara, you've got to be kidding me. You expect me to eat this tiny little chicken breast and a few vegetables?" Mark asks. "Yes, that's a healthy portion size Mark, just because your stomach can hold more doesn't mean you need to eat that much. Now let's eat." I said. Our two children Hannah and Jacob were very good sports about eating the food I'd prepared. Mark ate it, but I could see his eyes searching the kitchen for something to snack on after dinner was over. When everyone was finished I got up to start clearing the table and Mark jumped up to start looking for something to snack on. "Sara, where are the corn chips and salsa? And where are those cupcakes you made?" Mark asked. "They're gone Mark." I said. "Gone? What do you mean gone?" Mark asked in disbelief. "I mean they're gone Mark, out of this house and they won't be coming back. If you want something for dessert there's fruit on the counter." I said. "Fruit?" Mark asked incredulously. "Yes, there are apples, bananas, a few oranges, and some grapes." I said. "Sara, what are you trying to do?" Mark asked. "I told you Mark, if you won't take what Dr. Thompson said seriously I'll have to do it myself. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I plan on living for a long time Mark and if you're going to make it that long things are going to have to change so that you don't drop dead on me." I said. "Sara, I told you, nothing's going to..." Mark said. "Stop right there Mark. Dr. Thompson, a medical expert and a close friend has told you that you're at high risk. We've been to the funerals of four of our friends in the past 18 months. Four friends that seemed to be less at risk than you are. I've told you how concerned I am. I'm your wife, the mother of your children. I want to grow old with you, but I'm absolutely terrified that I could wake up tomorrow morning and find you dead the way Jane found Dave. You keep saying that nothing's going to happen to you Mark, but when you've seen 4 of your best friends die, heard a doctor tell you that you're at high risk, and heard me tell you how scared I am, you're a damn fool if you think that nothing can happen to you." I said. Surprisingly I had gotten pretty worked up and was almost yelling at Mark, something I'd never had cause to do before. He was quite surprised by my tone as well because for a moment he stared at me in disbelief, then he nodded his head. "Okay Sara, if you think it's that serious I'll try to take better care of myself." Mark said. "Thank you." I said. I walked over to him, gave him a big hug and a kiss. We made love that night and it was wonderful. Sex with Mark had always been great, but having heard him say that he'd take better care of himself relieved me so much that it was even better than usual. Over the next few days Mark adjusted to eating smaller portions of healthier food. He wasn't exactly thrilled, but I could tell that he wanted to make me happy. After the first week I sat down with him after the kids had gone to bed. "Mark sweetie, I've been so proud of you over the last week. We're off to a very good start. But it's not just your diet that we have to change. We also have to get the weight you already have off of you. To help with that I've signed us up for a gym and I've hired a personal trainer for you. I want you to work out with him from when you get off work at 5:00 until 6:00 5 days a week, I'll have dinner ready every night at 6:30. Will you do this for me?" I asked. Mark looked at me for a moment. I could tell that he wasn't exactly happy about the idea of exercising 5 days a week, but he got a somber look on his face and nodded his head. "If that's what you want Sara." Mark said. "Oh thank you Mark." I said. When we went to bed that night we made love and it was incredible. I felt like things were finally changing, that the day would come when I didn't have to worry about getting a phone call, or waking up to find him dead beside me. Over the next two weeks Mark would come home in his workout clothes and tell me how hard he was working. I was so proud of him for taking to it so easily that we made love almost every night. Then at the beginning of the third week I was driving home from picking up the dry cleaning when I realized I was going to be passing the gym. I wanted to see him working out so I stopped and walked into the gym. I saw the trainer I hired working with another man. "Excuse me, but where is my husband? I thought he was supposed to be working with you." I said. "Oh shit, I should have figured he was lying." Tony said. "What did he tell you?" I asked. "He said that you'd found him a gym closer to your house." Tony said. "Our house is 3 blocks from here; the next closest gym is 4 miles away." I said. "Look, I'm sorry about this." Tony said. "It's not your fault." I said. I was so mad my stare could have melted iron when I got home. He'd been faking. He'd been putting on his work out clothes before he came home, he wasn't working out at all and I was buying it and making love to him every night because I was so proud of how hard he was working. I was able to compose myself and put on a happy face by the time Mark walked through the front door. After we