I watched a great movie tonight called Lbs. In a way, it reminded me of Krakauer’s book Into the Wild.
The story is of a New York fat guy that has a heart attack due to his weight. He tries to lose weight to improve his health, but the environment he finds himself in prohibits success. On impulse, he leaves the city to purchase a trailer and some land. He lives in the trailer, struggling intensely, for what seems like a year or more. He suffers miserably, but with time, lots of hiking, biking, and little money for food, he transforms into a healthy guy.
He then returns to the city and to reunite with his family. He looks great. But it doesn’t take long for him to resume his former lifestyle. The movie ends with him regaining the weight that he had at the beginning.
Depressing movie to be sure, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was a clever analogy, perhaps unintentionally, of the destructive, yet seemingly magnetic, cycles experienced in life.