Beloved director Kevin Smith has decided it’s time to drop some weight. He’s been complaining on his blog for months about how fat he thinks he is, and his desire to be alone, away from the press, and drop some serious poundage. In fact Smith recently admitted to the L.A. Times that he broke a toilet due to his girth.

After his new movie “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” reaches theaters Friday, Kevin Smith plans to start counting his calories. Since his doctor called him morbidly obese, he’s giving up the all-you-can-eat lifestyle and taking a “health sabbatical” intended to shed extra pounds he packed on while filming the raunchy, Seth Rogen-starring romantic comedy in Pittsburgh last year.

“I’m going away for a while,” Smith said, puffing a menthol cigarette on the patio of his Hollywood Hills home, “to concentrate on myself. To save my life.”

At a time when Smith has been heavily promoting “Zack and Miri” — perhaps the most commercially viable movie in his 15-year career as a multi-hyphenate actor-writer-director of crude comedies and art-house bromances — the issue of his weight has remained front of mind. The director has been complaining about being fat in radio interviews and fretting about it on his blog much to the chagrin of Weinstein Co. publicists for the film, who have openly wished the director would “talk about something else.” Like, for instance, how closely in tone and casting the movie resembles something conjured up by comedy rainmaker Judd Apatow?

Adding insult to injury, Smith’s girth contributed to an embarrassing incident last week. “I broke a toilet. That’s how heavy I am,” said Smith. “I can’t take all the credit — that was an old toilet and a very waterlogged wall — but my size took that toilet down. I cannot cognitively reframe it and be like, ‘It wasn’t me — it was the toilet.’ It was definitely me. And that’s a wake-up call!”

[From the L.A. Times]

I checked out Smith’s website “My Boring Ass Life” and he does indeed fret, complain, and obsess about his weight a great deal on there. The most recent entry made me sorta sad.

F*&#, I wish I was still that thin. I’ve porked the f#&$ out, man. I’m really, really fat right now. Fattest I’ve ever been. But as soon as this flick’s out, I’m taking my life back; gonna drop out of sight and drop a bunch of pounds. It’s the deal I’ve made with myself. Just gotta make it through the next two and half weeks of press and running around.

[From My Boring Ass Life]

In other entries Smith comments about his weight and Page Six’s article about it. He sounds quasi-obsessive about pounds, and like he’s not necessarily coming from the best frame of mind. You can sense a panic and desperation, but also this feeling like he’s deeply depressed about it. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, it just made me think that if someone I knew were talking that way, I’d be stressed about them.

Kevin obviously has a lot of weight to lose but it’s not an impossible amount. Once you find a diet that works for you and you can live with, you get in the habit of making certain choices and it really isn’t as hard as it seems. The first month is the toughest, and then it just becomes something you do automatically. If nothing else it sounds like he’s seriously committed to making some much needed changes for the sake of his health. We wish him success.

Kevin Smith and his family at the Los Angeles Premiere of ‘Zack and Miri Make A Porno’ on October 20th. Images thanks to WENN .