Now, Madam and Madam's husband, when are you going to begin this important business of reducing? After the holidays? Tomorrow? No! Right now. The sooner you get started, the better. The chief thing to do, and the hardest, is to get started and to get the habit. After the first three days you will not dread it; in fact; you will feel so much better that you will not be willing to go back to your old habits of overeating.
Now let's review a bit what you are to do.
Plan the Day Before
First: Pledge yourself to yourself, and to someone else, so you will be ashamed to fail. There is a great deal of psychology to reducing. Use strong auto-suggestion. Decide just how much you are going to eat in advance of the meal—so many calories, no more! This sounds foolish, but it helps wonderfully.
Second: Begin with a fast or a low caloric diet for the first day; keep it, if necessary, one day weekly.
Low Bridge on Fats and Pastries
Third: Study food list and make out menus the caloric totals of which are less than your maintenance diet. Have a fairly balanced diet, some fat, some carbohydrates, some protein, and a good amount of green vegetables and fruit. Have 200-300 C's of protein.
Fourth: Masticate every morsel with such thoroughness that it is automatically swallowed.
Fifth: Keep up your activities—Red Cross and other relief work.
Sixth: Remember that you will feel good in your little heart when you resist temptation to overeat, and when you don't, you won't feel good anywhere.