Bait and Switch

Back in my [much] younger days, I worked for Sears Roebuck. There was a lawsuit in 1975 involving my former employer. The Federal Trade Commission accused Sears of the deceptive business practice of bait and switch, luring customers into their stores with a tempting sales price, only to tell the customer the item was out of stock. Then a more expensive product was suggested, and sometimes the customer ended up spending more than they expected to. Sears lost the case and has been the target of bait and switch accusations ever since.

When I purchased my Kimkins membership, there was a list of services listed for charter members, of which I was one. Here was the bold claim made on the front page of the website:

Charter Lifetime Membership Includes:

• Detailed info about the Kimkins plan, straight from the source!
• Personalized Kimkins coaching, direct from Kimmer!
• Unlimited access to Kimkins.com forums for inspiration, guidance and friendship
• Your own personal journal for posting progress photos, notes and thoughts
• A free copy of the Kimkins e-Book due out soon!

It cannot be disputed that these were the promises made to anyone purchasing a charter membership. If you doubt the truth of this statement, go to Wayback Machine, enter the Kimkins website, and click on the first date that comes up, July 2, 2006. You will get an unadorned shot of what the home page looked like on that date. I joined on June 11, 2006, and the promises were the same.

When contacted by the California Attorney General’s office to investigate a complaint I submitted, Heidi Diaz lied to them about the reason she (or one of her minions) banned me from Kimkins. She provided to them the text of a post I made at Low Carb Friends, and any idiot could tell from the context that it was my reaction to being banned, not the reason for it. Her claim was that I still had access to information about the diet program, food list, grocery list, sample menus, and recipes and therefore she had not denied me anything I paid for.

Isn’t it interesting that I don’t have access to anything on the list of perquisites I was promised when I joined? Heidi thinks that because I have access to a few paltry pages of her website that she has not breached her agreement with me. I submit for your consideration that this is classic bait and switch. She promised me personal coaching and information straight from “the source”, unlimited access to the forums, and my own personal journal. I’ll give an honorable mention to the “e-book”, which turned out to be an “e-page” and wasn’t even written by Heidi. I did receive it, and it was a joke.

In order for there to be a contract, both parties must come to a meeting of the minds. When I gave her my money, both Heidi and I understood and agreed that what I was purchasing was the membership benefits promised on the date I joined. Heidi Diaz had no just cause for banning me from the website. If there had been one, she would not have lied to the Attorney General about it. After having lied about the reason for banning me, she gave them the laundry list of pages I can still view, but none of them are what I was promised when I joined. What matters is what I purchased, what I have access to now, and whether or not I did anything to justify losing part of my membership. This is classic bait and switch. Heidi is trying to claim she’s fulfilling her obligation to me. Sorry Heidi, if Sears didn’t get away with bait and switch, neither should you.

It's Alright to Feed My Body!

On Friday, I had an interesting visit at the doctor’s office. My doctor and his wife share office space. She’s a nurse practitioner who specializes in nutrition, and they both happen to be avid low-carb eaters. It’s like having the Eades’ for my own personal physicians. :-) She attached electrodes to my left foot and hand, had me lie down, and used a gadget to get some readings. Then I weighed myself, she put the findings into a computer, and it was time to talk.

She found it very refreshing that I already knew about low carb eating and was happy that I’m already on board with it. I’m sure she spends a lot of time talking to people who have been brainwashed by the low fat crowd, trying to convince them that carbs, not fats, are the macronutrients to avoid. I didn’t need to be convinced to avoid bread, sugar, flour, grains, or low fat products, but I needed to be convinced that it’s alright to feed my body.

After evaluating a typical day of my eating pattern, she concluded that I’m not eating nearly enough. My metabolism is in the tank because of the famine my body thinks is going on. It’s my own personal little famine. For as long as I can remember, I’ve believed that to lose weight, you must eat less. I’ve always been able to lose weight by starving myself. As my profile information states, I’ve had anorexic tendencies since I was a teenager. My parents were willing to let me starve weight off, only to put it back on. I’ve imposed a famine on myself in order to lose the weight. The nurse practitioner thinks my body is in starvation mode. In other words, my body is storing everything I eat because I’m not feeding it enough. The next step would be for it to cannibalize itself, using my lean body mass to get the protein it needs. It’s amazing how our bodies work.

Starvation mode is a very interesting topic. At one point in time, if you wanted to start a thread destined to the recycle bin for getting too heated, all you had to do was go to the Main Lobby at Low Carb Friends and ask if starvation mode exists. It was a guaranteed dust up, and it got nasty. One of the most vocal against the existence of starvation mode was none other than Kimmer, a.k.a. Heidi Diaz. She posted about weight loss surgery, stomach flu, and medically supervised liquid diet “fasts”, all of it designed to "prove" her deduction there was no such thing as starvation mode. Her opinion was the basis for the starvation diet known as Kimkins. If starvation mode does not exist, Kimkins is a sound way to lose weight, albeit not an easy one. If it does exist, Kimkins is dangerous.

It's no wonder I fell prey to the failed conclusions of Heidi Diaz. It simply reinforced what I believed and practiced for many years; to lose weight, you eat less and you go hungry. She confirmed what had always worked for me. The problem with it was, I trained my body for famine. Whether I’m in weight-loss or weight-gain mode, I am storing what I eat, the effect on my weight has been disastrous, and it's been going on for decades. My nutritionist could not believe she was hearing me apologize in advance for eating too many tomatoes this summer. It's the first time I've ever had my own garden, and I do plan to indulge in the tomatoes. She told to me eat as many tomatoes as I want. How refreshing!

