FIGURE IT OUT
Many over or underweight people love to blame their figures on their ancestors. (If they’re perfect 36’s, of course, they take all the credit themselves.) “My dear grandmother weighed 200 pounds, so there’s not a thing I can do about it,” beams Mrs. Plenteous, splashing the third lump of sugar in her coffee. “My family tree was a beanpole,” sighs Miss Gaunt. “No thanks—no sugar or cream.”
The truth is that, according to anthropologists, there are in general three types of body build: the stout, the medium, and the lean. You may possibly have inherited your grandmother’s type of figure, just as you may also have inherited her house. But there’s no law against remodeling the house—or the figure. Surely the smart thing is to make the house the best possible house of its type, one which you’ll enjoy living in; and the figure the best possible figure of its type—one you’ll enjoy living with.
