The Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead diet

When I first heard about this diet and saw the documentary of how Joe Cross from Australia lost 100 pounds through his diet by traveling across America for 60 days ( I think he actually lost about 80 pounds during the 60 days and about 30 pounds the first 30 days or so) and eventually lost 100 pounds and was able to stop taking Prednazone for his autoimmune disease which this diet basically cured I knew likely I had found a diet I could actually do.

My father was a student of Paul Bragg who was Jack Lalane's teacher in regard to diet. So, when I heard about Joe Cross using Dr. Fuhrman's techniques in dieting I immediately recognized what my father was teaching me about in the 1950s when I was growing up. Since he got me to enjoy fasting on fruit juice and I even did a lemon juice, water and maple syrup fast for 7 days once, I immediately understood what Joe Cross and Dr. Fuhrman were talking about because I had heard all this same stuff before from Dad who had learned it from Paul Bragg who had learned it from Bernard McFaddin at the turn of the 20th Century. So, even though it is much more refined and more fully developed by doctors testing on patients for 100 years and stuff like that it is still basically what my father taught me about in the 1950s when I was a boy.

And as an adult I used to regularly do organic watermelon fasts of 4 days or more to keep my veins and arteries clear. So when I went to get an angiogram at Stanford Medical they had never seen anyone with as clear arteries and veins as I had. This helped save my life when I had a heart virus which most people that I knew of died of around 1998 and 1999 when I had this ailment and survived.

But recently, my doctor told me that I really needed to lose weight because I am 64 years old and even though I am very strong and lift weights and walk almost every day with my dogs at a certain point if you want to live a long life you have to lose the weight or you likely won't. So, for me since about age 40 to 45 it has been very depressing because all the things like walking 25 miles in a weekend or jogging every day wasn't working for me like it did before I was 45. And part of the reason is my feet don't like to run or walk over about 5 miles and they prefer not to run at all. So, my podiatrist says I have all sorts of microfractures from my youth in my feet that have long healed up now but as I age they cause more pain in my feet. But walking still seems to be fine.

So, finding the right diet has been a very frustrating chore for me. So, when I found "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" diet my older daughter called me one day and made sure that I bought the book and chart and DVD package online for a good deal. So, I bought the book and DVD and watched the video and then more than ever realized I could do this diet to lose the weight my doctor recommended.

So, I went to Whole foods and bought a lot of organic 2 whole pineapples, strawberries, spearmint, apples, Celery, Cucumbers, lemons, ginger, Kale, Mangoes, etc.

This past week I also bought a Breville 1000 watt juicer which is mostly stainless steel and can make quite a bit of juice at once. Now, right away I have to say this diet isn't for everyone. You have to be able to be comfortable juicing all this stuff together. But here are the first two recipe's I tried:

Joe Cross Starting Juice
Pineapple
Strawberry
Spearmint
pear

Mean Green Juice
4 stalks of celery
1 cucumber
1 thumb sized ginger
1/2 lemon including peel
2 apples
6 leaves of kale

The foundation of this diet is the mean green juice which gives you enough micro-nutrients to feel full of energy while still losing weight and detoxifying. There are many other recipes. For example I just created my own which is:

Carrots
Kale
Spearmint
1/2 lemon

I let my son taste this and he couldn't handle it but I thought it was great. The other thing I have been doing is I greatly enjoyed the pineapple and I had about 2 mangoes which I ate. Now, the whole idea with this diet is to juice everything because there is no way your stomach could eat how much you would have to eat otherwise. Since you are trying to drink about 6 mean green juices a day (or some variation of this) the amount of veggies and fruits is amazing. In fact, I have thought about starting a compost pile in my back yard because of just how much veggies and fruits you go through even in one day. And the other thing is just the juicer and the veggies and the fruits can take up most of the kitchen until you figure they whole thing out.

For example, since I don't like the idea of refrigerating most of the things I'm going to juice and since I likely will have to restock about every 2 days or so with new fruits and veggies I decided to put many of the veggies in a salad bowl like they grow in the ground with some water so they can soak up more water for when they are juiced. Since everything I have now will likely be juiced by tomorrow night. Remember, the whole point is eating completely LIVE foods because of all the alive nutrients.

Today for example was my first day so I first started out with a protein, milk and stawberry and orange juice. (I use soy protein because I found I'm allergic to Whey protein). But I'm not allergic to milk at all. So I found this strange when I found it out.

Then I went to Whole Foods with my son and bought about 100 dollars worth of fruits and vegetables all organically grown. So I think Joe Cross says that this diet costs about 30 or more dollars a day if you do it right. However, it is amazing because you feel very healthy once you adapt to it.

And one man who was a weight lifter talked in a video that after about 15 to 30 days on this diet your bowel movements odor and body odor goes completely away on this diet (at least while you are on it). So, it is a completely detoxifying diet in addition to being very energizing.

However, it might be good to consult a physician regarding regular blood tests while you are on it to make sure you aren't having any undiagnosed problems. I think Joe Cross did blood tests about once a week because of his auto-immune disease that went away through this diet.

Even after I get down to the weight I want likely I will use these recipes for one of my meals a day. I likely will have a protein shake of milk and soy protein and fruit in a blender and then do a mean green drink in the afternoon so I can then have a regular meal at night unless I am trying to lose more weight or detoxify in the future.

So, I'm very hopeful that this can work for me because nothing else has worked for my personality and body type. However, if Joe Cross can lose 30 pounds the first 14 days or so of this diet then maybe I can to.

The one caveat is that men tend to have an easier time than women losing weight after age 40. So, even if it goes off slower girls this still works. So, I'm very hopeful to see some results within a week or two for myself. This also tends to cure migraines, helps people sleep better, etc.

However, I did watch one Youtube video of a teenage girl and her Mom that had stomach problems about 4 days into the vegetable and juice fast. And almost everyone has trouble adjusting to doing this the first 3 to 5 days.

Note: some of my thoughts on the stomach problems were that possibly because this was a new experience the veggies or the juicer wasn't cleaned properly or they used non-organic produce. So, any of these things could give stomach problems including someone catching a flu from someone else in the course of their day out and about.

Doing this for 10 days is called a reboot of your system and many people attempt this and if successful go longer. So, if it works for you go for it. Here is the website run by Joe Cross:

Reboot Your Life

The other thing I noticed today was that I felt a little spacey in the initial adjustment to it. But when I went and walked a couple of miles in the forest with my adult son and dogs my mind cleared up. I think this diet is one where exercise will keep your mind clear. So, likely it is very important to be exercising while doing this diet, preferably in a beautiful place like along the Ocean or River, or walking or running out in nature somewhere. As I walked today I felt the fat in my stomach melting away as I walked. I don't remember experiencing anything quite like that before. So, this diet is an extreme fat burner when you exercise.

The other thing that I noticed is that my senses beyond the 5 started opening up more while I was walking in the forest and I felt much more a part of nature than I ordinarily would while walking. This diet can put a person in a very spiritual place. But I think it is important to do this diet if possible in some place you feel relatively safe because you might be more emotionally vulnerable while doing a diet like this sometimes. So, try to pick a good place around people you trust to do this diet if possible.