had eaten and the kids had gone to bed I decided it was time to confront Mark about what I'd found out at the gym, but I had a plan about how to do it. "Sweetie, I hope this isn't too embarrassing for you, but why don't you hop on the scale for me so I can see how much weight you've lost." I said. "Uh...okay." Mark said tentatively. He stepped onto the scale. "Okay, you used to weigh 325 and now you weigh 321. I don't understand this. We've put you on a much better diet and with you exercising for an hour every day after work the pounds should be pouring off of you, but you've only lost 4 pounds. I think I'll call Tony and see if he can't find a workout for you that would get better results." I said. "Tony? No, there's no need to call Tony." Mark said nervously. "Why not? He's an expert, he's supposed to be helping you lose weight, and I don't think we're getting our money's worth with this kind of results. I'm gonna call him right now." I said. "No, don't do that." Mark said. "Is there some reason that you don't want me to call Tony?" I asked. "N...no..." Mark stuttered. "Well then, let's just give him a call." I said. I picked up the phone, but Mark grabbed it away from me. I looked at him and saw the shame on his face. "Mark, I know why you don't want me to call Tony. I stopped by the gym today to watch you work out. Tony told me that you'd said we'd found a gym closer to the house for you to work out at. I just wanted you to admit it, but you didn't do that, you just tried to cover your ass. I can't believe you would lie to me about working out and make love to me night after night like that under false pretenses." I said. "Sara, I'm sorry okay, I tried working out the first two days, but it just wasn't for me. You were so proud of me though and the way you made love to me after you thought I'd worked out was amazing." Mark said. I was within an eye lash of kicking him in the balls and storming out of the room, but those last words he said gave me an idea. "Amazing huh? Well I'll tell you what buster; unless you start working out for real and start losing some real weight we'll never make love again." I said sternly. Mark just laughed. "I'm serious Mark. Every time we make love I'm afraid that you'll die, it would destroy me to have you die while we were making love. Until you get serious about this and start really working out you're cut off." I said. Mark wasn't laughing now. He could see the serious look on my face, I'm not sure if he believed I meant it, but he damn sure knew that if I didn't mean it right then it would take just one more slip up for me to mean it. "Damn Sara, why are you being so serious about this?" Mark asked. "Because for some reason I want you to grow old with me and I'm really worried that you won't live long enough to grow old. I'm a little bit upset that you don't care about me or yourself enough to take this seriously." I said. Mark had no reply; he just hung his head and walked out of the room. The next day Tony called and said that Mark had shown up, which pleased me. When Mark got home he was all over me. "Don't even think about it buster. After the way you took advantage of things before you aren't touching me until I see some real results." I said. "But Sara..." Mark said. "No buts Mark. I want you to lose weight, you want to have sex, I'll trade you." I said. "Trade me?" Mark said. "Yeah. Dr. Thompson said you were 140 pounds over weight. I won't make you try to lose that much but I want you to lose 100 pounds and I won't have sex with you regularly again until you lose every bit of those 100 pounds." I said. Mark looked at me with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "Sara, even if I work out for 5 hours every day it will take me forever to lose 100 pounds. Are you really gonna prevent us from having sex for that long?" Mark asked. "No, I'd never do that Mark. We will still make love on Valentine's Day, our anniversary, and both of our birthdays." I said. "That's 4 times a year, and it will take me at least that long to lose that much weight. I don't think I can go that long without sex." Mark said. "How long you go without is totally up to you Mark. The quicker you lose the weight the sooner we can go back to making love regularly. And just so you don't think I'm being too cruel, and to give you some extra motivation we'll make love for every 20 pounds you lose. So we can make love when you've lost 20 pounds, again when you've lost 40 pounds, when you've lost 60 pounds, and when you've lost 80 pounds. Then when you've reached the target weight I've set for you we can make love regularly again." I said. Mark looked at me for a moment trying to read my face for any sign that I was kidding. "You're serious about this aren't you?" Mark asked. "Deadly serious Mark. If I have to cut you off from sex for the next 10 years to get you to lose those 100 pounds I'll do it because losing that 100 pounds could mean the difference between dying at 45 and dying at 85. Don't try to talk me out of it, because I won't change my mind. We'll begin tomorrow morning so I suggest we go make love right now because after tonight we won't be making love either until you've lost 20 pounds