Wednesday Weigh-In June 10, 2009

Everybody wants your money

First, welcome to the new readers of our site! Though I’ve been absent from the blog more than I’d like to be, I have noticed new blood in the comments.  Thank you as well as our longtime members. I’ve got some stuff planned to make this site a bit better in the coming weeks.

Now on with this week’s post…

When I first started trying to lose weight for that newspaper contest in 2006, I noticed something interesting.

A lot of people wanted to exploit what I was doing. I had all matter of “miracle diet” people, surgery advocates, and plain good old fashioned snake oil supplement salesmen approach me looking to “help” me, in hopes that I would, in turn, help them exploit our readers. I declined each and every offer from these charlatans, with the exception of a personal fitness trainer who genuinely wanted to help me even if I never mentioned him in the paper by name. That, folks, is a decent person.

However, most of the people offering help were anything but decent.

I was nice at first, but eventually, I got tired of dealing with parasites and told one guy who would not take no for an answer to back off.

You see, there are lots of people on TV and on the web who will promise you anything in order to get your money.

Just do this and you’ll lose 40 pounds, just like this stock photo with a made up name did.

And here’s the big secret as to why they rarely get called out on their trickery.

They know you will not fulfill every part of your diet plan.

Read the fine print of almost any diet plan, book or product. It will mention somewhere in fine print, “as part of a balanced diet.”

Well, if we could follow a balanced diet, most of us would be in better shape and not need their product. So most people wind up blaming themselves for the  product’s failure to do what it said. They think that they just didn’t try hard enough, they cheated that one time and ate a biscuit.

And if you do happen to follow the advice to the letter and it fails to work, what are you going to do? Sue them?

Good luck with that.

At best, you might be part of some class action lawsuit which may get you a few bucks. But it doesn’t stop the very same people, under new company names, from coming back a few years later with a new scam. They do it because they rake in a hell of a lot more money than they ever pay out in lawsuits. They cheat you because they can and because it works.

So, you won’t ever see ads for fake diet plans here. You won’t ever see me hawking some crazy weight loss scheme. I may not inspire you with tales of rapid weight loss, but I will also never sell you a lie.

If I ever do endorse anything it will be because it works for me and it SHOULD work for you. And short of a sensible eating plan, I can’t imagine what else that would be.

Now for the weekly weigh-In

Tara Cain

I’ve had a great week workout wise. I’ve been out walking nearly every evening with my mother in law, and boy can she shift.
We walk over fields, up hills, down canal paths and I arrive home with beads of sweat trickling down my spine.
This is a good thing.
No loss weight wise however, but I really feel like this is the start of something really good.

• Starting weight Wed. Nov.19: 168 lbs.
• Goal weight: 140 lbs.
• Weight last week: 162 lbs.
• Weight today: 162lbs
• Amount lost this week:0lb

David Wright

I’d love to say I followed my strict calorie counts the whole week, but I slipped big time. I didn’t pig out, save for one interlude with chocolate cake I wish to take back. All in all, not a bad week. But not a good one, either.

The stats: David Wright

• Starting weight Wed. Nov.19: 350 lbs.
• Goal weight: 250 lbs.
• Weight last week: 324 lbs.
• Weight today: 324 lbs.
• Amount lost this week: 0 lbs.
• Total lost since Nov. 19: 26 pounds

Now it’s your turn. Share your success (or setback) story with us.

If you’d like to post a Wednesday Weigh-In post on your blog and help spread the word of our goals, please do so. Get all the info on how you can participate right here.

See you downstairs in the comments – and let’s all show our support and visit anyone taking part.

Update

As always, thank you to everyone who takes part in the Wednesday Weigh-In.

Thank you!

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