Fat, Sick and Nearly dead

Hi. I watched this show on Netflix. It's a great show. I've been a fan of raw food and juice for about 15 years. Do it only under doctor's supervision.

Another way to do it that is much easier than juicing is to replace junk/sugar/tv dinners/ eating out/fatty meats with about 80% raw food. Do it slowly as a life change. Nothing temporary works for long.

Ignore the naysayers.

Well, I have no actual data to back this up, but.... there are juicing disciples at MFP to varying degrees.... and it would certainly appear that most of the juicing naysayers have never tried it. They simply believe in their 'do what is sustainable plan.' I sometimes wonder if all the 'fundamentalists' started out that way... or if some of them, did something to 'kickstart' their weightloss, and have just conveniently forgotten, and now preach the orthodox MFP way.

If I get you right maybe we are of similar outlook - I get annoyed by people ranting on this site 'no no don't try that - its my "balanced" way or the highway'. This seems a ridiculous generalization and non exploratory to me, the point is if your overweight enough to be affecting your health then what you are currently doing is wrong, and changing to something else that inspires you and shift dangerous weight (even if not a permanent habit change) is worthwhile as you are opening up to change - and edging away from danger. I believe if you experience the weight loss, it removes some of the hopelessness and gives you a taste of success - that in itself is so valuable. My skipping breakfast fad taught me a great deal - especially testing my will power.

Whilst I am having an "all out" - I also get annoyed by people who post stupid off topic pictures or giant giffs that slow your browser!

I don't dispute that probably the most sensible way to 'fix' your dietary bad habits, is to figure out, how you're gonna eat for the rest of your life, and then start doing it today, minus enough calories to get you to your goal weight at a reasonable rate. I believe that's the essence of the MFP way. I just don't think that everyone is willing to do it that way, and that that is the only way that will work. I do fully agree that that is the end goal, and should always be the end goal... I just don't think it's always necessary to start that way. The feeling of accomplishment you get from dropping a whole bunch of lbs in a fairly short period of time, can certainly be a motivator to stay the course.

And for that reason, and because I used a non-mainstream method to get my health journey started... and so far, I am pleased with where I'm at, and currently eating much closer to how I plan to eat for life than ever before.... it's MHO ( and completely uneducated opinion ) that there are many paths to a healthy lifestyle, and a person doesn't necessarily have to start out from day one, on the exact path that they plan to follow permanently.

*ETA* Oh ya, and I don't post alot of gifs, but I do like to add pics to my posts, no matter how irrelevant they are to the post, sometimes. Sorry 'bout that.

The way I see it is this-- If you find something that works for you, that gets you focused, that helps you find that place where things click for you, you should follow that road. Everyone is different, and whether it's fasting, juicing, low-carb, high-protein, whatever...you can't judge a person on what is right for them. Only they can make that decision. My opinion is, if this is something you want to try, people shouldn't give you crap for it. And to the people who have responded rudely, I say: If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Personally, I found the tone of your advice extremely rude.

Welcome back and good luck with reaching your goals!

Hey I watched that, I started juicing, I did a 5 day juicing and I didn't mind it but I figure if I just juice once or twice a day then thats good, I eat clean and stay away from boxed products. I now use my juicer to make soups, sauces and the pulp is used with my baking for my kids lunches. I did however feel the detox aspect of it and it was ROUGH. If you are going to do drink LOTS of water.

It's the best infomercial I've ever seen, it's so good people think it's a documentary!!!

Back in the old days Soap opera's (eg Coronation Street) were surrounded by adverts for washing powders - hence the nick name soap operas / soaps.

Heh! I just learnt learned something new about the origin of name soapies.

To me this film was less about juicing and more about the state of obesity in America. At the end of the film I didn't necessarily want to start juicing, but I was left with a sense of awe about the reality of our culture.

I saw the movie and it was one of my reasons for starting here on Mfp--like that dude, I started developing these weird "pot marks" all over my body and I went to a couple of doctors and none of them knew why and/or said it was something that nobody knows why or how it comes about--these marks/spots were totally hideous and I was desperate so, I did the juice thing but in a modified way. I juiced a huge variety of only organic and really strange (for me) and different types veggies and herbs and hardly juiced any fruits at all--but I did EAT fruits at this time instead. I had two of these different types of veggies juices per day and one nice sized meal per day (example large breakfast and juiced for lunch and dinner and ate fruit/healthy snacks about 2 per day or juiced for breakfast and ate a big organic/healthy lunch and juice for dinner with two snacks, etc.). My one meal per day did not include meat, dairy, nor any "white" pasta. I also turned my back on mostly all processed foods and any sweets that I'd eat (which wasn't a lot), I made them at home...I did this for approximately 2 1/2 or 3 months straight. Here's what happened:

I dropped 4-6 pant sizes in 2 1/2- 3 months time
I lost almost 20 pounds in that time, not a lot from the scale, but HUGE loses in inches all over my body, I was literally shrinking...even my shoe size went down in that time almost 1 12 sizes.
My body fat % went down so astronomically--it was nothing less than miraculous.
NO loose skin, in fact my skin and hair in that short amount of time turned into the most beautiful and glowing skin and hair in my life...people were commenting that I looked like I was 15-20 years younger ALL the time. The hideous spots left completely after 2 or 3 weeks of doing this. My fingernails were always brittle and cracking, they were growing like weeds.
My energy boosted like crazy--I sleep like a baby and started exercising like a child--super energized like never before!
My eye sight improved so much, I didn't wear my glasses anymore.

The BAD News...
Because I had soooo much energy, I literally hurt myself exercising. I was peddling my stationary bike one day with my barefoot gymshoes so FAST, my foot got caught in the peddle and it's a miracle my foot didn't get cut off! I still went to my Taw Kwondo class anyway and then hurt my knee trying to be Bruce Lee, Jr. --that was the beginning of the end.

Eating this way and drinking this way (only organic, and high quality foods and fish) is SUPER expensive.

Because my foot and knee hurt, I stopped exercising. Once I stopped exercising--I started going back to my old habits of eating fast foods and junky processed foods. In about six months I not only gained ALL the weight back but 6 more pounds.

Today, I'm struggling and am about 20 pounds more than my loss with my juicing experiment. So my conclusion is while it does indeed work, in the long-run, it won't...because it's NOT sustainable--unless you live this way forever, you WILL gain it all back and even more...