Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Updated 5/15/14

That’s me. Or so it feels like sometimes. Nutrition and diet have definitely been on my mind lately with all the stomach issues I’ve had lately, so it seemed timely to watch this movie today. Some friends had mentioned it to me a while back but I’d put off watching it.

If you aren’t familiar with Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, it’s a documentary following one man’s determined quest to make himself healthier and heal his body by…… going on a juice fast. For 60 days he commits to eat nothing and to live off of freshly juiced fruits and vegetables. He points out (and shows proof) that while you could just eat the fruits and veggies, the amount of them it would take to do the job is so large that it would be difficult to ingest them, whereas juicing gives you the nutrients in a simpler, smaller, portable container.

I have to admit that I was convinced. After 60 days he’d lost over 70lbs. He also ran into another guy who has the same auto-immune disease he has and convinced him to give it a try. He lost just as much weight and in both cases they were able to decrease if not eliminate the meds they were on for their disease as their flares reduced.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is a convincing testimonial to the power of juicing. After watching it I decided to give juicing a try. It was the beginning of a major diet overhaul, beginning January 1, 2012. I juiced for a week straight, eating no solid food. While I was initially hungry and missing all the foods I couldn’t have, by the end of the week I just waned a stick of celery or a carrot. I was so happy with the salad I had as my first meal after the fast. Since that first week, I have continued to juice daily; starting my morning off with the Mean Green Juice – which isn’t really all that mean. I have also done a few smaller juice fasts since that first one. I don’t know that I could do another week-long juice fast, simply because the diet changes I made in addition to juicing have improved my health so much that I’ve not felt that need (and therefore the motivation) to fast for that long.