Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Lee Lipsenthal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2011

This book is a culmination of what I’ve learned. I hope it will open the door for you to embrace your humanity, accept uncertainty, and live a life of gratitude. —from Enjoy Every Sandwich

As medical director of the famed Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Lee Lipsenthal helped thousands of patients struggling with disease to overcome their fears of pain and death and to embrace a more joyful way of living. In his own life, happily married and the proud father of two remarkable children, Lee was similarly committed to living his life fully and gratefully each day.

The power of those beliefs was tested in July 2009, when Lee was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. As Lee and his wife, Kathy, navigated his diagnosis, illness, and treatment, he discovered that he did not fear death, and that even as he was facing his own mortality, he felt more fully alive than ever before. In the bestselling tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie, told with humor and heart, and deeply inspiring, Enjoy Every Sandwich distills everything Lee learned about how we find meaning, purpose, and peace in our lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dr. Lipsenthal is a profound explorer of our inner and outer worlds. Enjoy Every Sandwich will help you heal your fear of death and embrace the true joy of life’s extraordinary journey."
—Edgar Dean Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut

"Often, patients given a terminal diagnosis reach a surprising, transforming conclusion--you have to be ready to die to embrace being alive. But Lee Lipsenthal tells his story with such intimacy and humanity that this paradoxical fact can be accessed even by those who have not (yet) leaned out over the abyss. To deny death is to deny life. Read Enjoy Every Sandwich to know why."
--Andrew Weil, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of Healthy Aging and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health
 
"This book is about the lessons one learns on the journey from understanding the experience of life and all its difficulties. It contains the profound wisdom derived from the greatest teacher, our mortality. So read on and learn how to spend your life's precious time with more love and less fear."
--Bernie Siegel, M.D., Author of Peace, Love & Healing, and Love, Medicine & Miracles
 
"With courage and candor, Dr. Lee Lipsenthal shows us that facing death means facing life: Your own, and the lives of those around you. After his stunning diagnosis of an often-fatal cancer, Dr. Lipsenthal embarks on a journey of bravery, practicality, and humor to guide his way through the greatest of uncertainties. He allows us in, during the dark days and the brighter ones. Let Dr. Lipsenthal be your guide on a journey that, ultimately, all of us will take."
--Clint Eastwood
 
“What if you were not afraid to die? What if the universal fear that makes us small was suddenly gone and you were free? How would you live then? Lee Lipsenthal's beautiful memoir of the first 18 months of his journey with cancer reads at times as a prose poem, at times as a wisdom story and at times as an invitation to the Dance. To read it is to step through a door that opens only one way into a larger life. Of all the books you've read this year, this is the one that will heal you.”
--Rachel Naomi Remen MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessings
 
"If you want to learn to love with your whole heart, so that when you come to the end of your life you will have no regrets, Lee Lipsenthal's gracious and caring book is for you. In revealing his own struggles, and doing so with remarkable transparency and responsibility, Lee has not just written a book that is filled with grounded inspiration and hard-earned wisdom. He has written a book that you will never forget."
--John Robbins, Author of Diet for a New America, Healthy at 100, and The New Good Life

About the Author

LEE LIPSENTHAL, M.D., ABIHM, was an internist, trained in the prevention of heart disease and in integrative medicine. A popular and acclaimed speaker and author, he was the medical director of Dean Ornish's Preventive Medicine Research Institute for a decade and has also served as president of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine.
 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Crown Archetype (November 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030795515X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307955159
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Medical

More About the Author

LEE LIPSENTHAL, M.D., was an internationally recognized leader, teacher, and author in the fields of integrative medicine and physician wellness. He was the medical director with Dean Ornish of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, for ten years, and has also served as president of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and on the American Medical Association's Physician Wellness Committee. Through his years in the medical profession, Dr. Lipsenthal observed that the health, morale, and work satisfaction of many physicians were often worse than that of their patients. Inspired by his personal and professional experience, he developed the "Finding Balance in a Medical Life" program, which has been adapted by major medical groups and is being delivered at medical schools and residency programs nationwide.

Lee Lipsenthal died in September 2011. His wife, Kathy, who is also a physician, and his two children live in California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The next Tuesdays with Morrie, November 10, 2011

By 

Janice (Albuquerque, NM, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last (Hardcover)

After I read "Tuesdays with Morrie," I bought and gave away over 30 copies. I'm an avid reader, and no book since has touched me like that until I read "Enjoy Every Sandwich" this past weekend. (Couldn't put it down.) I'll be buying copies of this book by the dozens, too. One of my favorite sentences..."Meditation, gratitude, and letting go of control had cured my fear of death." Lee, you were a quintessential teacher. Thank you for this final lesson.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than "The Last Lecture", November 23, 2011

By 

Katherine A Bowles (San Anselmo, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful little book, a quick read, and a message to savor.

The scenario is similar to that of The Last Lecture -- a man facing his imminent death shares the lessons he's learned. To me, this book had all the depth and spiritual insight that I found lacking in the other book. This is not so much a book about dying, but a book about living. I have written down pull quotes from this book and posted them in my office as daily reminders.

Yes, Dr. Lipsenthal explores some metaphysical experiences that might be challenging to some skeptical readers. But that's what is so fascinating. Here is a highly trained and respected MD sharing his own personal experiences in the spiritual realm. It should make any reader pause, and ponder.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Will Make You Feel Connected, November 24, 2011

By 

StanfordsOwn - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enjoy Every Sandwich: Living Each Day as If It Were Your Last (Kindle Edition)

As I read more and more self-help books on peaceful, mindful living, I'm realizing more and more that the benefit for me is not in the theoretical ideas expressed (Oneness, Gratitude) but in the narrative. I loved this book because his life experience is so similar to mine. I feel less lonely in the world now. I feel more understood.