Facing the Fat

- When you're overweight, when you're the fat guy,

you know you are but you live in

this sort of self-imposed denial.

You look at yourself in the mirror and you think,

"How did I let myself get to this point?

"I don't live who I've become, this isn't who I am,

"I'm living an unfulfilled life

"and I'm watching my life's dreams just fade away."

Then, you finally reach that moment

when you're ready to take control,

and that's when you know it's time to make a change.

My name is Kenny Saylors.

I'm 32 years old and I'm obese,

but all of that is about to change.

I'm about to do something that many would consider extreme.

For the next 40 days,

I'm going to fast on absolutely nothing but water.

Very concerned about your health.

Your body really isn't meant to do that.

I think that's absurd.

I don't think it's possible.

- I'm sure it's not healthy, but you know what?

Probably living in Los Angeles

where we are right now's not too healthy. (laughing)

I think that's ridiculous.

He's gotta have vitamins, he's gotta have nutrition.

It's something that's not healthy for him.

In the long run could come back to haunt him, I don't know.

I think he'll--

- Pass out. - Become sick, anorexic.

You get your energy from food.

I think he would die.

So, you're chugging carrot juice?

- Yeah. - That's disgusting.

- Carrot juice is good, man, holy crap.

It's not disgusting.

Let him get a taste of that juice.

You gotta taste it.

I'm gonna make him taste carrot juice.

- I've had the SoBe carrot orange stuff.

- Yeah, but it's not the same, it's not real, man.

This stuff is, really fresh carrot juice is like,

it's like drinking--

I've never had it, so--

Drinking life.

Nice and quiet.

I wouldn't suggest juicing in the middle of the night,

unless you hate your neighbors.

I'll drink this first before I clean up this crap.

You have to drink, you have to drink carrot juice,

or any juice for that matter, fast

because juices are living, they're living things.

So, whenever you juice,

you have to drink within two minutes

in order to get the full maximum effect

of the vitamins and nutrients that go into the body.

Mmm, this coming from an overweight fat guy (laughs)

who knows so much about nutrition.

Okay, first things first.

Before I decided to do the fast, I wanted to go back home,

see my family, visit some old friends

in my hometown of Greenville, Texas.

Greenville's your typical Small Town USA.

It's definitely a far cry from Los Angeles.

Growing up, I went to Greenville High School,

attended Greenville First Assembly,

worked at Greenville Hardware

and ate lots of Greenville food.

Is this me right here?

Oh, yeah, that's you.

I think that's you, I'm pretty sure though.

Yeah, it is.

And this is Kenny when he was in the band

and he was real thin then and he played the trumpet.

When he was growing up, he was active

from the time he started walking.

He liked sports and he liked to play football.

And he never met a stranger;

he was always quite friendly with everybody.

When he was in high school, he was very thin,

almost frail looking.

I never thought that he would ever gain this much weight.

So, when he started gaining weight,

then he started this coughing.

Okay.

- When Kenny said that he was gonna go on a long fast,

I wasn't sure if he could do it,

but I know that because he has determination

that he probably could.

- So, what is fasting and why did I choose this?

Simple.

Fasting has been the most proven way

to detox the body and give it time to heal.

Throughout history, people of many faiths,

including Christianity, Judaism, Islam,

and most Eastern religions, have used fasting

as a healing process for spiritual purification

and communion with God.

Why 40 days?

Well, 40 seems to be a number that is repeated

in most of the holy books, and specifically in the Bible,

over and over and over,

so it sounded like the right number for me.

I knew the smart thing to do before I started

was to get a medical team on board.

So, I did my research and called lots of doctors,

but none of them wanted to take me on.

Finally, I found a place in Marina del Rey

that agreed to meet with me.

Come on in, Kenny.

Well, it sounds like you've got

some interesting life-changing plans.

I wanna hear more about it.

Yeah, I'm obviously overweight,

so I've been doing research over the past year

about ways to really reform my health

and to try to get me back on track and everything.

And then, that's when I came across fasting,

just a water fast.

- And so-- - A water fast?

Yes, a water fast for 40 days. (laughs)

- Wait, you're talking about doing a water fast for 40 days?

Mm-hmm, yeah.

That's very extreme, Kenny.

A water fast for 40 days

is probably the most extreme type of fasting you can do

and for the longest amount of time

that anyone should possibly attempt it.

And you shouldn't attempt it without medical supervision,

I can tell you that straight off.

- The big thing for me, the passion for me,

is about the obesity epidemic in the world.

In my research, that's what really stood out to me.

The numbers are astronomical, I mean,

about how many people are overweight.

According to the CDC, the number of morbidly obese

across the United States has skyrocketed

to over 30% in the last 20 years.

Not only that, but what is obesity

costing you and me, the taxpayer?

Well, if you break down the costs

and compare them to other taxpayer expenditures,

you can see it adds up really quickly.

To fly our president for one year

in Air Force One costs us $500 million.

All costs associated with illegal aliens

in California alone costs taxpayers $9 billion a year.

If you add up the money spent

on the No Child Left Behind policy,

it's a staggering $23 billion a year.

And all costs associated with drunk driving,

a whopping $24 billion a year.

So, how does obesity stand up to these numbers?

Well, you add up increased insurance costs,

loss of work due to obesity conditions,

increased Medicare and Medicaid costs,

it comes to $80 billion a year.

That's more than all of those other programs combined.

Let's do some math here.

Divide $80 billion by the total US population in 2008

and what do you get?

Obesity is costing $263 for every American citizen;

that's man, woman, and child.

So, no matter what size you happen to be,

it's still coming outta your pocket.

So, that made me start thinking,

"Wow, I'm one of those statistics."

Well, let me say this at least, Kenny,

because I applaud you for at least taking some steps

to improve your health.

The number one thing, though,

should be you improving your health.

We can help you get well,

but let us do it in the right way.

Okay.

- Number one is you need to get medical supervision.

Yeah.

- The great thing about Lumeria: The Healing Spa

is we can offer full-service.

So, we're gonna introduce you to the medical doctor

that we have on staff here,

You're gonna need to get a full physical, some blood work,

make sure you're healthy enough

to do something like an extreme fast.

On a personal note,

you should be really proud of what you're doing.

I mean, it's so difficult.

I don't know anyone other than some very serious

medical practitioners who've attempted what you're doing.

What you're doing is difficult and you should be very proud

that you're taking such a step to get healthy.

I know it is extreme,

but sometimes you have to go to extremes

to be extremely healthy, you know?

("There's More Than That to Being Poor" by Hussalonia)

I think they're on board.

That's gonna be great.