or until our anniversary in a month and a half, whichever comes first." I said. As we made love that night I did feel a little bad about what I was doing but it seemed like Mark was finally taking things seriously, though I thought he had been taking things seriously before. Only time would tell if cutting him off from sex was enough motivation to get him to take it seriously. The next morning we weighed Mark to set our starting weight. He tipped the scales at 325 pounds which meant that he had to reach 305 to be down 20 pounds and get to have sex with me again. It also meant that he had to get down to 225 pounds to meet the target weight and get to make love to me regularly again. "Okay Mark, you know your goals. You have to get to 305 pounds to reach the first milestone, and you have to reach 225 pounds to get back to the two of us making love regularly again. You didn't take this seriously before, but I hope you do now." I said. To my delight Mark took my ultimatum seriously. He worked with Tony every day after work, he bought an exercise bike and would spend at least two hours on it on Saturday and Sunday, and he even went to see Dr. Thompson to get a prescription for one of those medications that help lower your bad cholesterol. Anyone who's tried to lose any significant amount of weight will know that trying to lose 20 pounds in less than 6 weeks is possible but it's not easy. On our anniversary Mark was down 18 pounds so the first time we made love after I gave him the ultimatum was on our anniversary. Four days later I had Mark weigh in. Lose the Pounds or Lose the Pussy "Okay, 303 pounds, congratulations, you've lost the first 20 pounds and you've earned your first reward." I said. I put my arms around him and kissed him. I figured he'd be eager to take me to the bedroom, but to my surprise he looked at me with a questioning expression. "What is it baby?" I asked. "This is gonna sound odd coming from me, but do we have to do it now?" Mark asked. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Well, we made love for our anniversary 4 days ago. It took me over 6 weeks to lose the first 20 pounds; it'll probably be that long for me to lose the next 20. Do we have to make love now or could we wait a few weeks so that we won't have made love twice in a week and then not make love for another month and a half?" Mark asked. I looked into his eyes; I could see how uncertain he was. I'd given him the ultimatum, but I hadn't specified whether or not we had to make love right away after reaching each 20 pound milestone. I thought for a moment then I answered him. "Well, you earned the right to make love to me for losing the 20 pounds; I suppose that also earns you the right to choose when we make love as well." I said. "Thank you Sara. I'd love to take you to bed right now, but it's likely gonna be a long time before I reach the next goal so I think I want to wait two or three weeks." Mark said. I looked at him, smiled, and kissed him. "If that's how you want it. Just let me know when you're ready." I said. The change after just the first 20 pounds was amazing. I could really see the change, clothes that had been pretty tight on him before fit him much better. Two weeks later Mark surprised me on a Saturday morning. When I got up and headed down to the kitchen Mark had already prepared breakfast and the kids were eating. "Good morning baby. I was just about to come wake you up. It's such a beautiful day I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the park and you and I could walk around while they play." Mark said. I wasn't sure I'd heard him right at first. Our kids love going to the park and running around, but I couldn't remember the last time Mark had gone with us to the park. "That sounds wonderful, doesn't it kids?" I asked. "Yeah." Hannah said. "Park fun." Jacob said. After breakfast we all got in the car, drove over to the park and the kids started running all over the place while Mark and I walked around. It's a small park so the children were always in sight as we walked around the park. Mark and I held hands. After a while the kids both wanted to swing so Hannah ran over and pulled us to the swings to push them. Jacob didn't like having to be in the kiddie swing with the lap bar to keep him in the swing, but he's two and I wasn't about to let him swing on a regular swing when he still falls off the couch at home. He forgot all about it when Mark started pushing him; he started giggling and laughing and having a great time. I pushed Hannah on the swing next to Mark and Jacob. We stayed at the park until just about lunch time, then the kids heard the sound of the ice cream truck somewhere close by. "Ice cream!" Hannah said. "What do you say Sara? Think one ice cream bar will ruin my diet?" Mark asked. "You've gotten a lot of good exercise today so I guess you can have a treat with the other kids." I said. "Thanks mom." Mark said. We laughed and walked over to the street to flag down the ice cream truck as it went by. We all had an ice cream treat then we went home. The yard needed mowed so Mark got out the mower and started mowing. The kids went inside and started playing while I made sandwiches for lunch. We watched a movie as a family in the afternoon, had a nice dinner, and the kids went to bed, it was a perfect day. As Mark and I sat snuggled up on the couch after the kids had gone to bed he leaned in close to my ear. "I'm ready." Mark said. I stood up, took him by the hand and led him up to the bedroom and we made love. