The Woman Beautiful; or, The Art of Beauty CultureJameson, Helen Follett
Science
The Woman Beautiful; or, The Art of Beauty Culture
Jameson, Helen Follett
Beauty, Personal
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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