WINDSOR, Ont. -- Windsor entrepreneur Andrew Facca used to make carrot juice to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Now he has made a movie.

The 47-year-old businessman will unveil his 10-step method to healthy living in the documentary, Voyage To Betterment, Thursday night at Lakeshore Cinemas.

The feature-length film follows a group of local people who attempt to make radical improvements to themselves physically and emotionally over a 30-day period.

Voyage to Betterment, Facca said, is similar in approach to the popular 2006 self-help film The Secret. But its advice is backed up by medical science. Throughout the 30 days, participants are supervised by doctors.

“It’s more than just a group of people telling you how your life can change,” he said. “I wanted to show results.”

Facca is a Windsor native, a graduate of Kennedy high school and the University of Windsor school of business.

He has worked as a commercial banker, owned small manufacturing firms in London, Ont., and Mexico and, since 1998, has been a restaurateur in Windsor.

His visits to San Diego while on business in the late 1990s prompted Facca to start up a juice bar, The Hip Rose, in Windsor in 1998.

“I was amazed how aware southern Californians were of their health,” he said.

Ultimately, the business failed because Facca was busy with other projects, not to mention that he was a rookie in running a restaurant.

In 2001, he converted it into a twin operation — Treehouse Bar and Grill, and Black Kettle Bistro, 351-357 Ouellette Ave. — and he hasn’t looked back.

Voyage To Betterment came about when his business partner, Dave Haas, asked for some advice on improving his health.

“He asked me what I did to stay in shape,” said Facca. “I said rather than just tell you about it, I’m going to issue you a challenge. That’s how the idea for the 30-day challenge came about.”

Haas agreed and the cameras rolled while he and a group of other people made radical changes to their diets and physical well-being. All the while, a Michigan lab kept tabs on their progress.

At the end of the experiment, Haas was 30 pounds lighter and his risk of getting serious diseases, including some forms of cancer and heart disease, had been greatly reduced.

“I think the risk levels was the factor that surprised him the most,” Facca said.

Facca is a proponent of the bestselling books of Arizona’s Dr. David Hawkins, whose The Eye of the I, Power vs. Force, and several other titles promote health through spiritual enlightenment. Hawkins appears prominently in Voyage To Betterment, as do several other self-help gurus.

The film was completely underwritten by Facca, who estimates it took nearly 500 hours to plan, film and edit over a four-year period, all the while running his Windsor ventures.

“It has been gruelling, but extremely rewarding,” he said.

Voyage To Betterment opens Thursday night at Lakeshore Cinemas with a screening and reception at 7 p.m., and continues through Nov. 19.

Facca also hopes to show his movie in other markets, as well as on TV and in the DVD format.