** Isagenix

[goodbyeharrison]

This is what I've tried telling my friends who are so hell-bent on doing juice/smoothie/fuck-all cleanses. You may well have bad stuff in your body. If you stop putting the bad stuff in your body, your body will take care of itself. 

o mu

Oh well, since it's not an easy quick fix where they can go back to treating themselves like crap immediately afterward, it's not a good solution.

 

FYI - I got high toxicity by saying I've used antibiotics or OTC drugs in the past 6 months. Sheesh.

 

 

eating healthy and taking care of yourself..well thats just too much effort...might as well spend tons of money and torture yourself for x amount of days and chronic diarrhea. so much better for you and a quick fix.

[Pyth]

Maybe it makes me closed minded, but as soon as I hear the phrases 'toxins' and 'cleanse' come out of someones mouth I tend to just tune out everything that follows. 

[pandraztic]

A lot of my friends are on the Body by Vi bandwagon. >.<

[I-Jo]

my.friend is doing that to... he wanted me to get in board. smelled fishy to me but I couldn't find enough bad reviews to talk smack but I just hate the idea of anything out but hard work and good food getting me results.

[notanartmajor]

Visalus is basically the same story as Isagenix (and Apple computers).

[terrormortus]

Well that was an interesting little look around their site. 

 

They're so cute. Their spokesperson puts their left side forward because it supposed to make you seem more pleasant, they talk about how amazing their founders are with comments about how experienced they are, testimonials from "real people" (notice how stiff they are or how they stumble slightly over "their own words"?), and of course the fact that they're selling you something that will give you everything you want.

 

They really need to get some better advertisers.

[mentalfloss]

OMG my in laws are selling something similar called Plexus, it is unreal.  For years they have been struggling with their weight, and my hubby has excelled by going to the gym/eating healthy/martial arts.  Not once have they tried doing that, and in fact occasionally made fun of him for being "obsessed" with exercise and martial arts.

 

And then a year ago they found this Plexus stuff and they can't go a minute, literally, without dropping it into the conversation.  It's so hard to deal with because it goes against everything I believe in and I just can't believe they don't get it that we're not interested in it.  Drives me insane.

[spatzcat]

my friend had an 'isalean' shake for breakfast. I had a plate of bacon. 

 

enough said.

[Rostov]

Without wishing to defend quacks, charlatans, and rip-off merchants....(and believe me, I really don't - I have an illness that's one of the ones preyed on fairly regularly by the snake oil brigade...)

 

I wonder if there's some element of positive placebo effect at work here.  Some people don't like what they're hearing about the real way to get healthier and fitter, either because it seems too much like hard work and sacrifice, or (more likely) because they doubt their ability and willpower to actually make those positive changes.  Then some plausible-sounding quack comes along and offers a reason to believe not only that it can be done but that you can do it.  In return for a large pile of cash, naturally.  Some quacks are just selling harmless placebo and some basic good advice that's available free elsewhere.  More serious are those selling stuff that gives (or appears to give) quick results through clearly unsustainable plans, which will almost inevitably fail, causing the poor sucker to blame themselves for yet another failure.

 

But while I'm absolutely no fan of quacks or alternative "medicine", there's definitely something in the placebo effect and in the power of positive thinking,  I remember the first time I watched Steve's "Beginner Bodyweight Workout" video, and he said something about push-ups along the lines of "don't worry if you can't do a full one yet"... and the casual inclusion of that little word "yet" was so important for me.  Do this routine, and not only you could, but you will be able to do one.  And he was right.

 

So... while I've no knowledge (directly or indirectly) of the products/plans discussed in this thread, I wonder if it's worth noting the one part of at least some of them that might actually be beneficial?

[Pyth]

Just poked around their site to see what the deal was. If people could get skinny by sitting on their asses, drinking milkshakes and popping what appear to be the same old diet pill (appetite suppressing stimulants, though 'natural ones' in this case) the entire world would have been filled with perfectly thin people 30 years ago.

 

This crap doesn't work, maybe you'll lose 20 pounds...but what happens when you finish your two '30 day paks'? You go right back to eating the same old junk and gain all the weight back. This doesn't do the most important thing, it doesn't build/teach better dietary habits. Without that, it's doomed to failure.

[LadyKT]

I have a friend who sells Advocare.....expensive junk as I call it.....

 

And claims she "eats clean".  If you think consuming stuff that's full of sugar & chemicals is 'clean', I got a bridge to sell you...

 

She's mercilessly tried selling me this crap.  I gave her the "sugar & chemicals" speech.  She backed off.

 

What's worse is she's extremely active! She teaches body combat and body pump!  AND she's trying to get other people on this!!! aaaghhh!!!

[BarefootViking]

That is network marketing at its worst.  If you have a good product that is great.  It is even ok to tell people about it.  But when it becomes the focus of everything you do, then you are out of balance.  Moderation in all things. 

 

I of  course probably take it too far and never tell anyone.  I have been in one for years because I like their products and almost never tell anyone else about it...  LOL

[cn3wton]

I have so many issues with these kind of products, because they fail their clients on purpose.

 

Long story short my father lost 70 lbs, then gained 90 because they just don't teach you how to stop eating your food.  Then they go crawling back to it to lose the weight again.

 

As far as pushing things on other people I despise that. I don't care what it is you have no right to tell people how to eat.  If they come up and say how did you lose the weight/ what diet you should can tell them. But I always say that it might not work for them.

