| melissa569
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This is really long, but I wanted to be completely thorough.
If you’re curious about the Michael Thurmond 6 Week Body Makeover, I’m about to clear everything up. To be honest, I DID NOT like it. At all. I just converted to South Beach Diet, after struggling with the Makeover plan for a year. And I’m VERY happy found South Beach!
But if you would like to know the main rules of the Body Makeover program, I will give both good points and bad points, based on my own personal experience. And I’ll tell you why I walked away from it. Here you go:
THE GOOD POINTS:
* You can do it longer than 6 weeks; as long as necessary to lose your weight.
* You eat 6 times a day. The meals are different for each gender/body type. But usually, each meal is a carefully timed and portioned combination of either: Protein/carb/veggie (breakfast, lunch or dinner), OR protein/fruit (snacks). Even in the first phase. And there are only 2 phases, by the way-- Reduction, and “Living Lean”, which is slightly more liberal, and meant to be done for life.
* Everyone gets a big kit in the mail, a “body type” quiz so you can figure out what type you are, a customized eating plan for your type, a binder with hundreds of pages of information and tips, audio CD’s, DVD to watch, recipe cards, a personally customized exorcise program (with exorcise band), and a few other goodies. It comes with information for ALL the types, but you follow the instructions in the set-up CD to figure out what type you are, and pick out only the cards/papers/exorcises for YOUR body type, to put in your binder. Plus you get access to a help/discussion forum, like this one. It has recipes and you can get any questions you have answered. But all the people who are in the commercials are in that forum too, so you can actually speak to all of them, any time you want. They also have a live web cam chartroom, so you can talk face to face, if you want.
* You WILL lose weight. Usually between 5 - 15 lbs the first week. But after that, it slows down to 1-5 lbs per week. Or less, sometimes. People with more weight to lose will lose much faster than others, at least at first.
* They have your drink 100 oz of water per day, and that really cleans out your system… But really, you can do that on ANY plan.
* It’s heart healthy, as it cuts out ANY an ALL added fats and salt. You basically cook all your food without adding any dairy, oils, butters, cooking sprays, etc (not even the heart healthy or “low fat“ ones). And of course, no salt, sugar or flour. Or any products that contain those things.
* There’s no guess work. Your entire menu is laid out for you, and if you wanna try something new, they have recipes in the forum, that are approved and categorized according to phase and body type, by the moderators.
* The exorcise program, band, and exorcise instruction DVD is wonderful! Plus, after you lose your wegiht, there are great tips in the binder on what healthy dishes to order in a restuaraunt, so you don't gain it back (althogh none that really keep you losing on the reduction phase--that's for Living Lean). As well as a great “tracking your success” section, and plenty of education about your specific body type, and how it works. Also lots of motivational CD’s and metabolism education CD’s to listen to. So even if you don’t like the plan itself, you still get to keep all that stuff. It’s all very useful, no matter what eating plan you are on.
THE BAD POINTS:
* First, it is very costly. And if you do get it, I STRONGLY suggest you buy it brand new, from eBay, like I did. Don’t buy from the company. If you do, you will have to give your credit card number to some rude foreigner (most likely overseas), and they will try to get you to buy all kinds of other things you don’t need. Then they will charge you extra, for things you did not even order… This is actually true for ALL infomercial products. I read about all that on www.infomercialscams.com . Go there and do a search on “6 week body makeover”. Or any other infomercial product you are curious about. They list both complaints and defenses for each product, so you can make up your own mind. But that is why I ALWAYS buy from eBay when I see something on an infomercial that I want. Seriously, buying direct over the phone (and even from the company’s online store) is dangerous!
* You will never be allowed to drink ANYTHING but plain water. They say its because every other drink contains either sugar or sodium. And if you find a tasty drink that contains neither (like say… Crystal Lite? Or Diet Rite soda?), they will say you still can’t have it, because it has “chemicals”, which your body will not process the same way it does plain water. That may be true, but hey, sometimes you need something different! The problem is, on that plan, you’ll find that drinking anything else will cause your weight loss to stop, because all the plan’s success is built around everything being as plain as possible. Without that, there is little or no weight loss.
* You will have to pee a lot from all the water the first couple of weeks. But after that, your body will adjust, and it will let up.
* If you come anywhere near something with even a tiny pinch of salt or added fats (even the healthy/good ones), your weight loss comes to a screeching HAULT for a good week or more (and you usually gain a few lbs).
