The last Biggest Loser I watched is the one where they ran the Biggest Loser Marathon.
Did you see that Samoan guy from last season? He’s put on 80 pounds I’d guess.
Did you see that kid from this season, he’s back home for a month and he’s recording footage of him bingeing at 1:00 in the morning because of stress, and he’s put 2 pounds back on in a month. (the same month he ran tons of miles to train for the marathon – you have to eat a ton of calories to counter that kind of running, and he did it!)
So six months of working out 8 hours a day is enough to change the outside, but not enough to change the inside. I still maintain that if I figure out how to change the inside, the outside will take care of itself. If I can find the secret key to turn inside my head, if I can link stress relief to another form – or if I can feel like I’m in control of my life by doing something else besides eating… if I can figure out how to want to be active and feel great about life when I’m doing something other than working at a computer…
But that key is elusive. I spent about $700 on Isagenix. I knew going in it wasn’t going to work for me, but I thought if I went through the pain of spending that kind of cash…
No dice. My inside is the same – and my outside is still fat.
I see my reflection in the glass storefronts of where I work, and I end up eating cookies because I feel so out of control…
Man, this is messed up.
You know what, I think this is the MAIN thing that disturbs me. I don’t know how to change the inside. I have had people tell me just do it, just change the outside and the inside will change. My feeling is that isn’t so, and from what I’m seeing of fat former biggest loser contestants, I think they are proving I’m right.
Filed under: isagenix | Tags: CD, crappy, expensive, fear, isagenix, marketing, powder, scare, selling, stupid, tactic
I haven’t listened to an entire CD that came with my first order – even once. I tried again last night. They are terrible. I think they are trying to get me to buy into their program through fear.
I remember my first experience – I’m sitting there surrounded by $300 worth of their product, put in a CD to learn more about how to use it, and they start with the FEAR. Be afraid of EVERYTHING – the water, the food supply, the dust mites, the men at the grocery store, that sweaty fat guy at the gym! BE AFRAID!!!
Ummm, I just wanted to know what to drink and when. What does a Metabolic Doubler do? And when should I take them? What is Ionix Supreme, and what is it supposed to do? Pretty basic stuff…
But all I get is a full-on hardcore selling spiel on why everything in my world is poisoning me…
I don’t need that. I click the “next” button on my CD player… the whole thing starts again at the beginning.
There’s only one track on the entire CD, so I have to scrub through to find the stuff that actually teaches me how to use the stupid products? I don’t think so.
Isagenix is kind of a mickey mouse organization to me, with REALLY expensive products. One of the CD’s they sent me was a recording of a phone call – through the phone receiver! That and the fact they don’t know when to stop marketing and get to the real information gives me the feeling there’s no real strategy that considers how the end customer is using their product.
So I’m not sold on why I have to stick with them and their terribly expensive product. I’m on my way to GNC on my lunch break to see about meal replacement shakes. I’ll bet I can replace a meal with a shake for a LOT less than I’ve been doing it.
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After Lunch:
Yep, a LOT cheaper. The bottles I’ve been paying $75 for are $30 at GNC – and they have four flavors (instead of 2 at Isagenix), and they have buy one get the second half off until the end of April. (no shipping charges on top of it either)
Oh, and they have a cleanse drink too, and a starter program that has you do a cleanse fast for a week before you start – and it comes with clear, easy to use printed instructions and no one-track, fear-mongering CDs…
I bought the shakes. I’ll let you know what I think.
Two days in a row now my breakfast shake has left me feeling quite ill – taking about 4 – 5 hours to work back to feeling good.
You know in any other part of my life, if things were this difficult I would say “it’s not the right time” or “maybe this isn’t meant to be”. In my life I’ve found that there’s a difference to something being difficult, but the right thing to do, and just plain “not what the universe intends right now”.
In the past when I’ve forced my will upon the universe, go against those feelings of “this might not be right”, I’ve paid a dear price.