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. Five weeks after Mark had weighed in at 303 pounds, he weighed in at 284, down 41 pounds from his starting point of 325. "Congratulations, you've reached the second milestone. Would you like to cash this one in now or would you like to wait a while?" I asked. He didn't give a verbal answer, he simply picked me up, carried me to the bedroom and we made love. He would come to curse himself for not holding onto that one for a while. When he weighed in two weeks later we were both disappointed. "Okay, it has been two weeks so let's see what you're down to now...283 pounds." I said. "What? Are you sure?" Mark asked. "That's what it said. Let's try it again, step off and step back on." I said. Mark stepped off of the digital scale and stepped back on. I looked at the display. When it stabilized I frowned. "Well?" Mark asked. "I don't understand it, it says 283 pounds. You've worked your butt off these past few weeks and you've only lost 1 pound." I said. "I don't believe this scale; I'm gonna go buy another one so we have two numbers to compare." Mark said. "That's a good idea, we can't be sure this one is accurate." I said. Mark got dressed and went and bought another scale. We put it right next to the other one and he stepped onto the old one first. "Okay this one still says 283 pounds." I said. He stepped onto the new scale. "What's this one say?" Mark asked. "The same thing, 283 pounds." I said sadly. "How could I have only lost 1 pound in 2 weeks working as hard as I have?" Mark asked. "I don't know sweetie. Tomorrow when you're at the gym ask Tony, maybe he'll know." I said. "Good idea, he's an expert on this stuff, I'm sure he'll have an answer." Mark said. The next evening I waited anxiously for Mark to get home from the gym. I hoped Tony had an explanation for why he had only lost one pound in 2 weeks. When he got home Mark's expression told me nothing. He wasn't happy he wasn't upset, I couldn't hold off any longer. "What did Tony say?" I asked. "He said I've hit the wall." Mark said. "Wall? What wall?" I asked. "He says there's a wall where the fat you're burning off is getting even with the muscle that you're putting on. Apparently it's easy to burn a lot of fat in a hurry and if you haven't worked out a lot recently it's pretty easy to build muscle mass in a hurry too. I've reached the point where I'm gaining muscle as fast as I'm losing fat." Mark said. "So you are still losing bad weight but you're gaining good weight?" I asked. "That's right." Mark said. "So does that mean you won't be able to lose more weight?" I asked in a concerned tone. "No. From what Tony said the muscle growth will slow down soon and then I'll be able to lose weight more easily. He's going to change my workouts to ones that won't build as much muscle in the hopes that I can lose more weight." Mark said. "Well I'm glad to know that there isn't anything wrong. I was afraid that you'd reached your limit and wouldn't be able to lose anymore weight." I said. Two weeks later I had Mark weigh in again. "Okay, two weeks ago you weighed 283 pounds, now you weigh 280 pounds. Well that's 3 pounds, that's better than last time." I said. "Yeah, but that means I've only lost 4 pounds in 4 weeks. At this point it will be 15 more weeks until I get down to 265 pounds." Mark said. "I'm sure it won't be that long sweetie. I'm sure things are going to turn around for you soon and you'll start losing a lot of weight again." I said. I told him that, but 4 pounds in 4 weeks didn't give me a lot of confidence so I'm pretty sure that both of us had our doubts, I know I did, but I had to keep up the strong support. Mark refused to weigh in two weeks later, so it was another 4 weeks before he weighed in. It had been 8 weeks since he'd weighed in at 284 pounds. The next milestone was 265 pounds. "Okay, give me the bad news." Mark said. "Well, it's really not that bad. You weighed 280 pounds 4 weeks ago, now you weigh in at 271 pounds. That's 9 pounds in 4 weeks, that's more than 2 pounds per week, and it's just another 6 pounds to 265." I said. "Six more pounds. Your birthday is in 3 weeks, it looks like the next time we make love might be on your birthday." Mark said. Three weeks later Mark weighed in at 265 pounds on the button. My birthday was the next day so he put the 265 pound milestone reward in his pocket to hold onto. It had been over 11 weeks since we'd made love, that's almost 3 months. We were both really into it after all that time. Mark had dropped 60 pounds in 22 weeks. That's almost 3 pounds per week. He had really worked his butt off to lose those 60 pounds and I thought about telling him that 60 pounds was enough. After seeing him struggle through 11 weeks of hell to get down to 265 I wasn't sure I could handle seeing him go through that again. The day after