Whoa! What a Class Act!

Class certification was granted on January 14th, 2009:Case RIC483005 - FENDERSON VS DIAZ

Action: HEARING RE: MOTION TO/FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION * BY JEANESSA FENDERSON01/14/2009 - 8:30 AM DEPT. 04

HONORABLE MICHAEL B DONNER, PRESIDINGCLERK: L. HALLCOURT REPORTER: T. FOSTERJEANESSA FENDERSON, KARIN BILLECI, TRISTA ESSEX, HEIDI MARTINEZ, KATHLEEN ROGERS, DIANA SHERBY REPRESENTED BY MICHAEL L COHEN A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP - JOHN TIEDT PRESENT. MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION IS GRANTED. FORMAL ORDER TO BE PREPARED, SERVED AND SUBMITTED BY COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF

Whoa! And the winner is......

It is with great delight that Kimkins has won the award for Worst Diet Product of 2008 .

Take a bow, Heidi, that is if you can find the time. We know representing yourself in court will be taking up a lot of your time.

Whoa! - Oh, Roe is Me!

It seems that Heidi Diaz, aka Kimmer, owner of the Kimkins website, is counter-suing! I guess I'm one of those being accused of causing her mental anquish or some such hogwash. Well, nice try, but it's so wrong on so many levels.

I guess she just wants all her ducks in a "roe".

Whoa! I've done it!

I have finally quit ediets. Two weeks ago I made the decision to drop out of the support group I've been a member of since joining ediets. The "new" forum has just gotten to be more of a chore than the support I was looking for. I gave up trying to use html to format my posts. But the main problem was that it was still difficult to navigate. We would get new team members and they would either never show up or would drop out after a week, citing too much confusion. No one needs that kind of aggravation.

So, here I am - another disgruntled ex-member??? No - life is too short to put up with the hassles over there. Oddly enough, the same week, 2 other teammates dropped out. Oh, we all still get together on another free site, because we have all become friends and we do need the support - we just don't want the hassle. We're all much happier, I think.

Whoa! eDiets trades one inferior product for another..

I am really, truly disheartened about the eDiets forum change. I really thought they were going to get it right, but from what I see so far, it is still a mess. Everyone was so happy that we would be going back to using HTML, but the way it's set up is very complicated, in my opinion. I was pretty good at using HTML coding on the old board, but this new and improved forum uses a different, more complicated, system of coding. I predict that this will be just another disaster for the users. My challenge team has had 4 long-time members cancel their memberships - before the actual "update". Can't wait to see what happens in the next week or so.

Whoa! Another fine mess....

eDiets has, once again, decided to "upgrade" the members' support forum. A new and improved board is scheduled to be online sometime in the next 24 hours. We are once again locked out of our threads.

To top things off, an email/newsletter was sent out last month informing members that a billing error had occured and that recipients had not been billed for a couple of prior months, so they would be charging us for these months all at once. Funny - I'm billed annually, so I shouldn't have received this email at all. But some of my online friends did not receive the email, but were just billed 3 to 5 times this month! And they can't get in contact with anyone at the site! Lovely.....

It seems that customer service is still the lowest priority with eDiets.

Whoa! Do I ever hate dieting!

I wish I had never gotten to this point. But, at least I’ve found my way through this diet maze.

When I recorded my weight this morning in my handy-dandy geeky software program, I noticed that one year ago, I weighed 3.6 pounds more than I do now. Sad, but true, that’s all I’ve lost in a year’s time. But I have learned a whole lot in that year.

I have been struggling with my weight for years. The last time I was at goal (less than 150) was probably over 15 years ago. I had reached goal for my 40th birthday by losing around 40 pounds. I believe I joined Jenny Craig with a few of my friends, and really stuck with it. Frankly, I was the only one that got to goal, and I can still remember the feeling I had. I can remember the clothes I wore and the attention I got. Amazing…… Now, at the age of 59, I’m struggling to lose much more than those 40 pounds. I managed to eat my way up to 268 pounds about 4 years ago – the point at which I decided to do something about it. I had hoped to lose a bunch before my daughter’s wedding in the spring of 2005, and I did lose 28 pounds, but I cringe when I look at those wedding pictures. Not only do I look matronly (even with that beautiful dress!), but there I am posing with my significant-other at the time, who had managed to make that day less than thrilling for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was in the throes of depression, and I really try to tell myself that he couldn’t help himself. That’s a whole other story, though, that deserves its own post.

