main division summary: The hardest...

main division summary: The hardest part of dieting isn't the dieting; it's the despair. The first time you sign up for Weight Watchers, the program present the appearances brand new, fun, a game. The tithe time, it seems ... dispiriting.

if it be not that if inspiration is the puzzle then Janice Taylor is the answer. The author is a weight-loss coach and "weight-loss artist," meaning that she makes art about cheer instead of eating it.

Ye it looks extreme. But at this point, you'll essay anything.

Five years ago, Taylor forfeited 50 pounds by making a piece of art each time she wanted to eat a piece of pastry. This woman understands the try -- my favorite part is when she writes about Supergluing the lid onward a 16-oz. jar of super chunk peanut butter that somehow or other survived her pantry purging.

Been there (and ate the peanut butter)

Taylor confesss her story leisurely, doling not at home healthy advice along with self-deprecating anecdotes. Taylor is crack company on the long road to Svelteville.

And art is, perhaps, the highest form of playing with your subsistence It's Taylor's way to "stare down the enemy and learn for what cause to befriend it."

Conclusion: Taylor's approach may be a tad bit whimsical. It's doubtful, for instance, that you will actually sit down and tread on the heels of her instructions on how to create a macaroni altar for Our Lady of Weight Los if it be not that Taylor manages to be the one and the other reverent and irreverent. The part is more satisfying than a bag of composed Ranch Doritos.

Excerpt: "Weighty confession: I fear that I have sunk down to a novel all-time weigh-in low. I was going to my assign places to meeting -- wherein we weigh in -- and to make secure the lowest possible numbers, I painstakingly assembled the appropriate weigh-in outfit. I make revolveed up all my shorts, tops, bras, and panties, and single in kind by one weighed them in succession my food scale. Just for a like reason you know, thong underwear weighs an entire 1 ounce les than satiated bikinis."

Bonus: earnestly of the book is imperfect down into bite-size portions. There are cites from Chinese philosophers, healthy recipes and "faToids," as it was as "There is no clear botanical distinction between vegetables and fruits. mostly vegetables consist largely of water, making them lower in calories than fruit."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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