my birthday I got up and found Mark on his exercise bike. "Good morning baby. I don't want to go another 11 weeks without making love so I'm gonna work even harder now that I did before." Mark said. "It won't be 11 weeks sweetie, your birthday is in 5 weeks, plus you have the reward for reaching the 265 pound milestone. You can cash that in any time you want." I said. "I suppose that's true, but those last 11 weeks were hell and I don't want to take that long to lose the next 20 pounds." Mark said. "Well, however long it takes, I'm really proud of you. When I told you how worried I was after Dave died you didn't seem to get it, but now I think you really do get it." I said. "Yes, I do get it. Of course you didn't give me much choice, if I couldn't make love to you regularly again until I lost 100 pounds then the rest of my life would have been pure hell if I stayed the way I was." Mark said. "Well I hope you're doing this for more than just the sex." I said. "I am baby, I am. It's been great being able to play with the kids more easily, and you can finally get your arms all the way around me when you hug me." Mark said. Mark decided not to weigh in until his birthday. "Okay, what does it say?" Mark asks. "Well, 5 weeks ago you weighed 265 pounds and today you weigh 255 pounds, you're down 10 more pounds, half way to the next milestone." I said. "Half way, I hoped to be farther along than that." Mark said. "Don't worry baby, 10 pounds in 5 weeks is great progress at this point." I said. "Yeah, but I was hoping to have 2 milestones to cash in 3 weeks from now when I take you to Hawaii." Mark said. "Hawaii?" I asked. "Yeah. My buddy Steve won a trip for two to Hawaii, but he and his wife can't go because of scheduling problems with their jobs so I bought the trip from him." Mark said. "What about the kids?" I asked. "I have already arranged for your parents to take care of them for the 3 days that we'll be there." Mark said. "Well this is a great surprise, but I hope you understand that I can't waiver now and give extra days of love making when you're so close to the end." I said. "I know. That's why I was hoping to have lost more than 10 pounds. I'll work even harder over the next 3 weeks to see if I can get down to 245, but it's gonna be tough." Mark said. We made love for his birthday. With Mark down to 255 pounds the changes were evident during our love making. He was much more active, and though it had never been a problem I could feel a real difference when his full weight was on top of me. True to his word Mark worked even harder over the next 3 weeks and the morning that we got on the plane for Hawaii he weighed in at 244 pounds. He cashed in both of his rewards on the trip and the whole thing was magical. Seeing Mark 80 pounds lighter in a bathing suit on the beach in Hawaii made me a little self conscious about my own body. I've always taken pretty good care of myself and other then when I was pregnant I've never been over 135 pounds. At 5'6" tall 135 pounds isn't fat, but it isn't exactly thin either. I'd been going to the gym twice a week since I got Mark to finally commit to going, but I'd only been maintaining my weight while firming things up that had become a little soft after 40 years and 2 pregnancies. I made a decision on the plane ride home that I told Mark about the next morning before he left for work. "Sweetie, you've come so far already, but this last 20 pounds is gonna be tough, so I've decided that I'm gonna be right there with you working right along side you and giving you lots of loving support to keep you going." I said. "That would be great. With you there beside me I know I'll be able to make it in no time." Mark said. At 5:00 that night I had my first real workout with Mark and Tony. My parents were more than happy to keep the kids for a few hours every afternoon while Mark and I worked out together and we'd just pick the kids up on the way home. After 4 weeks Mark and I both stepped onto the scales. "Okay, what's the bad news?" I asked. "You're down to 130 pounds, that's 5 pounds in 4 weeks, that's great." Mark said. He got to be the supportive one for a change. "I'm pretty proud of that, I worked hard for those 5 pounds." I said. "Yes you did. Okay, it's my turn." Mark said. He stepped onto the scale. "You're down to 232, that's 12 pounds in 4 weeks, that's great." I said. "I owe it all to you being there to support me." Mark said. "Well I don't know if that's true, but if I have been helpful, I'm glad. You're just 8 pounds away from the target we set." I said. "I know, it seemed so far away, but now, after 34 weeks I'm just 8 pounds away." Mark said. "And from what Dr. Thompson told us the other day your blood pressure is down, your blood sugar is much better, your cholesterol is down, and your risk of a heart attack has gone down a lot. I'm so proud of you. Now let's get one more strong push to reach that goal." I said. Mark and I worked out for 4 more weeks before either of us stepped on a scale again. He insisted that I go first. "Okay Sara, after 8 weeks you're down from 135 pounds to 124 pounds, that's an 11 pound loss in 8 weeks, congratulations baby." Mark said. He kissed