Leslie Landis' The Art of Overeating

As a first-time author, it’s quite amazing to ride the roller-coaster of Amazon.com rankings.  #72,207 one day, #100 (we can only hope, right?…) the next!  As of this writing, The Art Of Overeating is #52,310 in books overall, and #25 in “Books > Entertainment > Humor > Cooking.”  It frightens me to think what readers might actually be “cooking” from my book, but anything goes, so bon appetit!

What’s really fun is to read the comments and reviews that readers post on Amazon.  It’s great to see that people “get” the sense of fun that I intended.  I’ll share a few here, and you can see the book’s listing on Amazon via this link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402764561/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Til next time,

Leslie Landis

Lots of laugh out loud moments to be had

By Cheryl K (CO)

The Art of Over Eating is a laugh out loud book to be enjoyed. The advice in this book is not meant to be taken serious. Leslie Landis, MFT pokes fun at America and our obsession with food and dieting. She makes comments like if you are planning on taking a doggie bag then you better either eat it as a snack on the way home or as soon as you get home. Or when you are invited as a dinner guest, you should offer to wash the dishes by licking them off. This is so that you can still enjoy the last bits of the delicious meal. If you get caught, Leslie has you covered. Just tell the person that you believe in saving water. This way people will think you are environmentally conscience.

This book has more funny tips like this. As well as lots of colorful pictures that will have you wanting to show other people. Don’t think that this book isn’t just about what not to do. This book is also informative. There are some interesting food facts that I didn’t know about. The Art of Over Eating is packed full of lots of laugh out loud moments to be had. Don’t take my word for it. Pick up a copy of this book today and start laughing.

More fun than a deep fried Twinkie with chocolate sauce!
By PT Cruiser “PT Cruiser” (CA USA)

This book takes about the same amount of time to read as eating a big box of gingerbread cookies dipped in a tub of Cool Whip and it’s twice as much fun! Leslie Landis uses a bit of reverse psychology to illustrate what NOT to do if you want to maintain a healthy body and lifestyle. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a quick way to put on a bunch of pounds, there is plenty of helpful advice here! This book had me rolling my eyes and laughing out loud while reading it. The illustrations and photos which are on just about every page are funny and entertaining. There’s a little bit of food porn here, but most of the food photos seem to go for quantity, not quality, and I wasn’t too tempted even though I’ve been cutting back on calories while reading it, trying to lose a couple pounds.

With so many other diet books out there telling me what I need to do to lose weight, many with complicated formulas for cutting calories, carbs, fats or whatever, this book is a down to earth, commonsense look at what made you gain the weight to begin with. It would be a good gift book for anyone starting a diet or slugging it out on a long term one. It’s also a good gift type book for anyone who just likes to laugh and appreciates a tongue in cheek look at this whole business of dieting.

Brilliant!!
By MotherLodeBeth “MotherLodeBeth” (Sierras of California)

Walk into any bookstore and you will see an entire section devoted to health fitness and diet books. This book is hilarious because it makes fun of this multi billion dollar industry. Look around and see how close to sixty percent of Americans are over weight yet we spend more money on ads, magazines, books and television shows geared to people losing weight. Having read Why French Women Don’t Get Fat, this book in a Monty Python sort of way, says the same thing that book says.  But in a very funny way.

A few years ago our local PBS station did a special with Mel Brooks who in the 1950’s was part of the TV show Your Show Of Shows, and he was sharing how when TV sets first came it was the best educated who could afford them, and as such, they knew how to think and didn’t need a skit spelled out in full. Then as TV sets became more affordable, the writers discovered that they had to explain the joke of the skit to the watcher more.

If you don’t need the joke being spelled out, you will understand this book.

Book Review: The Art of Overeating by Leslie Landis

Author: Sahar — Published: Nov 11, 2009 at 1:04 am

Food. Love it or hate it, you need it. Unfortunately, too many people have an unhealthy relationship with food, which should be a pleasure from beginning to… Well, to end.

If you don’t mind, I won’t speak too much about the end part, OK?

