Free Live Love Lacrosse by Barbara Clanton Page B

dressing and heading downstairs, she wasn’t quite hungry for
breakfast, so headed to the bookshelf instead. She was almost done with her Star
Trek book and would need another one soon. Her grandmother’s floor to
ceiling book shelf loomed over one entire wall of the living room. Oh, Addie
knew exactly where the science fiction and fantasy books were, but decided to
be nosy and see what other kinds of books her grandmother liked. One high shelf
held old musty hardcover books, but she wasn’t interested in those. Another
shelf held a million gardening books. Grandma’s roses were definitely awesome,
but Addie wasn’t interested. Another shelf held a combination of scary-looking
horror, thriller, slasher-type paperbacks. Nope, she’d have nightmares for
months if she read those. There were a lot of mysteries and a handful of cheesy
romance books, but nothing caught her eye. That was until she looked on the
bottom shelf. She bent over at the waist to read the title, since squatting was
still way too painful. The book’s title read, “Your Body Wants to be in Shape.”
    Addie pulled the book out slowly. The cover showed a woman in
old-fashioned workout gear. Leotard and leg warmers and the cheesiest looking
headband Addie had ever seen. Not to be deterred by the cover, she headed out
to her favorite reading spot on the porch. She pulled the cushion close so she
could ditch the book under it so no one would catch her reading it.
    The first chapter talked about how fad diets didn’t work and that
if you just follow the simple steps outlined in the book, then all would be
right with the world.
    “Get on with it, already,” Addie mumbled. “What are the steps?
What do I have to do to be in shape and show Brooke I’m not fat? And show Daddy
I’m not a Weeble. And show Coach Marks I’m not a big-boned gal. And show Dr.
Takahashi I’m not a girl who ‘likes to eat.’ And show Troy, not that I really
care, but show Troy I’m not a lardo.”
    Addie bit back the sudden rush of tears. She closed the book
around her finger so she wouldn’t lose her place and wiped at the tears with
one hand. She took a deep breath, even though it hurt her rib cage, and then
let it out slowly. Yeah, she would show everyone that she could be in shape and
that she could play lacrosse, including her grandmother who didn’t think she
could be good at sports or good at anything for that matter.
    Addie skimmed the next chapter until she found some stuff that
sounded interesting. “Calories in must be less than calories out,” she read out
loud. “It’s as simple as that.” Skimming some more, she found that a diet of
1800 calories was good for weight loss if you were a female with a sedentary
lifestyle. She wasn’t exactly sure what sedentary meant, but that column had
the lowest number, so she went with that.
    “That’s it then,” Addie said out loud. “Counting calories is what
I have to do. Calories in less than calories out. Easy. It’s math, and I’m good
at math. I just have to burn more than 1800 calories a day.” Of course, she’d
have to ask Kimi how many calories were burned with each exercise they did.
Would she even know? Maybe Coach Cairns would know. She was fit and had studied
biology or something in college.
    Addie felt an inner peace, knowing that a game plan was forming.
She skimmed the rest of the second chapter and found a sentence that rocked her
world. She read it silently to herself, but it was so profound that she read it
again out loud. “It is okay to feel hungry.” The rest of the paragraph blew her
mind. “Hunger tells you it’s time to eat, that your body needs nourishment.
Americans in particular get used to that overfull, stuffed feeling and get
nervous when they don’t feel that way. But it’s not natural. Your body wants to
be in shape.” The section went on to say that the time on the clock should not
dictate when you eat.
    Addie nodded. All of that made sense. Eat when you’re