me. "Thank you, now quit stalling, let's see how much you've lost." I said. Mark stepped on the scale. I let it settle out. "Damn." I said. "What is it? Is it bad?" Mark asked. "Let's just get you to step on the other one for a minute." I said. Mark stepped on the other scale. "So? What's the bad news?" Mark asked. "You're 3 pounds off." I said. "Three pounds? How could I still have 3 pounds to go after I worked so hard?" Mark asked. He was a little upset, but then I smiled at him. "What are you smiling about?" Mark asked. "I said you were 3 pounds off; I didn't say whether it was 3 pounds higher or 3 pounds lower. Congratulations sweetie, you're down to 222." I said excitedly and I kissed him. "I did it? Oh baby, that's fantastic news." Mark said. "Let's go make love." I said. "Okay, but before we do I want to talk to you about something." Mark said. "What is it sweetie?" I asked. "When we talked to Dr. Thompson all those weeks ago he said I was 140 pounds over weight. You set my target as 100 pounds, and I reached that target, but that still leaves me 40 pounds over weight. I was hoping that you'd be willing to extend our arrangement for another 40 pounds or so." Mark said. I looked at him in disbelief for a few seconds. "You've reached the goal I set for you and have earned the right for us to make love regularly again and you want me to keep you cut off until you lose another 40 pounds?" I asked. "I know, it sounds completely ridiculous, especially from a guy as horny as me, but I never could have made it if it wasn't for your ultimatum. I knew that even if I couldn't lose the weight you'd love me anyway, but the thought of not being able to make love with you regularly was great motivation for me to keep pushing myself to lose the weight. I lost 103 pounds in 38 weeks, that's over 2 1/2 pounds per week. I never could have done that if not for your ultimatum." Mark said. "That might be true, but what's that got to do with wanting to continue for another 40 pounds?" I asked. "I'm still 40 pounds over weight. Whenever we stop I'll keep working out, but that will be to try to maintain my weight not to lose more. That means I'll be at least 40 pounds over weight for a long time to come. I've come to the realization over the last 38 weeks that I don't want to be like that. I don't necessarily want to stay at my ideal weight, but I don't want to be 40 pounds overweight either. What I want to do is set a new target of 170 pounds, that's 52 pounds away. Change the milestones from 20 pounds to 25 and don't make love to me until I reach the first one 27 pounds away at 195 pounds and then not make love to me regularly until I reach 170 pounds. I want to reach that weight Sara, and I don't think I can make it unless you continue to motivate me the way you have so far." Mark said. I looked at him for a moment. I could see in his face that he was serious. He really wanted me to continue to deny him sex until he reached 170 pounds. I wasn't really sure that I wanted to continue things, but I could see how badly he wanted it so I nodded my head. "Okay Mark, if that's the way you want it. The same rules still apply, Valentines day, anniversary, and birthdays, plus the one milestone at 195 pounds, then regular love making when you have reached 170 pounds." I said. "I think I'll use the 100 pounds lost milestone right now so that I'll be extra motivated to reach the 195 pound milestone." Mark said. We went to the bedroom and made love. Four weeks later was Valentines Day. It had been 42 weeks since we had started with Mark at a weight of 325. He'd weighed 222 pounds 4 weeks before so on Valentines morning when we weighed him in we were both expecting good results. "Well shit." I said as I looked at the scale. "What is it?" Mark asked. "According to this you didn't lose anything, you still weigh 222 pounds." I said. "How can that be?" Mark asked. "I don't know. Tony and Dr. Thompson both said these last 50 pounds you want to lose would be tough, but you've been working for 4 weeks and haven't lost anything. I don't think it's supposed to be that hard." I said. "Well I'll just have to work harder." Mark said confidently. We made love for Valentine's Day after having a romantic dinner at a very nice restaurant. Four weeks later, 46 weeks since we first started and 8 weeks since we started Mark's extension of things we weighed him in again. "Please tell me I went down this time." Mark said. "Well, you did, you're down 3 pounds, you're down to 219." I said. "Three pounds in 8 weeks. This might be harder than I thought. Oh well, I'll just have to keep working hard." Mark said. Mark was out of town on business 4 weeks later so it was 6 weeks later that we next weighed him in. In fact it was one year to the day since he'd weighed in at 325 pounds at the start of the ultimatum. "Okay, it's been exactly one year, I started at 325, what am I at now?" Mark asked nervously. "Well, today you weigh in at 217 pounds so you're down 108 pounds." I said. "Well 108 pounds in a year sounds a lot more impressive than 5 pounds in 10 weeks." Mark said. "Don't worry sweetie, you can do this. I have faith in you." I said. