Part 3

LIVE—AND ENJOY LIFE

The Protective Foods keep you alive. The Energy Foods keep you enjoying life. Energy foods are like the gas in your car; they give you the quick start, the power to go places, the speed to get there fast. If you’ve ever run out of gas on a country road, you know how important energy is.

Energy foods are delicious. And fattening. Let’s boldly mention a few:

Chocolate eclairs, pies, French pastries, griddle cakes, shortcake, rich salad dressings—yummy!

If you would reduce yourself, reduce them first! Of course, there are other Energy Foods without so much glamor but with more honest goodness (and less fat). We refer to such friends of humanity as bread and potatoes. Don’t see too much of them, but don’t snub them entirely. And whenever you reduce any of the Energy Foods, be sure to put in their places more of the Protective Foods.

For the Protective Foods are like the brakes on your car. They keep you out of trouble. They build up your blood by bringing it minerals and vitamins. They help you repel colds and other worse things (if there are any worse things).

We can conceal from you no longer the fact that these good, reliable, tasty and health building foods include:

MILK—VEGETABLES—FRUITS—EGGS—MEAT—CHEESE

Whatever you weigh, you need both kinds of food. So don’t go cutting out all energy foods and then, when you get to feeling droopy, say we told you to do it. WE NEVER DID.

DID SOMEBODY SAY “MILK”?

At this point some pupil is sure to raise her hand and ask, “Oh, but isn’t milk terribly fattening?”

No, Gwendolyn, it isn’t. Milk gets its chief fame from calcium. Calcium may sound like a pretty dull mineral, but believe us, it’s worth its weight in gold. In fact, if you have plenty of calcium in your teeth, you won’t need so much gold. As for bones, they are full of calcium, or should be. Milk also contains several vitamins and a dozen or so other minerals. In fact, milk is a mineral mine (and yours, too, since there’s plenty for both of us).

Moreover, milk is rich in proteins. And proteins are the material from which your muscles are made. If you have no muscles to speak of, please consider that we are speaking of your husband’s muscles. (If he has none, we have just been wasting our time.)

BABY TALK

Some people seem to think that milk is for babies only. You might just as well say that baths are for babies only. Or love, or petting. No one ever outgrows the need for milk (or baths or love or petting). No other food will do as much to maintain health throughout life.

Why, THIS Isn’t Bad!

To prove that you can diet and like it, here is a sample of a delicious—but discreet—menu. Be guided in quantities by your calorie needs. See page 20. (For the not-very-active, reducing diets average 1,400 to 1,500 calories a day.)

Breakfast Sliced Orange Poached Egg Buttered Toast Milk Coffee or Tea Luncheon Open-face Grilled Cheese Sandwich Tomato Cabbage Slaw Fruit Cup Milk Dinner Broiled Fish or Steak Green Beans Combination Salad, Lemon Juice Bread and Butter Ice Cream Average servings. See pages 30 to 35. Calories for the day—1,450 to 1,500.

CONCERNING CALORIES

You probably know about calories. There’s been a lot of talk about them. In case, however, you still confuse them with vitamins, we point out that a calorie is simply a rather nice word for a measurement of energy. If you weigh too much, you aren’t using up calories as fast as you are taking them in.

In case you have vowed to carry this booklet around with you until you have lost such and such a number of pounds—and it might be a good idea—we have gone to considerable pains to make lists of foods with the number of calories in each. We have not counted these calories personally, but somebody with better eyes than ours has, and you may rely on his count. (See pages 30 to 35.)

WORDS TO LADIES OF WILL POWER

If you need to reduce, take your excess weight off gradually (no more than 1 to 2 pounds weekly) by cutting your calories every day. Try eating 500 to 1,000 calories less daily until you discover what it takes to lose the desired amount. Pick your calories to reduce your weight, not your disposition.

When you reach the weight at which you feel best and look best, don’t get wobbly in will power or careless in eating.

This may take some figuring, but remember, this booklet is all about figures anyhow.

THANK YOU for going all this way with us. We hope that you’ll find it was well worth the time. If we ever meet you face to face we’ll probably exclaim, “Darling, how WELL you look! Haven’t you lost some weight?”

UP THE SCALE

The next few pages are written on an ascending scale for those who want to go up, up, UP to Par: