Mother Knows Best - Part 2: Diet and Exercise

Mother Knows Best - Part 2: Diet and Exercise
by MagnusMagneto (MagnusMagneto23)
commissioned by Ritualist of Deviantart

Life was tough for Tara at the age of 19. She was the young mother of a newly born baby, and the man who should have been its father ran away. At first she struggled with trying to provide for her newborn son. There were many months that she was positive she wouldn't make ends meet, but managed to barely scrape by. After four long, agonizing years, her older brother's small business suddenly boomed overnight. Before she knew it, the boy who teased her nonstop while they were growing up was now providing her with a decent living. He always offered more, but Tara's pride prevented her from taking more than they needed to be comfortable. Even with his assistance, Tara went to work part-time while Cory was at school, and slowly expanded her hours as the boy grew older and more capable.

Regardless of her desire for self-sustainability, Tara allowed her brother to spoil them once a year – during the summer. Her brother gave them free reign of their beautiful summer home, tucked away in some gorgeous mountains. While they were at the summer home, both mother and son were free from school and work; free to just enjoy themselves. During these months, Tara was given a credit card to use on whatever she saw fit, though she never dared abused it. At first, her brother's family would also come visit for a few weeks. However, as the years passed, they grew more busy, and came less often, to the point that they hadn't come at all the past couple years.

Even though Tara truly enjoyed seeing her brother's family, this bet with Cory made her glad they weren't dropping by. She was unsure of how they would react to any of it, especially her brother. He strongly believed in patriarchy. Frankly, he would probably try to sabotage her quest to grow stronger than her son, simply on the belief that men should be stronger. While Tara deeply appreciated all of her brother's help, she hated his views on gender roles, and was afraid they were rubbing off on Cory.

Seeing that the weather outside was perfect, Tara decided she'd go outside for her first workout. Running her usual 4-mile path over rocky terrain would be no problem, Tara was already in excellent shape. She decided she would try to go as fast as possible. Tara pushed herself, not stopping for rest at any point. At the end, she clocked herself with 29 minutes. Not a particularly competitive time, but a decent place to start none-the-less. “I need to build up some muscle...” she said as she eyed herself over. Her frame was thin and beautiful, but lacked the sexy, powerful muscles she'd need to beat her son. Before heading inside, Tara jumped to the ground and started doing pushups. She managed to complete 14 perfect form pushups. That definitely needed improvement, but it wasn't bad compared to the other 34 year old moms.

Sweating a fair amount and feeling great from the rush of endorphins, Tara headed inside. She decided to check in with Cory, maybe seeing his mother actually working out would motivate him and end this silly bet.

“Hey there Cory, just got in from a workout. Went for a run and did some pushups.” she said as she entered her son's room.

“Cool.” Cory replied in a monotone voice.

“Aren't 'cha worried that your old mom will get a rock hard bod before our competition?”

“Nah.”

“Well, aren't you afraid you'll turn to flab just sitting there all waking hours of the day?”

Cory stood up. “I'm not too worried about that.” he said, lifting up his shirt, flexing his decently shaped four-pack abs for emphasis. “Go on, check 'em out” Cory demanded. Tara begrudgingly complied, jamming a finger into his abs. They were hard, and she was unable to dent them. “Not to mention, I haven't worked out at all the past few weeks. Gotta love being a man. And what about your girl-abs mom? The ones your precious hikes have built?” Cory said, moving his right hand towards his mother's abdomen. Against her better judgment, Tara lifted her tank-top and tensed her abdomen in a manner similar to Cory. While she had next to no body fat, only small, dainty, underdeveloped abdominal muscles emerged. Cory easily dented her midsection until she let out an audible yelp, to which Cory immediately stopped. He didn't want to hurt is mother, but he wanted to prove his point.

“Don't be mad mom, it's just one of the many perks of being a man.” He stated matter-of-factly.

“We'll see in a month.” was all Tara could muster up.

“Yeah, sure. Hey, uhh, can you get me some dinner please?” Cory asked, sitting back down in his trusty gaming chair.

Tara merely nodded and closed the door behind her.

Feeling quite hungry herself, Tara started to get some dinner ready. She decided in celebration of her new, healthier lifestyle, she would cook the high grade sirloin steaks her brother left in the freezer for her. There were three half-pound slabs of pure, high grade steak. She cooked all of it to medium-rare perfection. Next, she put one on a plate for herself, and the other two on a plate for Cory. As she made her way towards her son's room, she stopped herself halfway. “That brat really doesn't deserve this delicious meal.” she muttered to herself, walking back to the kitchen. Tara started to mull over what to make her son, giving particular thought to the basic fundamentals of nutrition. Protein is what builds and powers muscles, and that was the last thing Cory needed. Even in his lethargic state, protein would help retain the muscles he currently had. She grabbed a loaf of white bread nearby and a jar of Super-Sugary grape jelly from the fridge. Tara proceeded to make two sandwiches dripping with the purple goo, and cut the crusts off; just as Cory liked. She then poured him a nice tall glass of Mountain-Pepsi, the kind with extra sugar, his favorite. Carbohydrates and sugar. That's all this meal included. It'd give Cory energy to play his games, while providing his muscles with nothing.

