[Sidenote:  Food]

Fourth:  Since food is the only source of body substance, you must gradually train your stomach so that it can care for enough food to not only supply your bodily energy, but to leave a little excess to be stored as fat.

[Sidenote:  Your Stomach]

If you have a small appetite—­and many of you have—­your stomach is undoubtedly contracted, and you must gradually add to the amount you have been eating, even though it may cause some distress, until you have disciplined it so that it can handle what you need without distress.  The stomach is a muscular organ and can be trained and exercised somewhat as other organs can.  You will not have much appetite at first, but it will develop.  Sometimes a short fast for a day or two, drinking nothing but pure water, seems to be beneficial in the beginning.

Do not drink much with your meals, unless the drink has food value by the addition of lots of cream or sugar, or both.

[Sidenote:  Eat More]

Decide how many calories you need for your activities, gradually add to your dietary until you have reached that number, and then some more, and you will gain as surely as the overweight individual will lose by doing the opposite.  It may take a long time, or you may get results very rapidly, depending somewhat upon the individual characteristics.  Gradually increase your butter, cream, sugar, chocolate, and so forth, as they are very high in food value.

Study the Key to the Calories and reckon your calories every day for a while.  You have already noticed that the foods that you like are low in food value.

Here are some of the things you can take to add to your fuel: 

[Sidenote:  Try Some of These]

A glass of milk, hot or cold, taken between meals and before retiring, will add about 500 calories.

Cream sauce on your vegetables will add to their value.

Cod liver oil, or olive oil, or cream, begun in small doses and gradually increased.

One malted milk, made with milk, syrup, egg, ice cream, whipped cream, and the malted milk, will add about 500 calories.

[Sidenote:  Learned Phraseology]

You remember the painful time that I spoke of when there was so much more of me than there ought to be?  Well, the aforesaid concoction, made with milk, syrup, egg, ice cream, whipped cream, and the malted milk, was accessory before the fact, and also particeps criminis before the law.

I absorbed this phraseology by being president of the Professional Woman’s Club, with its high-class women attorneys, ministers, dentists, Ph.D.’s, and “Medical Trust” doctors.

[Sidenote:  Explanatory Note 1]

“Medical Trust.”—­The American Medical Association (A.M.A.), a powerful trust you can’t get into unless you have a high preliminary education and are a graduate of a high-class medical college.  Eleven years’ training after the grammar school is their minimum standard now.