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him lovingly. Our anniversary was 6 weeks later and he didn't want to be weighed in until then because of the disappointment of only losing 5 pounds in 10 weeks. When he stepped on the scale the morning of our anniversary I frowned. "How bad is it?" Mark asked. "Well, you lost weight; you made it down to 215 pounds." I said. Lose the Pounds or Lose the Pussy "Great, I've lost 7 pounds in 16 weeks." Mark said. It had been 16 weeks since we'd made love on Valentine's Day so when we got home from our anniversary dinner we both had a lot of pent up sexual energy to release and we did, over and over, and over again. Four weeks later Mark weighed in again. The results were less than we'd hoped. "Okay four weeks ago you weighed in at 215 and today you weigh in at 212, down 3 pounds." I said. "Three pounds." Mark said dejectedly. "It's not so bad sweetie, we knew these were going to be the tough ones and you've been losing weight every time." I said. "Yes, you're right, I guess I was just expecting better since I've been working just as hard now, if not harder, as I did when I was losing 2-3 pounds per week." Mark said. Four weeks later he was down 2 more pounds to 210. Four weeks after that it had been 12 weeks since we'd made love and Mark was getting really frustrated with his poor results over the past few months. "Let me guess, 209?" Mark asked sounding depressed. "No, it's actually 207, you lost 3 more pounds. You're doing great." I said. "Yeah great. I've got 37 more pounds to go. At a rate of 3 pounds every 4 weeks it will take over 48 more weeks for me to get down to 170. Sara, I can't do it. I just can't. I want to stop. I reached your target, that's good enough for me. Let's just call it quits." Mark said sounding beaten and dejected. I wanted to hug him and say that of course we could quit, but I realized that I couldn't do that. I wished that I could, but I couldn't. I put on a stern face and looked him right in the eye. "No way buster. We aren't quitting now. We set a new target and we both agreed to it. If you quit now then you'll only get to make love to me 4 times a year for the rest of your life." I said. It was all I could do to keep from crying as I said it, but I knew that I had to remain firm with him. "Sara be reasonable. I can't do it. Let's just chalk this up to my ego telling me I could do something that I couldn't deliver on and just get on with our lives." Mark said. "If you want to stop now you're free to do so, I can't and won't force you to keep going, but remember; until you reach 170 pounds you'll only be making love to me 4 days per year." I said. "You can't be serious. Sara, I know you, I know that these long stretches without sex have been as hard on you as they've been on me. Would you really give up sex for all but 4 days per year?" Mark asked. "Just because I'd be having sex with you 4 days per year does not mean that I'd only be having sex 4 days per year." I said. "What does that mean? If you aren't having sex with me then who would you...you can't mean..." Mark said. "I have no intention of completely giving up my sex life Mark. If you choose to give up before reaching the 170 pound goal I'll only be having sex with you 4 days per year, which would mean that I'd have to look elsewhere to have my needs met the rest of the time." I said. "Sara, I don't believe that you would ever do that." Mark said. "Oh no? If you give up now you're gonna find out whether I would or not because our deal was very simple, until you reach the goal we set you don't get to make love to me regularly. I've stayed faithful to this point because of the progress you were making, but I'm a woman Mark, a woman that enjoys the pleasures of sex, and 4 times per year is not enough for me. If you give up now 4 times is all you'll be getting, that leaves 361 days every year that you and I wouldn't be together. I can go quite a while without sex Mark, but eventually I'll need it, and I won't be getting it from you. So you have a choice to make. Either you keep going and I remain faithful or you give up and I hold out as long as I can, but eventually I'll give in and find another man to take care of my needs." I said. Mark looked at me in disbelief. "I couldn't stand the thought of you with anyone else. I'll reach 170 pounds if it kills me." Mark said. You cannot believe how relieved I was that he hadn't called my bluff. Unless Mark died or we got divorced I could never see myself even considering being with someone else. I was so close to cracking and telling him that we could quit whenever he wanted, but I remained strong. It was a goal that he'd set, he had asked me to help him reach that goal by denying him sex until he reached it so even though I would have been happy to have it end I had to keep him on track towards his goal. Four weeks later was my birthday and Mark surprised me by taking me away for a romantic day and we made love for 5 hours that evening. We weighed him in the next morning. "Dear God please let it be a good number." Mark said. "He must have listened. How does 200 pounds sound to you?" I asked. "Really? I'm down to 200 pounds? That's a 7 pound loss. That's great news." Mark said. "It