ANN CONSTANCE.
(Before she entered the Ned Wayburn Studios.)
ANN CONSTANCE.
(After she entered the Ned Wayburn Studios.)
We have never failed in reducing any of our pupils who came to us for that purpose, but we have to have their coöperation, of course. Quite recently we had a very puzzling case that challenged the Sherlock Holmes in us, and I think it will interest you to know how we solved it.
A young lady of really huge proportions, resident of another city, called on me at the studio accompanied by her mother, and placed herself in my charge for reducing. I studied her, arranged a special diet for her and she entered the class in limbering and stretching. I watch the progress of all my pupils, and expect them to record the change in their weights every week. I watched this young lady with especial care, and was dumbfounded to notice that she was steadily gaining in weight. She never lost a pound but kept on adding fat to more fat all the time, notwithstanding that she was working her head off in the classroom—when she came to class. She skipped seven lessons of the twenty in the first month's course, reporting for only thirteen, finally insisting that the lessons were not doing her any good.
I felt that there must be something wrong and wrote the mother of the girl about it, as she had requested me to do. She told me that the girl had a charge account at a certain hotel where she took her meals. I asked the mother if it would be possible for me to get the meal checks signed by her daughter, which would show just what she had eaten. The meal checks were turned over to me. I found that the girl had been eating the prohibited things; that about once in two weeks she had followed my diet, and at every other time she had eaten everything she liked—enormous meals, consisting of starchy foods and all sorts of desserts—mostly sweets. I also found out that she had been taking some of the other girls at the studio along with her, fattening them up. The mother was inclined to be easy with the girl. I called her father's attention to the matter, because the girl paid no attention at all to me, and as far as I could see was hurting the school. Of course she was only fooling herself.
I insisted that we were not going to fail with her, and her father came to New York to see me. About this time the girl was taken ill, suffering with acute indigestion and finally the mumps. On my advice her father took her home. Lately I have heard from the young lady, and she wants to re-enter the school. If I decide to take her back, she will have to keep strictly to her diet and attend regularly, which I believe she is now ready to do, as she has gained much weight since leaving here.
Lillian Russell was a beautiful woman, with a personality and a stage presence. She was fond of the good things in life, and was obliged to watch carefully a tendency to embonpoint. She has gone on record as saying that lots of walking, lots of dancing, and two meals a day was all the reducing exercise she ever employed. She advised a light breakfast, no luncheon, and a good dinner, with no between-meals, no "piecing," no candy. The chief trouble with this plan is, that one is apt to become ravenous by dinnertime and over eat at that meal, and thus undo what you are attempting. The best way is to follow the Ned Wayburn diet faithfully, and take three meals each day, just as I have suggested.