The film opens in a small, bright kitchen. Mara stands at the counter at about 150 lb, blunt black bangs across her forehead, a red strapless bandeau lying flat over her chest and short yellow shorts that fit with just a little pinch at the waist. She has a whole cake in front of her and a knife in her hand. She makes herself a promise out loud, the kind of promise people usually forget by February: this year, she is not saying no to anything.
She says it with a grin and means it more than she expected to. She cuts one slice, and then, because saying no to the rest of the cake would break the promise on day one, she cuts another. Fried chicken follows that night, the first thing anyone ever sees her eat on camera, and she pushes her bangs aside with one finger before she boasts that it is the best thing she has made all week.
There is not much to see yet, and that is the point. Her belly is flat but already soft at the edges after the second plate. She pats it twice, like a drum, before the next bite. The yellow shorts sit fine. The red top stays where it belongs. She wants it on the record that she started here.
Behind her, the oven door reflects a girl who is about to change a lot. Mara catches her own eye in the glass and laughs, low and amused, the way she does before every punchline. Then she sits down with a fork and takes her time.
This first stage is mostly about attitude. She is slim, she is hungry, and she has no plan to stop, and everything the film does later grows out of how happy she looks at 150 lb with a plate in front of her.
Mara“I want that on the record.”
Mara“This year, I'm not saying no to anything.”
Her outfit at 150 lb: The red bandeau lies flat across her chest and the yellow shorts fit neatly, with just a small pinch at the waist.
Follow the whole Mara weight gain timeline, see this stage as a panel in the Mara weight gain comic, or read it in her own words in Mara's Feedee Diary: Kitchen Notebook, One Promise, Seven Entries. See every woman at this size on BBW feedee, or meet the cast on feedee girls.