And I’m telling you, EVERYTHING has gone wrong on this quest to lose weight and be healthy, if you’ve read my blog you know part of it, and just part of it is a lot. I’m convinced I need to do it (lose weight and live healthier), but starting to think that maybe there’s a better path for me to travel than the one I’m currently on.
But a lot of it has been medical stuff, I can’t really blame that on Isagenix…
But boy I feel ill right now, and I want it to go away.
Filed under: Humor, isagenix | Tags: isagenix, losing, not recommended, recipe, shake, unofficial, weight, weight loss
Follow this recipe carefully:
1 peeled banana
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1.5 cups vitamin D milk
2 cups vanilla bean ice cream
0 scoops Isagenix shake mix
Delicious!
I was pretty sure that my body was going to have some issues with what I was doing with my nutrition. I was not disappointed…
Headaches:
Coming off of Diet Coke was brutal. Probably 8 days straight with a splitting headache. I tried drinking a couple of swallows of DC to alleviate it, but it tasted so terrible to me I didn’t want to do it. I found Excedrine helped on the very worst days. Mostly I just toughed it out. I knew I was paying a consequence for my actions, and I was smarter than my dumb body.
Also in this category I need to tell you about my migraines. I would get them pretty frequently, and every Sunday I could count on one. Eye fluttering, sensitivity to light, nauseous, you know, the fun kinds. Since I have been on the program – no migraines! I get headaches, but they are a different kind, and so much easier to live life with.
The other thing I *think* I’m noticing is that when I eat processed sugar, I’m getting these headaches in my forehead. I’ll keep track of this in the coming days and see if that’s really what’s happening.
Fevers
At first whenever I drank anything from Isagenix, I would get really hot. Well, my face and head would get really hot. I would have my wife check and I was hot to the touch, but not running a fever according to the thermometer.
Then for a while when ever I ate anything it would happen.
As I type now I can feel it, I just had chicken parmesan, green beans, white rice, and a salad about an hour ago – oh, and a cupcake with no frosting. I wonder if it’s the sugar that’s doing it…
It’s not too uncomfortable, I chalk it up to my body releasing toxins through this process and/or trying to talk me into going back to my old ways by throwing a fit like some two year old. Not buying it.
One night it turned into a raging fever with sweats and chills all night long – crazy cool dreams though. I’m not concerned enough to go see the doctor, I’ll keep you apprised as I keep going.
Arthritis
In the past when I’ve worked out for extended periods (30 minutes is extended when you’re fat) the next day has been unbearable. My ankles and knees and feet being so sore I could barely walk. I was willing to go through that this time to get to healthy, but much to my surprise…
It’s not happening. I just went downstairs and back up here in my house, and I could do it without holding the handrail. This is huge. I was in so much pain before when I tried to exercise, and now it’s not there at all. I have focused more on the bike this time, but there’s something else different. I couldn’t be happier that this part is better than I expected.
Digestion
All systems are go. Without being too graphic let me just say that my digestion has not worked this well for, well for 15 years that I can think of.
Sleep
Sleep like a baby for the most part, wake up before the alarm ready to go.
The exception to this is when I take Excedrin late at night. In the old days with my DC consumption way up, I could take Excedrin anytime I wanted – no big deal. Now, it’s a bid deal. Spent a sleepless night last night due to mis-timed consumption of these pills.
I named this “Body Revolts” but really, the upsides are so much better than the downsides. Hey this blogging thing is teaching me stuff!
So here’s how I started off:
Wake up in the morning and drink some Ionix Supreme. A little cup of product in 6 oz of room temperature water. It’s pleasant tasting, and I’ve gotten used to the temperature (drinking it warm).
Then I go to the gym.
3 oz of Cleanse before I go to work.
I eat a cup of oatmeal with frozen berries in it when I stop at stop lights on my way to work. Been doing this for years – I like it.