Tara's motherly instincts made her feel a little bad about what she was about to feed her son, but if she could beat Cory in their competition, it'd be far better for him in the long run. Besides, he was more than capable of feeding himself, and she wouldn't stop him from eating something decent. She took solace in the fact that Cory would probably gobble the food down very happily. As a kid, Cory dreamed of eating nothing but bread and jelly in his sandwiches. In fact, when he was home alone, it was one of his favorite snacks. He had a big sweet tooth, gorging himself in whatever tasty things he could find. Tara was always quick to remind him of how little nutritional content was in that kind of food, and how he needed to take better care of himself. Now she was flat out delivering the very thing she preached against to him. Instead of finding this suspicious, Cory deducted that his mother realized there was no way she would beat him in arm-wrestling and weight lifting, so she was trying to appease him before he was in charge of the house. He was so very wrong.

While Cory greedily chomped down his sandwiches during the loading screens of his game, Tara sunk her teeth into one of the of the best half-pound steaks money can buy. Each bite provided her with precious muscle-building protein. She washed the meat down with a tall glass of whole milk. Feeling satisfied, Tara put away the leftover steak and raided the cabinets for vitamins. Supplements and multivitamins for almost anything and everything were available at her fingertips. Tara picked out over two dozen vitamins and eagerly swallowed each one. Every traditional vitamin and mineral was accounted for in spades, along with tons of other great stuff like fish oil, ginseng, flax seed and many more.

After a short rest, Tara felt fantastic. She headed down to the basement to see if her brother's family got any new workout equipment since last time. There she found the high-end treadmill that was always there, and an Ultra-Gym-Total-Flex-Bow machine. “Oh wow... this wasn't here last year...” she muttered as she sat down on the machine. Tara remembered the commercials on T.V. Ripped, powerful bodies happily doing every exercise under the sun. Unlike its competitors, this baby actually was just as good as free weights, if not better, and much more convenient, packed to the brim with state of the art technology. She remembered calling the number to order one, and being shocked that it was $50,000, the price of a very nice car. Even with a payment plan, she could never afford one without begging her brother.

Tara tapped a few buttons on the interface, following the menus to create a new user profile. She stood up as instructed, and immediately a long, horizontal red light appeared at her feet, rose up, and scanned her entire body. Soon it spit out a bunch of statistics

B/W/H: 34-27-34
Height: 5'5”
Weight: 120 lbs
Bodyfat: 21%
Biceps: 10”

Tara continued to fiddle around with the machine and instructed it to give her an optimal full body muscle building workout. Immediately it started having her perform practically every exercise that would be available at a gym: bicep curls, tricep extensions, shoulder presses, bench presses, lateral raises, shrugs, squats, calf raises, leg extensions, the list went on and on as the machine worked every possible inch of her body. After over two hours of intense weight training, Tara was finally complete, and drenched in sweat. She was exhausted, but felt great. Before leaving the basement, she performed the stretches the machine recommended to help muscle recovery and increase flexibility. After dragging herself up the stairs, Tara grabbed one of the two remaining half-pound steaks from the fridge and ravenously devoured it. Despite it only being around 9PM, Tara decided to go to sleep nice and early.

After a satisfying 10 hours of sleep, Tara woke up brimming with energy. Unfortunately, her body was completely sore all over, too much for her to truly enjoy all this energy. She showered, got dressed, and made her way over to the kitchen. There she took out the remaining half-pound steak and scarfed it down along with another tall glass of whole milk. Having taken care of her own cravings, she took out the white bread, cut off the crusts, and stuck two pieces into the toaster. As the bread toasted, she happily swallowed all of the same vitamins and supplements she had the day before. When the toast was finished, she put a very generous helping Super-Sugary jelly on each piece and poured a tall glass of extra sugar Mountain-Pepsi. Tara brought the meal to Cory's door, placing it gently on the floor outside, and went outside to her car.

The nearest decent sized town was an hour away. There was a smaller town with a modest grocery store closer by, but Tara needed supplies for her quest. Important things first though, she checked into the local spa and treated herself to a professional full body massage, manicure, pedicure and facial. While she still felt a bit sore, it was a marked improvement over this morning. Tara could never afford to have this kind of pampering on her own, and her brother's credit card would barely notice.

Next Tara headed over to the supermarket where she loaded up on two carts of food, enough to last her and Cory for a month. The first cart was the pinnacle of healthy eating: lean chicken breasts, steak, high quality beef, every type of fruit and vegetable imaginable, whole grain oats, and gallons of protein enriched milk. The second cart was the polar opposite: Loaves of extra processed white bread, sugar enriched jelly of every kind, bags of candy, various brands of cookies, doughnuts, Tart-Pops, frozen cheese pizzas, super-buttered popcorn and many bottles of various extra sugar sodas. It felt great buying all the food she wanted without fear of the financial repercussions.

Tara's final stop was the nearby vitamin store. She grabbed extra bottles of every vitamin and supplement she was already taking, and scoured the aisles for anything she could add to her daily regiment. In particular there were tons of strange herbs ready in pill form. She grabbed enough to bring her total up to 41. Swallowing 41 separate pills daily would be far too inconvenient to most people, but Tara was a determined woman; she needed to be as healthy as humanly possible to save her son. As she made her way to the check-out register, she spotted the work-out supplements. One in particular caught her attention, simply labeled Miracle-Power. It claimed to help muscles recover faster and grow stronger than any other supplement on the market. The package proclaimed itself to be legal steroids. It even went on to claim that it had no negative side effects. Women didn't become manly and men didn't get messed up balls. She was dubious, so she called over an employee.

“What can I help you with ma'am?” An extremely muscular guy in his mid twenties came over. It was very obvious that he was well acquainted with this section of the store.

“Is this product as good as it claims? Honestly?” she said, handing the container over to him.

He let out a laugh. “This a present for your husband?”

“No.” Tara sternly replied

“Boyfriend? Son?”

“It's none of your concern who it's for. I just want to know if it works.”

He laughed again. “Little lady, trust me, a gal like you wants this..” he put the container down and grabbed a pink tub labeled Feminine Appeal. “This here will help lean out and tone your muscles without bulking you up. You'll keep your nice thin lines while making them a little firmer, instead of turning you into she-hulk.”

Tara angrily grabbed the super-protein. “Let me ask you again. Does this do what it advertises?”

The employee let out a sigh. “Honestly Ma'am? If I could buy that, I would in a heartbeat. See these?” he flexed his impressive 15” biceps “These could be even better if I had the cash for that. Thing is, who can afford to buy a week's worth of protein for $500?”

“I can.” Tara replied, putting it into her cart and adding three more.

“I'll be damned.” was all the man could muster, his mouth ajar. “Just remember ma'am, no refunds.”

The total purchase came about two and a third grand. Tara put the whole thing on her brother's card. She vowed to never abuse her brother's generosity, but this was justified. Her brother had tens of millions just sitting there. Even if he never another worked a day in his life, his family could live extravagantly for the rest of their days. The past 15 years of Tara's life had been tough. She loved being a mom, but that didn't make it any easier financially. It was finally time for her to live a little, and actually take up her brother's offer.

As Tara sat down in the driver's seat of her car, she looked over at the bag from the vitamin store beckoning to her. She ravishingly grabbed it, immediately opening and downing the new supplements she hadn't already eaten today. Next she greedily eyed a tub of Miracle-Power, and hastily opened it. Instead of mixing it in a shake for taste's sake, she put a scoop into her mouth and swallowed it dry. Putting the powder away, she licked her lips to be sure to get every last spec. Tara turned on her car and started driving home.

Within a few minutes Tara's soreness completely vanished. Between the massage and the protein powder, she felt completely refreshed and stronger than ever. As she pulled up, Cory heard the car parking and stuck his head out the window. “Need a hand with the groceries? I can see the bags from here, that's a lot!” he genuinely offered.

“No thanks honey, just get back to showing those cyber terrorists who's boss!” Tara replied smiling and waving dismissively.

Cory shrugged and stuck his head back inside.

Normally Tara would struggle to get the groceries in, especially the bags with milk and soda, but she found herself able to easily simultaneously carry two bags that she would have struggled with before.

Cory was still peeking through the window. “Damn, she is working out, huh? Well, don't want her to catch up, not that she could or anything.” He dropped down and got into a pushup position. He was able to perform 41 before he got a little tired and stopped. “Not too shabby. I'll just crank these out every couple days and watch the muscle pile on.” he reassured himself, snickering a bit as he sat down and resumed shooting people over the internet.

After putting away the groceries, Tara made a nice bowl of freshly washed fruit for herself with a glass of protein enriched milk, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies with a glass of soda for Cory. She gobbled down her fruit and milk, left the cookies and soda outside Cory's door, and went out for another run. This time she was down by 10 seconds. Improvement in just one day! It felt great. Tara realized that she wasn't even tired from the run... So she did it again! Unfortunately she actually did begin to grow tired, and as a result only clocked in at 30 minutes. Still... She just ran a rough 4 mile trail twice in a row without a break. That was pretty damn impressive.