means you're just 5 pounds away from collecting your last milestone before the push to the final goal." I said. "It's also just 5 more weeks until my birthday. I'd like to earn it before my birthday, but considering it's another 15 weeks from my birthday to Valentine's Day whenever I get it I'll be holding onto it for a while." Mark said. "Well then let's not weigh you again until your birthday then. If you aren't going to use it before your birthday there's no sense having you win it before your birthday now is there?" I asked. "No, I suppose there isn't." Mark said. The morning of Mark's birthday we headed to the scales. "Cross your fingers." I said. "I've got my fingers, my toes, my arms, my legs, and even my eyes crossed on this one." Mark said excitedly. I read the scale. "Well, congratulations, you're at 194 pounds, which means you've reached the last milestone before the final goal we set." I said. "Hot damn, I knew I was gonna get it." Mark said. I made his birthday a memorable one, just in case the last 24 pounds were as hard as the ones before them. Seven weeks later Mark cashed in his milestone reward. The next morning we weighed him to see what kind of progress he'd made. "I can't look, just tell me, good or bad?" Mark asked. I looked at the scale. "Well it's not bad, but it's not really good either." I said. "What does that mean?" Mark asked. "It means that you lost 6 pounds in 7 weeks. You're down to 188 pounds; you've got 18 more to go." I said. "That's good news though. I'm inside 20 pounds; I'm on the home stretch." Mark said. "I hope you're right, it's getting harder and harder to go without sex for so long." I said. Mark looked worried at my words, just the response that I was hoping for. It was becoming frustrating to have had so little sex since we'd started, but I could never go through with what I'd threatened Mark might happen if he quit. Another 8 weeks passed and it was Valentine's Day again. We were both anxious to see what the scale said so we went to the scales as soon as we got up. "Okay you were 188 pounds and now you're down to 181. That's 7 more pounds and leaves just 11 more pounds to go." I said. "Eleven more pounds? This is gonna be hell." Mark said. "Just remember what it means if you lose those 11 pounds and what it means if you don't." I said firmly. We had another romantic Valentine's Day dinner and we made love well into the night. With just 11 pounds to go Mark wanted to have a weigh in every morning. It took more than a week, but he got down to 180 pounds. A week later he was down to 179. A week after that he was down to 178. Down and down he went, losing one pound per week, after 9 weeks he was down to 172 pounds. When we weighed him after the 10th week he was still at 172 pounds. After the 11th week he still weighed 172 pounds. In fact he still weighed 172 pounds the morning of our anniversary. Then for 4 weeks after that. Five weeks after our anniversary we weighed him in. "Let's just get this over with so I can get dressed and go to work." Mark said. He stepped onto the scale. His shoulders had slumped as time had worn on without success, but his whole body got a new breath of life when I read the display on the scale. "It took long enough, sweetie congratulations, you're down to 169, which means you've met the goal we set and now this whole thing can be over." I said. "Oh thank God. If it went too much longer so close but so far from the goal I would have just given up." Mark said. "Well you made it. It took over two years of hard work and sacrifices, but you went from 325 pounds to 169 pounds. Do you realize that you lost 156 pounds? You lost a whole person. That's what you used to carry around on you, a whole extra person." I said. "That's amazing. I never thought it was a problem, but you changed that, thank you Sara, thank you for showing me the light and staying tough when I wanted to give up." Mark said. "It was for your own good." I said. "I know. Would you really have had sex with someone else if I had quit or hadn't been able to reach 170?" Mark asked. "I guess you'll never have to find that out." I said. "I might not have to find it out, but I want to know." Mark said. "Whether I would have or wouldn't have doesn't matter. The only way you would have found out would have been for you to quit or to not reach 170. You stayed with it and you reached 170 so now we can forget about that and go back to making love regularly again." I said. "So you aren't going to tell me whether you would have done it or not?" Mark asked. "Not in a million years. The only thing you need to know is that now that you've reached 170 pounds you don't have to worry about anything like that ever again." I said. "I love you." Mark said. "Yes you do and you're going to prove it by calling in sick to work and loving me all day." I said. "Yes ma'am." Mark said. It's been two years and Mark has gained 20 pounds of the weight back, but 190 pounds isn't bad. He takes much better care of himself now than he did when he weighed over 300 pounds. Dr. Thompson says he's in great health and our sex life has never been better. Mark keeps saying that we're making up for the two years that we missed.