Читать книгу Dress and Look Slender - Jane Warren Wells - Страница 5

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If there is any one thing in the world that is not wanted it is too much fat on a woman. In my whole lifetime I have heard only one overweight woman say she would not be thin if she could. I have always regretted that I did not ask her why.

Before I tipped the scales so definitely myself, I paid little attention to the problems of the big woman, for of course I was not vitally interested in weight reduction or size concealment. But when I found my own clothes not meeting and the children in the family saying I was getting fat, I began to take notice. I must have read fifty-odd advertisements on “How To Get Thin,” and I was hopeful of some of the methods. We almost had to move from a duplex house because I did exercises to music and the neighbors could not sleep. I ate “woe-be-gone” bread. I even tried to melt away in reducing corsets but almost took the skin with them when I tried to get them off. I read every book I could find on “What To Eat” and “What Not To Eat,” and I lost three good cooks in my efforts to reduce the menu to a get-thin basis.

A prominent actress gave me a prescription for reducing. Her husband, on finding it out, came rushing to see me to tell me that the prescription was for a drug and that his wife in her eagerness to keep within bounds demanded by the stage had indulged only to become a hopeless addict.

Then I went to my physician and told him I was tired of bruising myself with rolling, my fear would not allow me to take drugs and I would have to leave home if I persisted in the diet. I begged him to give me something to remove the excess of thirty pounds and he promptly refused, pointing out to me the illnesses and other bad effects that could come from abnormal or unnatural reduction. He explained that he could give me something that would take off the fat but that it would age the tissues of the body ten to fifteen years. And youth is something that every woman wants to keep, no matter what her weight.

He explained the thyroid theory but refused to give me an ounce of the preparation for my relief and very frankly told me to forget my weight and enjoy the good health that I evidenced. I left his office crestfallen and disappointed, thinking that if he only knew how much the heavy woman wants to appear thin enough to wear smart clothes, if he could only know how she actually longs for the lovely things that fashion creates for the slender types, he would be more sympathetic. But he is a very sane and sensible man and all my appeals had no effect.

However, when my friends continued to say, “My, I believe you’re getting fat” instead of “How stunning you look,” I realized how necessary it was for me to persist in my determination to dispose of the thirty extra pounds and at the same time indulge my appreciation for pretty things which is the right of every woman, fat or thin.

I found my clothes problem daily growing more serious. Several times I purchased a new dress and after one wearing I would discard it because I looked heavier and older than I wanted to look. The problem was becoming increasingly difficult because each time I stepped upon the scales, I would invariably see recorded two or three pounds more than last time. I am sure that many of you have meekly slipped off the scales, as I have, scarcely waiting long enough to see what weight was actually registered, praying meanwhile that no one saw where the arrow pointed. I simply could not believe the scales were right, because before each weighing I was certain within myself that I had climbed enough stairs, done without enough candy, and touched my hands to the floor often enough to be at least three pounds lighter.

About this time an inspiration came to me. I would “get even” with my slender friends. If I could not safely reduce, I would at least give the appearance of having reduced. If I could not actually take off thirty pounds, I would make myself look thirty pounds lighter in the eyes of others.

And, after all, is that not what we are most concerned about? Plumpness is more often a sign of good health than bad. We could be supremely happy with our extra weight if only we could look slender. I recalled the advice of my physician to “go home and enjoy my good health.”

So I started on my campaign to lose thirty pounds in appearance. I did it and so quickly that my friends were amazed at the sudden change. I was congratulated on my success in reducing. I was told I had never looked so well. Friends persistently asked me what method of reducing I had followed. In fact the success of my plans has been so remarkable that I do want every overweight woman to know about them. And so into this book I am putting the whole story.