* Because of the above fact, you’re going to be pretty much terrified to eat out anywhere--restaurants, or anyone else’s house. Because it will take several days to get rid of what you gained, and a few more to start losing beyond that again. See, it is pretty much impossible to find a meal in any restaurant that you are actually allowed to have, on the Reduction Phase. Unless you have a plain salad with no cheese, dressing, or meat. Because most restaurants salt/butter their cooked meats and veggies, or use some kind of oil. And all salad dressing you did not make yourself are completely off limits. So basically, your results will totally stop if you eat anything you did not personally cook.
(Whereas, on South Beach, it would be OK to pick up a grilled chicken salad from Burger King, with a little ranch… Or to order grilled fish with steamed broccoli in a diner. So at least on South beach, you have some “portable” freedoms….)
* The company offers NO portable food options. If you are on the go, or caught out of the house with no food, there are absolutely no meal replacement bars, frozen meals or shakes you can use. Nothing quick in the stores, either, as everything was prepared with either salt, fats, dairy or flour (even whole grain is forbidden).
* Your food will have little or no taste. You see, salt (even tiny amounts) helps to mellow out the intensity of many spices, as well as enhance their good flavors. So without it, 90% of all your spices are going to taste extremely BITTER, or even like dirt. This is something you never realize, until you try cutting out any and all salts. But its true. You cannot even use low-sodium products, or sodium free products that were made with satl substitutes, because on this plan, your weight loss will stop (or you'll gain) even with those susbstitutes. And because of that, you’re going to find yourself opting to not spice your food at all, because leaving it plain is actually less…. Yucky. But after a while, that really gets to you. You start craving some kind-- ANY kind of flavor! Even stale TV dinners start to look tasty, lol.
* Because of the fact that you cut out all oils, nothing can ever brown. All your meat is a white or foggy-grey color, unless you grill it. They will PREECH to you that the only reason we use oils, is to keep our food from sticking, and that otherwise, it’s a senseless addition to your food, making no real difference. That all oil does is slow or stop your weight loss. And that sautéing things in water is just as good. But I have to say, I strongly disagree… First, onions and garlic will never turn out right in water (especially with no salt). You add them to your dishes, thinking they will give your food flavor…. But without at least a little olive oil to caramelize them properly, they are going to have an odd taste. I would compare it to blood, or even tar? Same with a few other foods. Yes, the taste of nearly EVERYTHING changes, without a small amount of salt or olive oil… Obviously, there is a reason people started using those things in the first place.
* Your skin will become dry, tough, itchy and flaky without some salt and healthy fats. Also, constipation will be a BIG problem…
* Due to lack of dairy, you will eventually become lactose intolerant. See, they don’t allow any form of dairy, at any phase, because they believe that milk and milk products (like cheese) are STRICLY to fatten up babies, and nothing else. They think adults (human or animal) should not consume it, and they encourage you to eliminate all dairy for life, basically.
* Because of all the restrictions, you’re going to have every craving possible, on god’s green earth!
* You’ll have to cook 2 separate meals all the time. One for you, one for your family. There’s NO WAY you can share this food with your family, because trust me, they won’t touch it… The only alternative is to pick a day off to cook all your meals for the week in bulk, and freeze them in portions. So that after you cook for your family, all you have to do is heat up your special frozen food. I guess that’s ideal for on-the-go eating too (like at work). But I gotta tell ya…. With no freshly prepared alternatives you can buy anywhere, its pretty nasty when this Makeover food (which is somewhat unpleasant, even when fresh) has first been frozen for days…. Then sits in your a thermo lunch bag all day long, fermenting and turning into slush…. At times like that, you would KILL just to toss it in the garbage, and go buy a pre-packaged, grilled chicken salad with ranch dressing, somewhere… But again, you can’t, because of the salt on the meat, and the fat in the dressing.
The makeover plan is one hell of a commitment, I’ll tell you that much! Probably one of the strictest ones out there! If you can do it, bravo for you! But all I know is, I definitely can’t….. I gotta AT LEAST be able to cook for my family, and eat with them (which I can on South Beach), and have emergency options out there. And most importantly, I gotta be able to use SOME salt an olive oil (which I can with South Beach), so I can make my food taste good, in the event that I do take it on the go.
And that, my friends, is why I walked away from it. There were just far too many limitations, and no decent flavors. My cravings were out of control, and I couldn't stay on it more than 2 weeks at a time. I did GREAT on atkins though-- harly ever hungry, and lost 100 lbs back when I was 20. But I had to go off it, because it didn't allow enough carbs, and I have problems with low blood sugar. So I struggled with weight watchers, the makeover program...
And then finally, I found South Beach, which satisfies me like Atkins did, but doesn't mess with my blood sugar! So I'm happy now!
Hope all this helps :D |
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Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:58 pm |
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