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Phil
J. Interview with Dr. Robert Rosati
Fox News
He weighed 504 pounds when he checked into the Rice
Diet Program in May 1990. Seven months later the
6'1" Phil had lost a whopping 249 pounds and launched
a new career as an actor with a role in a major motion
picture.
It may sound like a fantasy, but that's the way it happened
for Phil, now 28, who took a leave-of-absence from his
job on Wall Street (and as a part-time bodyguard and
bouncer) to come to Durham to lose the excess weight
which had plagued him from his Italian childhood in
Brooklyn.
"My grandmother owned a restaurant and I lived
with her. I loved the food and ate continually, lots
of pasta, meat and cheese," Phil explained. The
eldest of five children, Phi, recalls that "every
holiday was an eating festival… totally food-centered.
I ate my macaroni from a salad bowl! "Phil admits
to making stabs at nearly every weight loss program
imaginable. "Name it. I've tried it. I just never
stuck with anything long enough."
"My weight was never really a problem for me. I
was always active and prided myself in dressing well.
But at 500 pounds, it was getting hard to find clothes
that fit and I was slowing down a little. I just woke
up one day and decided to get in shape. "He first
heard of the Rice Diet from a friend. "I was looking
for something prolonged and with close supervision.
I thank God I found this place!" (Dr. Rosati notes
that Phil, probably because of his young age, checked-in
with few of the medical problems that haunt the obese.
He was displaying the Pickwickian syndrome (falling
asleep at inappropriate times) which is symptomatic
of the lung complications of obesity.)
Phil lost 28 pounds in the first week; sixty-five in
the first month. "I was hungry at first and rested
a lot. Then I began extensive physical activity…
aerobic exercise, weight-lifting and volleyball…
for several hours a day."
He answered a casting call in Wilmington N.C. for a
"young 350-400 pound Italian-type" for a part
in "29th Street." I got the part and was cautioned
not to lose more weight. I decided my program was more
important and dropped another seventy-five pounds. The
wardrobe man went nuts!" (Ironically, Phil lost
another twenty-nine pounds while filming "29th
Street.")
Phil left Durham in December, got down to a low 196
by August 1991; and decided he looked "too thin"
and wanted to bulk up. He's gotten into bodybuilding;
added muscle; and works out at the "Power House"
in Brooklyn daily. He reports his current weight at
224 and has gone from a size 72 to 48 suit; a waist
of 70 to 34 inches; and a collar size 16" to 12".
Jordon still eats lots of vegetables and fruit; rice;
chicken and fish, and refuses salt and fat.
Cast as a bodyguard and wise-guy mobster in the film" Romeo is Bleeding" Jordon is self-assured and positive about the future. I'll always check-in periodically at the Rice House. I look and feel better than I ever have."
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