Unfortunately, the relationship with food has become yet another victim of invidualism and consumerism; the former because rather than eat what’s best for our health, we eat what’s best for our taste buds, and the latter because we are encouraged to eat more, more and then some more.

Supersize, anyone?

There are so many dieting programs out there that I am not even going to attempt listing them here. But many of them have one thing in common: they are serious business, often worth of a Master’s Degree (or even a PhD), time consuming and boring. And don’t get me started on how patronizing, paternalistic and guilt provoking these diets are. Just reading about them makes me want to eat the anguish away.

(Where is my chocolate bar? I know I stashed one around here not too long ago…)

Leslie Landis certainly knows a lot about the often dreary, tedious task of going on a diet. She has been practicing clinical psychology for a little over ten years now, amongst others helping people who have eating disorders. And I have the impression that many of the excuses her patients make are included in this book. My personal favourite is when she encourages us to overeat in the name of the environment.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that overeating is selfish. It actually is just the opposite. Consider that it is estimated that Americans dispose of thirty million tons of food waste every year. That amounts to over one pound of discarded food per day per person. How selfish is that? So save the environment. Eat everything you order. Eat other people’s leftovers. Let no doggie bag go wasted. Eat everything in your refrigerator. EAT, EAT, EAT. Remember, it’s a cause bigger than you, so be as big as you can be about it”.

By the way, I tried reading this paragraph over the phone to my Mom and I was giggling so hard I couldn’t manage to get through the entire thing once.

The Art of Overeating is, quite simply, a hilarious look at our quirks when it comes to eating. All those times when you were supposedly listening to your friends vent about her horrid day at work during which you were actually eying the cheesecake displayed prominently under a polished glass bell (which make everything seem even more delicious than it already is) and internally alternately fighting with yourself, calculating the number of calories you already had during the day and if you could afford it a slice or calculating if you can fit a workout in your busy schedule to be able to indulge in that slice – all those arguments you gave yourself are going to be in this book, in one form or another.

For the overly anxious amongst you, don’t worry – no one can take this book seriously for the simple reason that the ridiculous text (much of which sounds like the precedent paragraph) is matched with equally ridiculous pictures and drawings. There is no way someone can take the advice in this book seriously.

Perhaps this is the most brilliant way of encouraging those of us who have eating problems, big or small, to be honest with ourselves and finally take control. For having someone tell us: “Two breads are better than one” or “You want to be true to your family and body type. If your kin are big people and big eaters, then that is your destiny and it is your duty to fulfill it” makes it so hilariously and obviously ridiculous that the major barrier of denial, a big obstacle to solving any problem, is slowly chipped away throughout the book, leaving us ready to clean some mess up.

Humour is a great medicine, and perhaps if we apply it to a sometimes bitter (pun intended) subject, we will be able to finally deal with it, and perhaps eat that slice of cheesecake and focus on our poor friend.

Today, November 3, 2009, is a day for a little extra butter and another cherry on top of everything – it’s the day that The Art Of Overeating is published by Sterling Books.  Getting to this point has been a long, fun journey filled with laughs and camaraderie, and I’m very excited!

I have been very busy getting prepared.  It’s been great fun doing interviews with the L.A. Times, the Malibu Times and other publications, and doing a radio interview with Dov Schreiber for his “Crop To Cuisine” radio program (I’ll be posting a link to listen online soon).

The same day that I spoke with Dov, I had “media training” with two delightful women from Planned Television Arts, Sandy Trupp and Hillary Buckholtz.  You might wonder, “What is media training?”  Well, it’s where you learn how to conduct yourself and answer questions during an interview or encounter with the media. 

Practically every politician, sports, and entertainment personality has media training, and now, me too!  Sandy and Hillary said I did a good job…now all I need are the interviews!

In the meantime, I’ll be putting my training to good use at my first two book signings for The Art Of Overeating, beginning on November 4 with a 7PM event at the Barnes & Noble at the Grove in Los Angeles.  There’ll be cupcakes on hand, prizes to win, and you’re all invited!

