When I posted my 100^th 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 100^th 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 200^th 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 200^th 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!