I eat a normal lunch. Christine will be shocked to hear this I’ll bet – but I go to Panda Express and eat steamed rice, black pepper chicken, and broccoli beef. Just about every day. I’m on a mission, we’ll get to variety later…
About 3:00 I have a piece of fruit of some kind. Usually an orange, we got a case on a great deal. Sometimes an apple. Occasionally I’ll eat a “scooby snack”. Isagenix calls them snacks, they are really tablets that make me feel full. They are wretched but sometimes it gets me through the occasional hunger pangs. (overall I’ve been very pleased with the fact that I don’t feel hungry – more on that in another post).
About 6:00 I drink an Isagenix shake. These are wretched tasting if you just drink them plain – I’ve got to be honest. But with some berries in the vanilla, or some peanut butter in the chocolate, they are actually pretty good.
I might eat another piece of fruit, or a small piece of chicken breast depending on how I’m feeling.
I’m encouraged to drink half of my body weight in oz of water everyday. Isagenix and Christine are sure that what comes out of the tap will kill me – but that’s what I’m drinking. I figure what I’ve put my body through in the last 15 years, it’s so happy with what I’ve changed already that we’ll work on the water later.
So that is 200 oz of water I day that I need to drink. Now Diet Coke I could do that, but water is a little harder. I generally do about 150 oz or so. (did I mention I’m really big?).
Overall I’m so pleased with how I’ve felt. Great energy. I wake up 15 minutes before my alarm ready to go and excited for the day… and I find my stamina at the gym is greater than I’ve ever experienced. When I was simply starving myself I could barely make it 1/2 hour on the treadmill.
Now I give my body great nutrition and I started back to the gym with 40 minute cardio workouts (bike and treadmill) and I’m running out of time before I run out of energy. So very cool to feel this way.
I’m a video guy. I work in motion graphics primarily. I tell people that if they’ve watch TV in Utah over the last 15 years, they’ve seen my work. I’m famous, it’s just nobody knows it.
One of the companies I’ve done work for over the years is Isagenix. I was working on a one minute piece for them that is a montage of doctors talking about their success losing weight, and the people that they refer to the program are all losing weight too. Then I go to the Isagenix web site.
They have a 100 lb., 200 lb., and 300 lb. club for people who have lost that much weight. I read their stories, and I’m inspired.
My client comes in and sees what I’m doing instead of working, and he mentions that Christine, an editor that I had met in December was a huge fan of Isagenix, and that I should call her – then he told me to get back to work. That was fair…
I call Christine and she tells me that she’s been thinking about me too – there was some connection there when we met – I was sick, and had been for weeks, fat, and miserable. She wanted to help, and thought Isagenix would be the thing…
You know how things feel when they are right – things just kind of come together. The universe aligns for your good. This felt like that – Isagenix just felt right.
Then my stupid head got involved.
I ordered product, and it arrived here at my house. It just sat in my office for three days. I couldn’t bring myself to open it. First of all it was $300 worth of product, and it was this tiny little box. But mostly…
You know I’m still not sure what my hang up was. It was a combination of several things I think…
1- I was sure I would start down this path and fail and/or
2- I would start down this path and succeed, go off of the products and gain it all back
3- But you know what? When I sit here at type this I realize that I had no hope. I had no faith in myself to be able to do this thing. I didn’t even know that I weighed over 400 pounds yet, but I just couldn’t summon the energy to even hope, have faith that I could do this. The weight had worked its way into my head, and sucked all the energy out of my life.
I realize now how much I would come home from work and lay down and watch TV. How did that even start? (I don’t watch TV, I watch Hulu, but you know what I mean, I was completely static because I was just so tired).
I had turned into one of “those” guys.
So Christine is on the phone, texting, emailing me just trying to get me to get a pair of scissors and open the stupid box. She was totally cool, I’m quite sure that she had no idea what to think, but she was very patient with me…
Finally, on day three, I committed. I opened the box…
My Isagenix site – in case you want to watch videos and check it out. I’m not writing this blog to sell you anything, but if you’re not familiar with the company, there’s a link.
Ok, I just looked at the site – I hate it. The videos are cramming crap down your throat and trying to sign you up to make money. Stupid. Lot’s of “the world is going to hell in a handbasket and we’re the solution” manipulative crap. I just wanted to be clear what I think of what you are about to see.