Kimkins – The Diet Monster That Just Won’t Die

Morning,

I read on my BigHugeMinds Diet/Fitness board earlier today the following post about Kimkins – it was posted by a member and went to her blog. The title is:

Kimkins Diet Rolls On Despite Founder’s Excess Poundage

and it discusses the Consumer Affairs article, to wit:

…Waiting in line at your favorite grocery store is a guaranteed way to see the covers of magazines targeted toward women. It’s a real challenge to find just one week of a year where the cover of at least one check-out tabloid doesn’t have blaring headlines about weight loss or the most recent diet sensation.”Better than gastric bypass!” “Kim lost 200 lbs in 11 months!” “Christin lost 100 lbs in 5 months!”

Those very comments appeared on the cover of the June 12, 2007 issue of Woman’s World Magazine. The story was a fascinating look at a weight loss diet known as Kimkins, created by Kim Drake, also known as the “Kimmer.”

The Woman’s World story begins by saying they sent out their spies to gather intelligence about Kimkins. The Kimkins website included numerous before-and-after pictures of not only the “Kimmer, but also happy members that had shed massive amounts of weight.

Woman’s World describes Kim as “smiling” when responding to questions. This implies that the Woman’s World interviewer was personally watching the response of Kim Drake. So, you would think that Woman’s World would have noticed that “Kim” was in fact a 300-pound woman.

Kimkins before & after, according to Woman’s World

The Kimkins website saw a huge increase in memberships due to the flattering Woman’s World cover story. Records introduced in connection with a class action lawsuit against Kimkins show that for the month of June, 2007, Kimkins pulled in over $1,200,000 in membership fees.

Mouthpiece needed

So great was the response that Kimkins needed to hire a public relations spokesperson — and there was no one better suited for the job than Christin Sherburne.

Christin’s picture had been featured on the Woman’s World cover, holding a pair of old jeans next to the headline: “Christin lost 100 lbs in 5 months!”

“I was excited about it,” said Christin. “I’ve been overweight all my life, and even though I had never met Kim Drake in person, I wanted to tell others how they could finally lose the weight as I did.”

Soon the Kimkins machine was in full throttle. Members were reporting faster weight loss than they had ever experienced on other diets, and Christin was in P.R. mode in her new role as spokeswoman for Kimkins. But little did Christin know what would happen next.

Job & hair loss

The job of a spokesperson is to represent your company and answer any questions that might be thrown your way, including those from the media. One day, Christin found herself facing questions that she couldn’t honestly answer … questions concerning medical claims and health issues related to the Kimkins diet.

“As a spokeswoman, people would ask me questions that I couldn’t answer, especially related to the medical safety of the diet,” said Christin.

Christin did the logical thing. She contacted Kim Drake, the founder of Kimkins. Christin sent a letter to the “Kimmer” in which Christin asked about medical claims of the diet.

Is the diet safe? Are medical authorities backing the diet? All reasonable questions that any spokesperson needs to be able to answer.

To Christin’s dismay, instead of getting answers to her questions, she received a pink slip. Kim Drake had removed Christin from her public relations job and offered her a much reduced role moderating the Kimkins forums.….MORE….

This particular article starting to fly about the Internet! Here are just two takes on it:

Be sure to alert me here to more!

Personally, I feel that Heidi Diaz, the scamster behind the Kimkins diet, should have the book and the entire library thrown at her. Preying upon the most helpless in our society (people desperate to lose weight) is just plain abominable.

Enjoy,

Barbara

7 Reasons Why Your Diet Will Ultimately Fail

Did you know that 95%

of people who go on a diet fail? Are you one of those 5 out of 100 who will succeed? Read these examples below and find out!

7). Your “diet” is less than 1,200 calories per day. Deprive your body of the base calorie requirement to function at your weight, and it will think, OMIGOSH I’m starving, let me embrace every fat deposit I can find.

6.) Your “diet” consists of pre-packaged meals. You’re not learning how to be healthy, you’re simply following rules. When you get tired of the price your prepackaged meals cost, you’ll be back to your bad eating habits once again.

5.) Your “diet” consists of meal replacement shakes. Can you imagine drinking your nutrients for the rest of your life? Once you get off them, the weight will fly back to your hips.

4.) Your “diet” has no foods in it you enjoy. You’re not a masochist; eventually you’ll say, to hell with this!

3.) Your “diet” is severely lacking in needed nutrients. Eventually your body will rebel, you’re crash and burn, and you’ll say, to hell with this!

2.) Your “diet” is only for 14 days or 18 days or 21 days or what have you. What do think will happen once you complete it if you haven’t learned how to eat healthy? You’re right – kiss those pounds a welcome once again.

And the number one reason why your diet will fail:

1). You’re on a diet and not a lifestyle change. If you return back to your previously unhealthy way of eating after your diet, of course you’ll gain back the weight quicker than a toddler scarfs down an ice cream cone

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want a diet you can enjoy?

Perfect Parakeets, Magic Chickens and Diets, Oh My!

There’s a new diet in town

the Magic Chicken!

I first became aware of this from the blog http://mariasol-mariasol.blogspot.com/ . Today, a rather fascinatnig post was made, to wit:

…The phrase game of Chicken is used as a metaphor for a situation where two parties engage in a showdown where they have nothing to gain, and only pride stops them from backing down.

This seems to be an accurate description of what’s going on with the Magic Chicken Diet lately.

The Magic Chicken Diet popped up on our radar in December and was brought to our attention only because the site was made as a clone to Kimkins. There are thousands of diet sites promoting fad diets on the internet and the only reason MCD attracted any interest was due to the similarities with Kimkins ….MORE…

It’s a very interesting read, I urge you to check it out.

Personally, my favorite birdies are parakeets. Not to eat, of course, but we have over a dozen parakeets here in our home. Their chirpies are very pleasant in the morning! I even built a site about my flock – if you ever wanted the inside scoop on parakeets, check out Ultimate Parakeet; you’ll learn quite a lot about these truly wonderful birdies.

But back to chicken. You know, I once thought about writing up the Creative Chicken Diet, because my family LOVES costco chicken rotissere. What I personally like, however, is that you can make a fantastic soup from all the leftovers (bones/skin/etc.) that ends up being quite tasty indeed. Chicken, salad, fruits, veggies…it’s the ingredients for great weight loss (if you add in exercise as well, of course).

Other Magic Chicken postings include:

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want good low-carb goodies? Consider:

Great low-carb resources and forums online

Morning!

So! You’re looking around for great diets and the like…and you decide you want to try out low-carb (ie, low carbohydrate). How should you start?

Great question! First, start from the beginning at:

Next, there are bunches and bunches of very friendly sites online, including:

and lots of places for low carb recipes, including:

And finally, what about low-carb blogs? You can get some great insights at:

Check out the resources above – they’ll really give you some great insights about starting a low carb diet.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – some low carb goodies include: