"What's female beauty but an air divine,
Through which the mind's all-gentle graces shine?
They, like the sun, irradiate all between;
The body charms, because the soul is seen."
--_Young._
If one had to choose between being too fat or too lean, the wise woman
would certainly take the smaller allowance of flesh. Jack Sprat might
incite pleasant ridicule, but Jack Sprat's wife--lo! there would be
naught but pity and tears for her! It is better by far to be the butt
of jokes concerning "walking shoestrings" or "perambulating umbrella
cases" than to waddle through life burdened to death with an excessive
amount of flesh. The thin sister can pad out the angles, put frills and
puffy things over the bony places, but alas for the fat one! She gets
into clothes that are skin-tight, and she draws in her corset string
until it snaps and gives at every breath and sneeze, and even then she
does not look graceful and pretty, for the fat--like secrets--will out,
and it rolls over and around like the little bumps and humps in a
pudding bag.
[Illustration: LADY NAYLOR-LELAND]
Yet, after all, there's more hope for her than for her sister in
misery. While some thin girls might revel in cod liver oil and nearly
convert themselves into a hospital storeroom of tonics and fattening
foods, they can't get round and rotund--the Lord seems to will it that
certain persons are to amble disconsolately through life minus the
proper allotment of flesh. But with the overplump lady it all lies
within herself as to whether she is to be stout and buxom or of more
artistic and beautiful proportions. It is simply a matter of getting up
and hustling, a condition of animation frequently foreign to her
nature, but not at all impossible to even the most unwieldy.
While a certain careful routine of living is necessary for a speedy
change for the better, the two main points to remember are diet and
exercise. To the girl who says: "But I can't diet. I get hungry. I love
sweets and goodies, and have to have them," I must reply: "Well, then,
be fat." What is worth having is worth working for, and the woman who
is too fat for her own comfort and personal appearance invariably has
ahead of her the dreadful bogy of additional flesh as the years go on.
And surely that should be enough to inspire her to mend her ways.
In beginning the change--that is, in starting out on a regular system
of dieting and exercising--you should remember that the reform must be
worked gradually. One must go slowly into the more healthful manner of
living. The severe methods of flesh-reducing cannot be too greatly
deplored, and many a woman has lost her life by these extreme measures.
I do not mean that they have died at their exercisers or that they fell
exhausted because they did not have enough to eat, but that in their
mad efforts to become thin quickly they undermined their health and
laid a good foundation for physical disorders. Good health, with too
much plumpness, is preferable to beautiful proportions and the
listlessness and pain of ill health. So you can follow my advice with
the greatest safety, as health--to my way of thinking--is greater than
beauty, for the last depends upon the first, invariably.
To-morrow, when you get up, throw on a loose, warm wrapper, and then
open the window. Stand in the cool, crisp morning air, and expand your
lungs a dozen times, holding your hands on your hips and raising
yourself lightly on your toes. Vary this by walking across the room,
taking long, full breaths from the abdomen. This practice is equally
good for the thin girl, or any other kind of a girl, for that matter.
After airing your lungs close the window and run into the bath-room,
where you should have a quick sponge bath, rubbing the body briskly
with a heavy towel. A quick alcohol rub can follow, just as one
pleases. For breakfast let there be fresh uncooked fruit, especially
oranges. Tea or coffee must be taken clear, as neither milk nor sugar
should be indulged in by the beauty patient whose chief ambition it is
to lose flesh. Toast must always be eaten instead of bread, and butter
used sparingly at all times. Avoid fats, starchy cereals,
flesh-producing vegetables and pastries. This is very simple, when you
once make up your mind to it. Do not fancy you are thus left with
nothing whatever to eat--like Mother Hubbard's unhappy dog. Meats,
either cold or broiled, are good if eaten in moderation. Poultry, fish
and game are all right. Asparagus, string beans, spinach and tomatoes
are the most appetizing of vegetables, and in these four alone there
will be sufficient variety, especially when salads of all sorts are
included, although these must, of course, be taken without oil. Young
onions are also excellent, as are condiments, dried fruits and
acidulated drinks. A hot lemonade, taken every night, is good, but it
must have little sugar, else the effects of the acid will be
overbalanced.
As for exercise, walking is best of all. Running is very beneficial,
but the unique witticisms of the average small boy will probably keep
this form of exercise confined strictly to the house. Begin by walking
half a mile for several days, then make the distance a mile, and keep
increasing your daily walk until you cover at least five miles. That
may sound like an impossibility, but don't you believe it, for it's not
at all. In Great Britain a walk of fifteen miles is not considered half
an effort, and who does not know that the English girls have the most
superb complexions in the world? Besides this, they are healthy,
wholesome, well-developed women, and that counts a good deal in the
race for beauty. If the five-mile walk is too exhausting, then take a
longer time getting to the point, when it will be exhilarating instead
of enervating.
Sleep must be limited to seven hours, and daily naps are strictly
tabooed. To those who prefer, mechanical massage can be given, and this
will take the place of long walks, although they are really preferable,
as the fresh air is necessary. Oxygen destroys or burns out carbon, and
carbon is fat. The more exercise and fresh air, the more oxygen, and
consequently destruction of fat by the one healthy means of remedying
obesity. Soda phosphates and the various fat-reducing preparations are
not desirable. The only way to cajole willowiness of body into coming
in your direction is to diet and to take plenty of exercise. Do not
drink much water. A little lemon juice added to it will make it less
fattening.
There, now, plump lady, are your rules! Abide by them and your woes
will surely disappear with a swiftness that will make you laugh.