 

Just this morning my mom told me about a diet some of her friends are doing where they eat only 500 calories 2 days a week, then the rest of the week they eat "normal". This sounds pretty sketchy to me. 

 

I hate "diets" in general. It should mean how you eat and that's that.  When you hear the word diet you generally think about weight loss. I will probably never drop carbs like bread out of my diet completely. I want to enjoy pizza every now and again. I definitely want to limit my intake of carbs to like once a week, but I am not on a low carb "diet", its just how I eat.

 

Everybody gets caught up in the diet craze. This stops people from doing it.  "Oh I could never do X diet because I love X". Or "I love X diet because I can eat all the X I want!".  Seriously? Just stop and think for a second.  I am pretty sure everybody can look at what they ordered/cooked and decide if its health or not. People who love sweets aren't in denial. 

 

I always laugh when I see diets that say "You just have to cut out the sugar! Its that simple!" Really its that simple? In concept but not reality.  That's like going to a smoker and saying "You just have to cut out the cigarettes! It's that simple!". Now I was lucky since I could cut out sugars right away because I don't really care for sweets or soda. But you get my point.

 

Setting realistic goals and gradual change is the most consistent road to real change. These so called diets are money makers, that's pretty much it.

[pandraztic]

My buddy who jumped on the Visalus bandwagon first has lost a reasonable amount of weight on it, but, by the same token he has also cleaned up his act a good bit and is working out now daily. Of course, I also see him frequently posting what he is eating for dinner which consists of your standard Hawaiian fare. Kalbi beef, mac salad, tonkatsu, rice, etc. I dunno. I just can't buy it. 

 

Now, I won't lie. I occasionally make myself a breakfast shake on days when I don't have time to cook. But, it is just plain too easy to throw coconut/almond milk, a banana, some spinach, and then occasionally peanut butter or a scoop of whey protein in a blender and run. Plus I tend to dilute it out a lot with however much water it takes to make it fill up my 32 oz nalgene, so, technically, I guess I do the "shake" thing too. Only difference is I don't add some magic powder to mine thinking it will miraculously make me less hungry and melt fat.

[spatzcat]

Pandraztic - you are also not spending a retarded amount of money and buying into a load of bullshit when you drink that shake. I love a good protein shake for breakfast, I do it often, and I don't have to consult my 'isa-coach' after I drink it. 

[jtj016]

Two quiz questions:

 

Do you drink at least 8 glasses or 2 quarts of filtered water a day?

 

Do you eat at least 7-9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables per day?

 

Quiz results:

 

However unless you answered ‘no’ to every question there are still some aspects of your daily lifestyle that are potentially toxic and could be affecting your overall health and wellness.

 

...wait, what?

[goodbyeharrison]

if youre not drinking an isa-shakes then isa-waste of time! 

 

cause you couldnt possibly lose weight unless you drink a smoothie with crap sprinkled in it. 

[I-Jo]

OMG my friend just spent a butt load of money on this crap and posted a picture of it- OMG- I was like... this makes me sad.  

I just can't believe she's buying into this crap. 

[SSquirrel]

OMG my friend just spent a butt load of money on this crap and posted a picture of it- OMG- I was like... this makes me sad.  

I just can't believe she's buying into this crap. 

 

Keep her trapped in a spare room Misery-style and feed her paleo while you burn the Isagenix in front of her?   Sorry, Misery was on a list of movie scenes I was reading earlier and it jumped into my head heh.

[I-Jo]

lol I'd love to- especially if it meant she had no internet access- because I'm sick of seeing her stupid fucking posts about this shit.

[Pyth]

You could always just unsubscribe to her feed.

[I-Jo]

it's definitely coming to that.  I would hate to do that because of something so "petty" but really- it's getting out of control.  

 

plus I seriously hate stupid.

[Burizado]

plus I seriously hate stupid.

 

^^ THIS!

 

Stupid people piss me off.

[pandraztic]

Honestly, when people start talking about their magic diets etc, this is all I can think.... Like for really reals. Adipose... Just... Nope.

[Cameron]

My fiancee was wanting to do the Visalus thing, because one of her friends apparently had some success on it. I think it might be some sort of pyramid scheme type of deal, along the lines of Avon, because the people seem to really push it on to their friends.

 

Anywho, so I did a lot of digging and researching on the stuff. They're essentially expensive meal-replacement shakes. That's all. They're about middle-of-the-road as far as content, and about half "filler". So you make a 10oz shake or whatever, but it's only like 90 calories or something absurd like that. Basically, it'd be nearly impossible to actually use it as a meal replacement.

Also, they seem to intentionally make the basic shake bland, so that they can sell you various flavor packs. So the shake might be $1 per shake (for 90 calories worth of protein and vitamins), but then they sell you a $0.50 flavor pack. Then they encourage you to add fruit to make it a smoothie. Well now you're easily in the $2-3 range per "shake." And the thing is, the part they're selling you is pretty insubstantial.

 

Basically, it'd be like if I sold you a meal-replacement shake that was just skim milk. Hey, it's only 90 calories! Then you add your own flavor, fruit, etc. But people see that it's only 90 calories, and think "hey, I'll just drink three of these a day, and I won't even hit 300 calories, I'll be skinny in no time!"

 

Anyway, point being that it's basically just a small low-calorie (and low protein) shake for an unreasonable price.