The New York Times, Sunday, September 17, 2006
Fashion & Style Section
Books of Style
Page for Page, Pounds of Fun
By LIESL SCHILLINGER
CAN you lose weight from sheer wackiness? After leafing through Janice Taylor’s sui generis compendium of dieting revelations and multicolored inspirational collages, you won’t want to rule it out.
Five years ago, when she tipped the scales at 177.6 pounds, Ms. Taylor, a New York textile, floral and jewelry designer, was addressed by an otherworldly voice while she was attending a weight-loss session. The voice told her, “If you think you’re never going to make it, you never will. You’re an artist. Make weight loss an art project.” Ms. Taylor heeded the voice, lost 50 pounds, and has kept it off.
In “Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings From the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal,” the author tells the story of her conversion to the religion of mindful eating in humorous yet earnest style.
Ms. Taylor has spread the word on the Internet site ourladyofweightloss.com and issues a weekly e-letter to her slavering followers, who send in confessions of their food transgressions (some of which appear in the book). For instance, when a woman admits that she wolfed down an egg biscuit and hash browns at McDonald’s —“I sullied myself for the sake of convenience” — Our Lady is merciful: “All is forgiven. Move on.”
Ms. Taylor does not believe in blame, or in will power. “This is about want power,” she explains. “Want power means that we want to lose weight enough to make sure that there’s no cake in the house.”
She signposts her journey with artworks that pop from the pages. In one, a pair of slim gams grow out of a red pepper, and she also includes sculptures — a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is transformed into a shrine with the aid of a glue gun, glitter, pasta pearls and the all-important paper image of Our Lady of Weight Loss. A cutout doll is provided at the back of the book.
more NEWS Bites - The latest TASTY TIDBITS
| 
