The Art of Stage Dancing Part 23

DINNER

Beef stew with vegetables; red beet or cabbage salad, French dressing; 2 rolls; 2 squares b.u.t.ter; strawberry short cake; gla.s.s of milk or coffee with hot milk.

Note: If underweight is marked, it may be advantageous to take additional nourishment at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M., such as a gla.s.s of milk or cocoa with 2 graham crackers and a gla.s.s of hot milk and crackers at bedtime. This will add 750 to 1000 calories to the day's total.

Any one of the above breakfasts contains 800 calories. Any one of the above luncheons contains 1000 calories. Any one of the above dinners contains 1200 calories. This gives a day's total of approximately 3000 calories of heat or energy.

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT

To get rid of superfluous avoirdupois is one of the necessary steps to beauty. A ponderous actress has a limited field. Certain character parts, a few vaudeville acts, a singing turn, or a burlesquing of her own abnormality (if she has the personality to carry it off with), and there her availability for stage purposes ends. But you cannot dance and waddle at the same time. "It isn't done." If you aspire to be the kind of stage dancer that the public demands and that we produce in our courses, you will have to submit to diet and exercise, the only coin of the realm that will buy physical beauty and perfect development. There is no other way. Medicines for this purpose are dangerous, because they contain poisons, like a.r.s.enic and mercury.

Make up your mind to either abandon all hope of a dancing career, or to faithfully follow the prescribed routine of proper exercise and non-fattening foods. If you continue to take into your body the foods that build fatty tissue, no exercise alone will dispose of the excess fat that is sure to result. While our exercises in the studio do help greatly, they cannot entirely correct a basically wrong condition unless supplemented by proper diet. And diet alone is not sufficient, either; you must have the exercises along with it.

DIET TO DECREASE WEIGHT

You must partake of no soups, nothing that is fried, no gravies. The only meats that you will be permitted to eat are roast lamb, lamb chops, broiled or boiled white fish, or white meat of chicken or turkey; no other meats of any kind, no other fish of any kind.

_Vegetables._ You may have any green vegetables, especially plain spinach, carrots, string beans, lettuce, celery, onions, sliced tomatoes, never any stewed tomatoes or beets. But you can have beet tops. Radishes are hard to digest.

You are not permitted to have any pastry, and by that is meant pie, cakes or cookies; no candies of any kind; no ice cream or ice cream sodas, no sarsaparilla or ginger ale, no liquor, no smoking, no cigarettes. _You are not to take any liquids while having your meals._

You are not to partake of whole milk, cream, or white bread. Use _little_ or _no_ sugar or b.u.t.ter. The only kind of bread that you are permitted to eat is the whole-wheat bread, gluten bread, or whole rye bread. You may take stale bread toasted. Gluten bread is good when toasted.

You are prohibited from taking coffee. You may take very weak tea--very weak--but there should be no sugar in the tea, nor should there be any cream in it. You may have a slice of lemon in your tea.

Lemon juice can be squeezed on the lettuce instead of using sugar or rich dressing. Vinegar on the lettuce or spinach, and plenty of it, is permissible.

b.u.t.termilk is excellent, and so is postum, but the postum should be taken without sugar and used with hot skimmed milk, not cream.

For fruits: take baked apple, applesauce, grapefruit, orange juice, raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries, a few strawberries--not many--occasionally.

About potatoes: no potatoes except a baked white potato, occasionally--no sweet potatoes, no French fried, home fried, hashed or creamed potatoes--no mashed potatoes; the only kind you are permitted to partake of being the _well-baked_ white potato, and you may eat the skins if you like, but do not b.u.t.ter the potato.

For cereals: take bran, bran flakes or hominy--but the hominy must be cooked for one hour and a half. That is the best cereal for your diet.

The hominy should be flavored with about one-half teaspoonful of currant jelly, put into the hominy and stirred up, just to give it a little taste. Do not use any cream, milk or sugar on your hominy, which is really the most nutritious cereal when cooked this length of time.

I am reproducing here the Ned Wayburn daily menu for a reducing diet.

It is one I have worked out carefully and studiously and used successfully on many of my pupils and myself. By means of this diet and my studio exercise I reduced myself from 262 pounds to 207 pounds in twelve weeks--a loss of 55 pounds, and felt better when I got through than I did when I began, but, I do not advise anyone taking off weight too fast. With my method of reducing all of the unhealthy fatty tissue will be gotten rid of before the remaining firm muscular tissue will be distributed about the body. You may get thinner in the face first, and about the thighs last. Be patient; it may take you six months or longer. Unless you have gland trouble or some other serious disorder it will go in time, provided you will work to get rid of it and stick to the diet for not less than three months. Those taking the conditioning work lose an average of about one pound per week, while those who are trying to build up gain about one-half pound each week after they have gotten rid of all the unhealthy unnecessary tissue, those underweight frequently losing five pounds before they begin to show any gain. It will surely bring back youthful buoyancy and insure your health and figure for the future. After you have succeeded in getting down to the right poundage you can go on my balanced diet for those who have reduced, but you will still have to do about ten minutes of my exercises every morning, and you must never over-eat again.

NED WAYBURN'S DAILY REDUCING MENUS

MONDAY

BREAKFAST

Orange (without sugar) 1 medium; 1 poached egg on thin slice toast; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; coffee with 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 tablespoon cream or coffee with 1/4 cup hot skimmed milk.

LUNCHEON

Lettuce, tomato and cream cheese salad, with 1/2 tablespoon French dressing; 2 thin slices whole wheat bread; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; 1 gla.s.s skimmed milk.

DINNER

Bouillon, clear; lean roast beef; 1 medium baked potato; spinach; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; pear or apple.

TUESDAY

BREAKFAST

1/2 grapefruit (without sugar); 1 egg and 1 thin slice crisp bacon; 1 thin slice toast; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; coffee with hot skimmed milk.

LUNCHEON

Cheese sandwich; asparagus salad with 1/2 tablespoon mayonnaise; tea with lemon.

DINNER

Roast or broiled chicken (no stuffing or gravy); green peas; lettuce and cuc.u.mber salad with 1/2 tablespoon French dressing; baked apple (no cream).

WEDNESDAY

BREAKFAST

3/4 cup strawberries with rounding teaspoon powdered sugar; 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup skimmed milk and 1 level teaspoon sugar; gla.s.s of skimmed milk.

LUNCHEON

Cream of tomato soup; medium serving cold meat; 2 thin slices rye bread; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; 1/2 small cantaloupe.

DINNER

Broiled sirloin steak, moderate serving; 1 ear corn on cob; tomato and lettuce salad, with 1/2 tablespoon French dressing; 1 small pat b.u.t.ter; cup custard (small).

THURSDAY

BREAKFAST

1 apple; 1 egg omelet; 1 bran m.u.f.fin; small pat b.u.t.ter; coffee with hot skimmed milk.

LUNCHEON