Hungry for Change Review

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I hadn't heard of this documentary until this morning, but Monica (heart her) from Run Eat Repeat posted about it, and I thought, "Hey, I'm pretty interested in food and health, and it's my day off. I'm totes going to watch this right now."

And I loved it. You can still watch it online free through tomorrow here. 

Hungry for Change is basically a documentary about real food, nutrition, how our stressful lives screw us up and how exciting it is that we can do something to fix it.

The focus isn't about a specific way to eat necessarily, it's more about how to add in the good, which will inherently crowd out the bad. I really liked that message. 

Here are my thoughts: 

1. The Dramatization: Okay, first of all I'm not sure that the dramatized sequence with the office worker who becomes healthy was supposed to be funny, but I thought it was really entertaining. When she was sitting there with her soda and her coffee and working through lunch in the awful office light I was like, "Girl, I feel you." Yesterday I had a Diet Coke and a PBJ eaten out of a ziploc in my pocket while I ran around the hospital trying to get work done. And I loved how as soon as she got out the juicer her hair became perfectly curled and she suddenly lived in a house with daylight. 

2. The Role Models: Kris Carr (cancer survivor, Crazy Sexy Diet etc.) is wise. I have a pretty big friend crush on her. "Dear Diary, I feel sad today, I'm going to eat EVERYTHING." Hilarious. My life. 

3. The Medicine: The study that the OB-Gyn doctor quoted about exercise being as good as antidepressants for mild-moderate depression is real. I heard about that on the wards last week. It's a pretty big deal, and it reminded me of this post I wrote about emotional eating. In my own life I already knew how much exercise makes me feel good, but it's nice to have science confirm it.

4. Diets: I want to be really confident in general, but especially in how I look for my wedding coming up in August. I really appreciated the time spent on why diets (in the you can only eat this sense) are totally setups for failure. It was a good reminder that no matter how I'm tempted to do something drastic for the wedding, it won't give me the kind of lasting health I actually want. And even if I scratched and clawed a few pounds off, how confident could I possibly be knowing that I didn't do it healthfully? 

5. The Changes: I'm pretty sure I want to buy a juicer, but I'll have to save some $. Considering I'm getting married this year, live on loans, and have to travel all over the country to interview for residency in the next 12 months, I'm trying to be more on a budget, so I don't really know if this is something I'll be starting soon. I do think I might try to add even more veggies to my day though. While I do a great job with fruit, I think my veggie serving count probably comes in a little under on average. I was really inspired by the sequence with all the pretty produce. 

6. The Self-Esteem Message: When the doctor was talking about putting the quote on your mirror and saying you accept yourself out loud, and that it will feel like a lie at first, I really resonated. I've tried it and I've given up because I felt kind of dumb. She claimed it takes about 30 days to build up a part of yourself that will really listen to those positive messages, and I'll feel crazy, but I might try it.

And now that I've spent a while this morning thinking on food and health etc., it's time to take the "food as fuel" message and go focus on something else: I have my last 2 days on the wards for Internal Medicine tomorrow and Sunday, and tests next week. 

So, I'm going to go get my learn on. 

You though, you should go watch this documentary.