On this week’s Jen’s cinema, I’ll be reviewing Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, which is available on instant Netflix. Don’t be scared by the word documentary. Documentary doesn’t always equal to boring.
Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead (2010) is a documentary about one man’s journey to lose weight. Joe Cross, a successful business man, who lived life in the fast lane. Instead many diet and exercise his priorities, he was partying, drinking, and eating unhealthily. Cross, who is from Australia, has an autoimmune disease where his own body is covered in a rash. The doctors have no clue how to cure him. So, he is stuck with taking all these different types of medication. Cross had enough. For 30 days, he went on a road trip to America, where all he ate or should I say drank was fruits, vegetables, and water. No meat, no potatos…just liquid fruits and vegetables.
My thoughts:
Personally, I am overweight. I’m about 50 pounds overweight–that’s a lot of weight. About three years ago, I had emergency surgery on my gallbladder. After that, I’ve had a hard time with my weight. I’ll be the first one to say, I don’t exercise enough and I don’t eat enough fruits and veggies.
This movie was great! I got emotionally attached to every overweight person in the movie. Maybe because I am one of them, I don’t know. I began to feed off their emotions. When they got sad, I got sad and when they got excited, I got excited. Isn’t that what a movie supposed to do–get you emotionally involved?
After watching this video, I was inspired. How can you not be? Seeing Cross go from 300+ pounds to under 200 pounds, it’s hard not to get inspired. I think the biggest inspiration was Phil. Phil the trucker was just like Cross, Sick, Fat & Nearly Dead. They even shared the same rare autoimmune disease.
Cross and Phil
Cross helped Phil on his juicing experience. Cross even gave him a yellow Aussie XL shirt. Why? Because he believed that Phil can lose enough weight to fit into that shirt. Phil carried that shirt everywhere. It was a constant reminder that he had nothing to lose, but weight.
What do you know…Phil is wearing the shirt.
After watching this movie, I started looking into my own life and how I can start changing things. I don’t think I could juice everyday for 30 days. Not because I can’t do it, but because I can’t afford all the fresh fruits and veggies on a college student salary. So, I’m taking small steps. Instead of eating eggs, bacon, and potatoes in the morning, I’m drinking spinach, kale, apples, bananas, and ginger root. I know that sounds gross, but after blending it together, all I can taste is apples and bananas.
Rating:
10 out of 10
What’s your thoughts?
Any request for the next Jen’s cinema, please comment below.
Last review: Twilight Saga: Eclipse
I have to be honest, I love juicing. I could never do it for 30 days though. There’s an author out there that you might be interested in named Natasha Rose. She is extreme but, she’s intelligent, has some interesting flavor combinations, and some good information specific to women and weight that aren’t always addressed. Let’s face it, men and women are different and have different needs. Not everything that works for men will work for women. My only addition that I would add to juice is acacia fiber. It doesn’t thicken a juice and it literally has no flavour. It’s quite amazing to be honest. The best brand I came across was Heather’s. Fiber is super important to our colon health. I was once told by a medical professional that the colon is our bodies second brain. A happy colon makes everything happier. I will have to try and make the time to check out this documentary. I find them fascinating. I’ve been struggling with gall bladder issues myself for the past 2 years. With the help of a naturopath, at the very least, I’ve bought myself some time. I don’t seem to be in crisis any more. Good luck!
OMG, Rachel….you are now on my cool list. Thank you so much. I am going to check out Natasha Rose. I’m totally into holistic “medicine” or all organic/natural products. I just wished makeup companies like MAC would make an organic line of makeup.
I’m sorry to hear about your gallbladder. I totally understand. Unfortunately, the doctors couldn’t save my gallbladder, so now my own digestive system is out of whack. One prime example is that I get drunk faster, because there is nothing filtering the alcohol before it hits the liver. There’s more, but I think that’s TMI. LOL
Anyways, thanks for your advice. I am going to try to find Acacia Fiber at Whole Foods or something. Hawai’i is sometimes behind on certain things, like I can never find Thai spice anywhere. I had to buy it when I was in Orlando, Florida.
Cool! I need all the positive/healthy motivation I can get lol
I LOVE documentaries. I’m gonna add this to my Netflix queue.
Ya, check it out. It will totally change your life.