Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

I watched this DVD today. The story it tells and info it imparts is an inspiration! If you are struggling with being overweight, watching might be the best 90+ minutes you can spend. I'm sure a lot of people will wring their hands about the value of juicing or the difference between juicing, blending and masticating. Don't get caught up in the small details. Yes, exercise isn't emphasized as much, but Phil is seen running,etc; It might be that the filmmakers considered exercise a given.YES! Exercise if you will in any form you safely can do. If you have problems with juicing, then eat the fruits and vegetables whole. Just get the stuff down and eliminate, as much as you can, processed/refined foods. If the idea of fasting w/juice (or eating whole fruit/veggies) for 60 days is repelling to you, then consider 30 days, or 10, or, heck, try 3 days, or 30 hours... I ordered my blender today...Amazon has a great selection. Take Care!

Movies about food and health are in season, many of them droning on about the Western diet, the benefits of proper food, the evils of the food industry and the modern life style, or any combination thereof. To be sure, all of that is quite right, and learning more about it can be educational and helpful in improving one's own dietary habits and consequently one's health.

This film skips much of the science, which is dealt with only in short sketches and cartoons (and a look at the Web site suggests that it might be better that way, since the author's view of the science is cartoonish with a distinct New-Agey touch). Nutrition science isn't the topic here.

Instead, we are being taken on the personal journeys of the author, Joe, and a couple of other characters who are 'recruited' on the way. And it is the power and realism of those stories that are the source of the impact of this movie. Joe's own story is impressive already --- as he literally slims before our eyes from pudgy to trim by drinking vegetable and fruit juice, it is difficult to imagine anyone struggling with their weight and health seeing this without getting at least interested in his approach. It might have ended there, and be a pretty good piece on the significant impact of your diet on your health, and how a shift of the food habits can have a decisive effect on someone's life in a relatively short period of time.

But then there is the story of Phil, a very fat truck driver from Iowa, one of the folks Joe talks to on the road trip he undertakes during his juice fast. Halfway through the movie, we listen to Phil calling Joe to take him up on the offer to help him with his weight problem. Phil sounds desperate and depressed, he sounds like he is not expecting to make many more calls. Much of the second half of the movie is devoted to Phil's journey, from a very fat, socially isolated, depressed Iowa truck driver who could hardly walk, to a much thinner, much healthier-looking Phil who jogs, gives inspirational talks about nutrition to others, and helps his brother change his diet before the next heart attack becomes his last one, just as Joe helped him turn his fate around. That's just an incredible story, amazing to watch, and truly inspirational.

Even if you don't have a weight problem, it's still a joy to see real people change their lives to the better on screen. However, if you do have a weight problem, and related health issues, and perhaps have come to believe that that's just the way you were built and nothing can change it, then this movie shows you otherwise. If Phil can do it, so can you. Do you have to do it the way Phil and Joe did? Probably not. Should you research the matter further? Definitely. Should you consult a physician? Probably. You may need to take a slightly different route, but this film shows that there is a path.

When you watch this movie and think to yourself "That looks great.. but I just cant do it because(insert any reason here).." Then you need to stop and examine your thought process from a different angle.and realize thats what many many people in your position do. You can't have so much negativity in your heart. If you really want to change, you can! Drugs were my life for 6 years.i was always irritable, i was morbidly obese, and i was constantly unmotivated and depressed, and on top of all of that I was slow minded. I changed. I realized the utter insanity that was my existence. I started exercising, I quit smoking cigs, I quit doing pills, I started eating right and working out everyday, and I saw a drastic change in my life. I learned willpower and how to use it, I saw peoples motivations more clearly, I started to understand people better, I understand life better.

Never give in to the negativity in your heart, and never become lazy and complacent. The dark corners of your psyche will try to tell you whatever you want to hear to keep you down and unhappy. Maybe you'll tell yourself you ARE happy with being fat and in danger of diabetes, maybe you'll convince yourself you like the terrible foods your eating and that makes it OK to do it, that you'll never be like those other people who lose limbs and their life.. Well, as previously stated, that is what so many people do! Don't fall prey to that vicious mind set. Stay positive, realize the adaptability of the body god/evolution/whateveryouwanttobelieve gave you, and trust in that. I thought it would be terrible eating healthy because I assumed my taste would not change, but it does! You start to love the way healthy food tastes, and you feel good about eating it too! bam!! double enjoyment! Even if you don't agree with the way I'm trying to express this message to you(maybe my grammars not to your taste, maybe my diction could use work) still at least see the wisdom I'm trying to share. Negativity begets negativity- If you think negative, you do negative without even realizing it because you rationalize it to yourself. You can do whatever you truly set your mind to, you just need to realize you'll tell yourself negative things because you are afraid of change.

Please, live better. Live happy, and once you live in happiness it is so much easier to have compassion for others. Everything is so much easier, and takes on a totally different light.

This review isn't so much a review, as it is an attempt to help someone... anyone.

You know, I got to hand it to Joe Cross, the enthusiastic Australian stockbroker turned lifestyle guru who spearheaded this 97 minute infomercial. He instinctively knows that the best way to prime his audience is through personal stakes and dramatic results. Thus instead of going the sane, unsexy route of weening out of bad habits to slowly lose excess weight, Cross puts his body through a 60-day juice cleanse while driving across America, confronting ordinary citizens about their diets. Why; probably because its easier to hock his "Reboot with Joe" program to those looking for quick and easy solutions.

It's easy to buy into it. The rotund sufferer of chronic urticaria we meet at the beginning of the film has the easy-going personality of a lazed step-father being asked for $20 bucks. Even as he looses the weight, he massages the soft sell with a canned genuineness and an easy to digest chipper attitude. "I was fat, and there was no one to blame but myself," he says in a moment of reflection. He liquefies his veggies and goes all in. "Don't taste half bad."

As the film wears on, Joe faces off against the litany of excuses people have for eating what they eat. "I only got so long on this earth, I might as well enjoy it," is the common refrain though my personal favorite answer to the question, "why do you eat all this junk?" has to be, "Because I'm sixteen." Everyone in frame seems to know they're not doing the right thing. To Joe these people are addicted to food and lack the willpower to seek solutions. The solution in his eyes is of course a "reboot" that will reprogram the body to readily take in micronutrients and macronutrients. "If all the world's major religions fast, then they must be onto something."

I'm no nutritionist so I'm not going to make any bold claims. Lest to say, there's probably more to a healthy lifestyle than Joe Cross's musings and a few choice doctors stating the obvious. This is where Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead gets into serious trouble. Thanks to clever editing, Cross's self-evident truisms seem to meld into doctor testimonials with no actual data to backup anything. Nowhere is this more evident than when Cross's third act guinea pig Phil Staples goes into the doctor's office with him and he prods the doctor with leading questions like, "What will happen if Phil continues to eat like he does?" and "Is Phil healthy enough to go on a fast?" Notice he never asks "Should he go on a fast."

The film also ignores the social aspect of its project. Joe's example, as amazing as it looks on TV, probably has more to do with him being able to spend 60 days consuming less calories than Gwyneth Paltrow starring in a Calista Flockhart biopic. The rest of us, you know, have to work for a living and need the caloric intake to make sure we don't collapse on our wheelbarrows and in our cement mixers (I'm assuming my readership are interminably sarcastic bricklayers). We also often live in food deserts, suffer from malnutrition, succumb to social and peer-pressure such as indulging in a Fourth of July cookout etc. Yes, it's ultimately you choice but your choice is informed by the world around you. And if you need any further proof that a 60-day juice cleanse may not work for everyone, check out Phil's article, "I Was the Poster Boy for Weight Loss...Then I Gained 200 Pounds".

Lack of data, lack of comprehensiveness and the nagging suspicion that you're being sold something you don't need, like a canister of turtle wax. That is Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead in a nutshell. The fact that it's so laser-focused on creating and maintaining a brand may just be its only saving grace because it least it doesn't have that far to fall. It simply wants to make what it does look great and I suppose it succeeds in those modest ends. It's ultimately a D+ doc; C- because I'm embarrassed to say I dusted off the old juicer after I saw it.

The movie pace is strange, seems like 2 movies in one,mixed in with some Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock cartoon) type animation. It is very educational and uplifting. Honest and not condescending at all but light hearted and humorous despite the serious subject matter. The interviews with Americans is straight to the point and gets them "you and me" to ask some important questions of ourselves and how we value our life and health. It almost seems like an advertisement for Juicer's but never names a brand specifically that I caught. I went to Macy's today and they had 2 left. The sales clerk mentioned that they were flying off the shelf due to a movie about them. I was tickled to tell her about the movie, and that I was one of "those people". We did not buy from Macy's but just wanted to get hands on. I highly recommend you check it out, and hope you enjoy. P.S. I watched it free on Hulu, and got the Juicer for cheaper directly from the manufacturer (an Australian brand). Cheers.