My 200th Post!!! And a Review of Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead!

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This is the movie poster... not my photo! 😀

When I posted my 100th post, I literally jumped out of my seat. I had gone from never having read a food blog to starting my own culinary repository. By my 100th post, I was grateful—I had followers, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and a community of like-minded food bloggers around the world. Today, I am happy to tell you that this is my 200th post! And today, I am grateful for slightly different reasons. You see, when I started my blog I had a flexible schedule. Now, as a result of my transition from being an academic to working in policy, my schedule is a lot less flexible. Today, I am grateful to have maintained Como Water through my career transition. I may not post as often as I did before and I may not be able to comment on as many blogs as I did before, but here I am… 200 posts in and still kicking!

To commemorate my 200th post, I’m sharing my second documentary review for “spring cleaning” month. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead traces the lives of Joe and Phil, who although worlds apart are serendipitously brought together through their rare auto-immune disease and their fight against obesity. To combat these diseases, Joe and Phil embarked on an ambitious juice fast. The result? A total loss of hundreds of pounds, better relationships, and almost complete remission of their auto-immune disease.

This film spoke to me. Without being overly-personal, I’ll just say that the struggles faced by these two men really hit home. I suspect, they would hit home for more than a few of you too. The movie traces the real life difficulties associated with a juice fast—how the first couple of days are the hardest, how you may have to cut yourself off from folks in those first few days to get over the hump, and how so much of what we eat is tied to complex emotions.

The film also captures—quite pointedly—Americans’ psyches around food:

“I don’t have the will power to do a juice fast.”

“I’m hooked on bad food.”

“If I’m going to die, I’m going to die happy.” Food equated with happiness…. Sounds a bit like a drug, no?

Despite making you think, the film is not preachy and has a lot of positivity woven throughout. It’s heartwarming and educational—discussing macronutrients versus micronutrients, as well as the lack of nutrients we get from processed food. All in all, I would say the strengths of the film are Joe and Phil’s narratives and the transformations they, people like you and me, were able to make in their lives. If you like a good story (that happens to be true AND teaches you about nutrition) then watch  Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. It was truly inspiring, and was actually the impetus behind my Juices, Smoothies, and Superfoods month recipes in January! I hope you check it out and I hope you have a Happy Wednesday!

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Tiffany M. Griffin is the woman behind Como Water, Washington DC’s premiere veg-centric cuisine consulting company. Through cooking classes, demonstrations, catering, and consultations, Como Water gives people the opportunity to learn how to prepare veg-centric cuisine that boasts maximum flavor, with minimal effort. Tiffany is quickly becoming a go-to expert on the future of veg-centric cuisine, and is a regular contributor to Como Water, the blog, as well as to vegetarian and vegan sites across the Internet. For over a decade, this self-taught, entrepreneurial expert has developed a set of tried and true techniques for making simple, delicious, and sometimes decadent veg-centric dishes. Featured on the Steve Harvey Show and other leading media outlets, Tiffany was born and raised in Springfield, MA. She then earned Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Communications from Boston College and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. She now resides in Washington DC, where she has worked in the US Senate and at a federal agency on issues around health, food, nutrition, and international food aid/development, and of course, as the owner of Como Water. Tiffany gets culinary inspiration from the food she grew up eating, and from her travels throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge on veg-centric cuisine with others and to help others live by her mantra—love life, live long, and eat veg-centric cuisine!

Comments

  1. Congratulations on your 200th post! You have a great thing going here. Here’s to another couple of hundred posts!!!

    Your review has sparked my curiosity. I am going to have to watch the documentary.

  2. Congratulations! I know how hard it is to juggle social time with real life.
    This movie sounds interesting. I’ve been reading a lot about people doing juice fasts, maybe this would inspire me to give it a shot.

  3. Congratulations Tiffany on 200 posts!! Job Well done!! It’s been great getting to know you and your amazing viewpoint of food. I love a person that sticks to their convictions. 🙂 This is the 2nd time I have hard of this story… I juiced every morning for 3 months and it was the best results I had in my life as far as weight loss. Unfortunately, life got in my way and I stopped juicing. I know I should stop saying “tomorrow” and just start today because we all need to take a better look at what we are putting into our bodies. 🙂

  4. Happy 200th 😉 and thanks for the review, I’ll have to check it out!

  5. Congratulations on reaching your 200th post and living to blog about it. The film sounds intriguing.

  6. Tiffany….great review on what looks to be a fabulous documentary! And congratulations on your 200th post!!! I can appreciate how your blogging life has changed with your new job. It’s hard to find the balance sometimes. But I love following you and I’ll be here for the next 200 posts as well! Keep it going girl! : )

  7. Wow! Congrats on your 200th post! Haha! I love the cover pic of the book.
    So sorry for not dropping by lately … been in a muddle for a while. Looking forward to the 300th! 😀

  8. Congrats on your 200th post!! It’s definitely tough working and maintaining a blog, you’re doing a wonderful job!! I feel like I’ve heard of this movie before but now I’m going to have to go out and find it, sounds really interesting. 🙂

  9. Great!! congrats on ur 200th post!!

  10. Congratulations!!!!!! 200 is HUGE!!!

  11. Congratulations on 200 posts it takes a lot to do, and your blog is awesome just look through about a dozen pages well for the first time very professional thanks for sharing.

  12. First of all a big congrats on your 200th post. It’s going to take me a while before I even get to my 100th, lol.

    Secondly, this post is very interesting that the fact these two people were in complete remission of their auto-immune disease by these diet changes. Obviously, this is very close to home as I suffer with an auto-immune disease myself: chronic arthritis! 🙁

    I’m interested where I may be able to pick up a copy as I’m in the UK. I’ll try anything as being tired literally all the time and in pain from this disease isn’t a great way to live at 30 yrs old. Perhaps Amazon may have it this side of the pond?

  13. Congrats Tiffany on the 200th post! Looking forward to your posts more. Thanks for the documentary review!

  14. Congrats!! 200 andand coubtjng… o am still in awe at how you manage to work so hard, make these amazing culinary delights and blog about it. Keep it up!

  15. Congrats on your remarkable milestone! Yes, many start food blogs in zest but run out of steam when the reality of the demands of it hit home. You are one of those who will last the test of time. Yes, you may have to pull back a little from commenting and all but you have fostered and maintained friendships and add value to the food blogging community and to your readers. With every best wish, Kari and Chef Lij.

  16. Wow! 200 is quite an achievement! Here’s to inching towards 500 🙂

  17. Thank you very much for your comments! 😀