Looking at the weight that was recorded a year ago got me thinking about something else that happened around that time – exactly 13 months ago. I had been doing low carb for awhile, but was at a stand-still, a plateau, if you will. So, I sat back one Saturday morning and thought about what I was doing. I decided that I needed to eat cleaner – no more “frankenfoods”. I figured I would do the original Atkins or Stillman diets. Stillman had worked for me back in high school. Yikes! So, I pitched everything in the pantry that would tempt me, everything that was a trigger. I went to the grocery store and picked up chicken, fish, lettuce, etc. And as I stood in line at the check-out, what do I see, but a Woman’s World magazine with a picture of a woman who had lost 100 pounds in 5 months. Now, normally, I wouldn’t be tempted to buy into something like that, but something struck a chord with me that day. I bought that rag, went home and read the article. That was my introduction to Kimkins. The reason I decided to join the Kimkins website was because the eating plan described in the WW article seemed to be exactly what I was planning to do on my own, so why not spend the small amount of money and get the support of like-minded people? I immediately printed out all the “rules” and some recipes. I also joined a 2-month challenge and volunteered to keep a spreadsheet and post the weekly results for everyone.

The diet as written included the food I had just bought. I balked at eating egg whites, but I did eventually give up eating whole eggs most of the time. And I did probably use more fat than was allowed, but I managed to lose another 28 pounds by the end of July. I was at 212 pounds and was looking forward to Onederland, a place I hadn’t been in years. That’s when the doodoo hit the fan. First of all, I noticed, on my own, that some people in my challenge seemed to be taking this diet to extremes. There were all kinds of discussions about laxatives, and SNATT, and other unsavory topics. A lot of people dropped out of the challenge before the end of July, so the support was dwindling. Then I started hearing rumblings about fraud. At first, I really didn’t care. I was losing weight, I felt great, and I wasn’t going to take things to the extreme. Who were all these naysayers? Being curious, I checked out some threads at Low Carb Friends. Wow, there seemed to be a lot of arguing and drama going on there. I still wasn’t convinced that there was anything wrong with the diet or the founder. I’m not sure what finally convinced me, but thank goodness I saw the light. When I look back at my menus from that period, I can see that I had started to reduce my calories little by little without even noticing it. I just wasn’t hungry. I went through a period of increased hair loss in September/October of last year – exactly as others had. I followed the “Fascination” threads, then, like a complete addict. I could not stop reading. I even tried to find some of the Russian brides. And during this time, I struggled to stay on a healthy diet plan, and managed to maintain for a few months, but I started to gain slowly, and by January of this year, I had gained about 20 pounds back. I struggled to find my way back to a healthy way of eating. But, even though I was on Kimkins for only about 2 months, it has been extremely difficult to stop thinking about the allure of that plan. I never thought I would have a problem with addiction, but that is exactly what it is. Thankfully, I’ve been able to work my way out of the Kimkins mindset, but it has been a long road. I think I’ve finally overcome it, but I have to say that I couldn’t have done it alone.

Thanks to all the regular – and not-so-regular – posters to the Fascination threads at LCF, I’ve gleaned some valuable information. I’ve learned to do more research, and to not be swayed by amazing claims. But more importantly, I’ve learned that I’m not alone. There are lots of people who are going through the same thing, and it has helped tremendously to be able to read about the struggles and triumphs, because you know what? I have never talked about any of this to anyone, not even to my daughter, who has become my best friend. I’ve never told anyone about my struggle to stay away from the lure of that horrible diet. It has done a number on me that I could never have imagined – ever! I believe I’m free of it now, and I’m much better educated.

Whoa, you can teach an old dog new tricks! I’ve lost over 13 of those 20 pounds, and I feel I’ve found my way back to myself – finally.