The evening went almost identically to the one preceding it. Tara wolfed down a healthy, delicious meal of lean chicken breast and veggies, and Cory got a cheese pizza. Tara worked out on the Ultra-Gym-Total-Flex-Bow machine, doing slightly better than the day before, and Cory increased his Kill/Death ratio in Call of Battlefield a little bit. Tonight however, Tara worked out a little longer than before, lasting until 10 PM before she greedily devoured a dry scoop of protein powder and called it a night.

The days went on like this with slight variations. Each day Tara woke up a little less sore than the previous day, and her protein always squared it away. Cory woke up extremely sore from the pushups he did. Each day Tara spent a little more time running, finishing her initial run a smidgin faster than the day before. Each day she ate a little more food than the last. As did Cory. Each evening she lifted a little more weight and went to sleep a little bit later. Each night she slept a little less total, yet felt even more refreshed when she woke up. Each morning she woke up and noticed a few more muscular bumps in places they hadn't been before. Each day she felt a little bit better about her self, a bit more confident than the day before.

A week had passed since Cory made the bet with his mom. He finally stopped feeling sore from his push ups a week ago. “Time to check the progress!” he excitedly told himself, dropping to the ground. Something was off, each push up took more out of him. While a week ago he hit 41 and stopped because he felt a little discomfort, today he had to exert himself until he was an exhausted heap on the floor the reach 40. “Meh. No big deal. 40's still better than any girl can do” he reassured himself, taking a long sip of Mountain-Pepsi as he connected to another Call of Battlefield deathmatch.

Tara decided to run along a more difficult path today. The winding 7 mile “Buzzard Valley” path was considered dangerous for anyone who can't easily hike that long. Tara eagerly conquered it, barely exerting herself.

That evening Tara instructed the Ultra-Gym-Total-Flex-Bow machine to do a progress scan on her. A familiar red light bathed her, and the screen read the following data:

B/W/H: 35-26-36
Height: 5'6” ½
Weight: 118 lbs
Bodyfat: 19%
Biceps: 11”

Tara was absolutely beaming with pride. She lost weight, gained muscle, and somehow... her boobs grew? After shortly mulling it over, Tara realized that for the first time in her life she actually had some developed chest muscles that were making her breasts extra perky. Triumphantly looking over the numbers again, she did a double take. “Five foot six and a half inches? What?” she made the machine scan again. It read the exact same numbers. She stepped off the machine and grabbed a tape measure nearby. The tape read the exact same thing. Tara wasn't sure if it was the stretching, the vitamins, the running, or what, but something made her taller. And she loved it. She went through her regular exercises, she was about 33% stronger than she was a week ago. Good progress. She hoped she could keep it up in time for the end of the month.

Another week passed. Very similar to the previous week. Tara was only sleeping 7 hours a night, and feeling just as refreshed, if not more than when she used to sleep for 10. Her time for the starter trail was down to 26 minutes. She had visible muscles even when unflexed, and had made it a point to keep them covered up whenever Cory could potentially see her. Two weeks ago she would have loved for her son to start working out, but now she just wanted to punish his misogynist views. Corey was still too sore to do more push ups.

Mother and son were both heavily ingrained in their routines and another fortnight quickly passed by. During this time, Cory found himself down to 34 pushups, and he didn't dare try them again before the contest for fear of being sore. Towards the end of this time, Tara found herself able crank out a countless amount of pushups and lost count over 150; at this point she found them trivial. One week before the contest day, Tara ran down the dreaded “Death Valley” trail. Featuring over 12 miles of harsh terrain, even many savvy hikers completely avoided it, for fear of needing to be rescued by helicopter if they couldn't make it the whole way. Tara giggled at the warning sign when she completed it, barely out of breath. There were visible muscles all over her body. Hard ones. Tara loved to squeeze them, feeling their rock hard strength beneath her fingers. She found herself down to 5 hours of sleep a night. Sleeping any more simply wouldn't benefit her. Even with her new-found stamina, Tara couldn't workout 19 hours straight, so she found spending about a third of her day reading books from her brother's extensive library. She found herself completely engorged with great works of philosophy: Plato, Socrates, Nietzsche, Hobbes, the list went on. Tara eagerly devoured each concept, thinking deeply upon them all.

The night before the contest, she had the Ultra-Gym-Total-Flex-Bow perform one more scan on her.

B/W/H: 37-25-38
Height: 5'8”
Weight: 116 lbs
Bodyfat: 15%
Biceps: 14”

Tara was a lean, mean, powerful machine. Her breasts had definitely grown, perhaps from all the nutrients she was absorbing daily, and she was undoubtedly taller; only two inches shorter than her son. She walked over to the nearest mirror, flexed her bicep, gave it a hard squeeze and grinned wickedly. Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.

(As always, comments and feedback are highly appreciated, and if you'd like to contact me or see more of my work,check out my deviantart page: http://magnusmagneto23.deviantart.com/ )