----
1150 C.

That leaves me 50 more calories to total 1200, to take before retiring
if I am hungry. You should leave this 50 calories to take before
retiring, because if you are hungry you will find it very difficult to
go to sleep.

A small cup of hot skimmed milk tends to be a sedative. Hunger, like
cold feet, is hard to go to sleep on.

[Sidenote: _For Both Sexes_]

_If there is one thing more important than another, it is thorough
mastication._

[Sidenote: _Sometimes I Take More Than 100 Calories of My Husband's
Dessert. I Love Fat Men, But I Don't Want to Be Married to 'Em_]

This applies to the thin as well as to the fat, and to the child as well
as to the adult. Take a moderate mouthful and rassel with it until it is
automatically swallowed. Chew until it is all gone before you put any
more in your mouth. There is no better way of jollying yourself into
thinking that you have had all you want than this Fletcherizing habit,
and it takes the same time to consume one-half the amount of food you
have been in the habit of eating.

I will allow you all the water you want, in reason; in fact, I advise it
while you are reducing, both at the meals and between meals. The only
precaution is that at the meals it should not be drunk while food is in
the mouth, for this would tend to lessen thorough mastication.

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.

[Sidenote: _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.

[Sidenote: _Low Bridge on Fats and Pastries_]

Third: Study food list and make out menus the caloric totals of which
_are less_ than your maintenan