Look for the details below, and I’d love to see you there.

Leslie Landis

Publication week book events for The Art Of Overeating:

BARNES & NOBLE

The Grove at Farmer’s Market, Los Angeles

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4,  7-9PM

189 Grove Drive Suite K 30
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-525-0270

PAYSON LIBRARY at PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY

Malibu Campus

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5  4-7PM

24255 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90263
(310) 506-7273

When I saw this article, it made me think about my midwest childhood and all the delicious food that midwesterners enjoy. One thing about the midwest is that values are more constant and food is more timeless and true to its roots. “Seven Best: Michigan Food” by Karen Dybis—one of the TIME Magazine bloggers in Detroit for one whole year on Assignment Detroit—is a perfect example of what I mean. Karen identifies a diverse list of mouth-watering foods produced in the great state of Michigan. From snack food and kielbasa to ice cream and beer, these are delicious, quality goodies made with care. Go Michigan!

http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2009/10/16/seven-best-michigan-food/

Read more: http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2009/10/16/seven-best-michigan-food/#ixzz0UYHv1fIc

As  first time author, I was excited to have my first real interview with the press.  What a milestone!  It was with Mary McVean of the LA Times, for the paper’s food-related blog, Daily Dish.  I was excited and Mary couldn’t have been nicer, or made me feel more at ease.

When I saw what Mary wrote online at the LA Times’ website, I was even more excited.  She did a great job of conveying the fun and spirit of the book.  If you haven’t seen it, here’s a link:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2009/10/a-lighthearted-look-at-overeating.html

I really appreciated Mary mentioning my book signing event at Barnes & Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov. 4th.  That’s one day after the book comes out on November 3rd and it will be a fun celebration.  Everyone is welcome to come. There will be drawings for food-related goodies and in-store treats.  The more people who know about the book, the more happiness and laughs (and cupcakes) to go around!

We’ll be adding more signings that we’ll post on this site and on our Facebook fan page, The Art Of Overeating.  Look there for the latest updates!

Oh – and please read Mary McVean’s piece on The Art of Overeating:

— Leslie Landis

Hi, and welcome to my blog for The Art Of Overeating.  I’ll be posting two times a week, with updates on the book, items I think you might like — or that might make you laugh — and a varied smorgasbord of things related to the concept, practice and appreciation of overeating.  To start, here’s an interview I did recently as part of the pre-publication activities leading up to the November 3 release of The Art Of Overeating.  I think it’s a good way to put the proverbial cherry on top of many of the most-asked questions .
Thanks,
Leslie Landis

A conversation with author Leslie Landis
THE ART OF OVEREATING:
A Bellyful of Laughs About Our Food Phobic Culture

You are a clinical psychologist. What have you learned about overeating in this capacity?

Through my experience working with overeaters, I’ve learned that shaming doesn’t motivate — people just turn off and tune out. I began experimenting with humor as a tool to deal with food problems.  When I got people to laugh about the issue, it empowered them to make changes.  I find that humor helps people recognize important truths about their behavior and become open-minded about the possibility of change.

Are you an overeater?
I’m not an overeater, but I crave my childhood comfort foods, like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies and mac ‘n cheese.  I make the world’s best PB&J sandwich.  My secret ingredient? One word: butter. (Because there is no butter in peanut butter!)

Obesity is a big problem in this country. Why did you write an “Anti-Diet” book?

My book is “chock full of not-too-weighty wisdom.”  The diet and healthy eating  industries have made us think of food as either poison or medicine. I think finding the funny bone in our eating habits is a healthier approach, and may even be part of the solution.

Should anyone take the advice in your book seriously?

Only if they want to weigh 900 pounds.

Do you think diet books are good for people?

Of course. There is a lot of good information in most of those books.  But we are hit over the head – or rather, in the stomach — with this never-ending information, in books, on TV, in magazines.  It’s time to have a laugh about it

Do you have any advice for people who want to stop overeating?

Read this book and do the opposite of everything in it.