A phrase was once coined that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result. What made me think I could lose weight starving and keep it off? I never have been able to before. I am in for a quantum leap in my understanding of nutrition and what makes my body tick. Although I’m not one given to mantras, my nurse practitioner nutritionist wants me to daily tell myself “it’s alright to feed my body”. While I may not recite it out loud, I will tell myself this every day. If my broken metabolism is ever going to be repaired, this is the way to do it. I’ve been told to eat as much as I want from a list of fats, proteins and vegetables, using caution with nuts. Who would think you don’t really have to dole out broccoli to yourself measured loosely in a jello cup? Certainly not Heidi Diaz, but she is no longer the person I’ll take nutrition advice from. I pray for every person still under her influence, that they may also take the same quantum leap I am taking. Join me. It’s alright to feed my body.

Of Mice and Men

Every now and then, something comes along that absolutely sticks in my craw. Of late, the blogs dedicated to exposing the fraud we’ve come to know as Heidi Diaz have been inundated by people who seem hell-bent on setting us straight. They opine that we need to get a life, a job, move on, get over it, and other worn out phrases usually directed at the lazy, unproductive members of society. This hardly describes the group of people known as ducks. I have found them to be the most tenacious, unwavering group of people who are dedicated to the absolute truth about Heidi Diaz and her exploits.

Here’s a gem of absolute truth about the ducks. They never pretend to be someone they are not. You will see comments on blogs posted by BamaGal, Mayberryfan, TRUTHinhiding, Mariasol, HoneyBee, Medusa, Yucky, daisyrat, mrsmenopausal, awakened (Deni), Christin, and a list of others too numerous to mention. What is my point? They are who they are no matter where they are posting. You know who you’re dealing with. Their message doesn’t vary or waver and you have no doubt where they stand at any given point in time. It takes guts to be who you are.

Then there is the other crowd. They make up cute names like Martina’s Martini, Elmer Fudd, and some are especially creative, calling themselves “anonymous”. You never know who you are dealing with. Sometimes their writing sounds remarkably like Heidi Diaz’ rants, especially after a date with the Cap’n. Elmer Fudd’s recent comments on my blog reminded me of the Wonder Woman rant we once saw on the Kimkins board. But who knows? It could have been Singing Lass or Gary, or any other number of Kimmer devotees who despise the duck squad for telling the truth. Hiding behind a name no one recognizes is cowardly. They come and lob their bombs anonymously and then scurry away like cockroaches when the light comes on. Elmer recently told me the anti-Kimkins blogs were becoming a droning. He or she didn’t even have the creativity to come up with something original, but used my own words and told me that the ducks were as I had portrayed the five o’clock Charlies to be in my TGIF post. If you want to insult me, at least have the class to come up with something of your own.

Here’s the deal, Elmer, and anyone else who agreed with him or her. You don’t have to come to our blogs and read. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. If you decide to go to a blog or visit the Fascination With Kimmer threads, accept that you are treading into “enemy” territory. You come to our blogs of your own accord and subject yourself to our droning, so buck up and be men, not mice. If you have an issue with something that’s been said and want to post a comment, then be who you are instead of acting like a coward. If our writing is so tedious, spare yourself the aggravation and stay in your fantasy land where you can believe Heidi Diaz gives a rip about you. If you come to our house, expect to hear our perspective, suck it up, and take it like men! You are not entitled to visit our sites and tell us what jerks you think we are. As despicable as you think the ducks are, they are the ones presenting themselves for who they are, and you are the cowards hiding behind fake personas. It says a lot about your character, but then again, if you see nothing wrong with what Heidi Diaz did, you may not have any character.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

I started this blog with a post about my anger toward Heidi Diaz. I’d like to tell you that my anger has subsided, that I’m getting over it and moving on, but I can’t. Lately, there have been some excellent blog posts by TRUTH and AmyB that recant the party line I've seen Kimmer post over and over.

She doesn’t believe in starvation mode. It makes me cringe when I think that I actually swallowed that line of bunk from her. Many times I saw her post that if you have stored fat on your body you will not starve because your body will take what it needs out of the reserves.

She doesn’t believe in plateaus. If you are not losing weight, you’re doing something wrong – probably not measuring your portions properly, probably not weighing your food. To hear her tell it, if you do it right, you will experience a domino effect and the weight will come off in ever-increasing increments. I believed this line of crapola and completely starved myself for the month I did her plan. I never could figure out why my dominoes wouldn’t fall. That's because her domino theory is fallacious, but in the view of Heidi Diaz, it was because I was doing something wrong. It was all my fault. I guess 200 calories a day was too much. I guess I didn't want it badly enough.

I recall the first time in which I had an open disagreement with her in front of the world. Someone asked a question about ketosis-induced diarrhea. Because I am one of those people who experience this phenomenon, I shared with the poster my knowledge on the subject. It was the Atkins Nutritionist who helped me solve this problem. She told me to take citrus bioflavonoids and I was cured. It was like a miracle to me after seven straight months of diarrhea. No more taking Immodium to keep it at bay. Even after I shared my experience with the poster, Kimmer had the nerve to come to the thread and contradict me. She told the poster that her body would adjust and within a few days, the diarrhea would be gone. I sarcastically responded, “What? You mean I had diarrhea for seven months and didn’t have to? Why didn’t my colon get the memo?” Kimmer didn’t respond. She doesn’t like for people to publicly tell the world that she was wrong about something. Oddly enough, Kimmer ran the Atkins Nutritionist off the Low Carb Friends board with her constant harassment. It must have really galled her that I credited her nemesis for curing my diarrhea. In one fell swoop, I offended her on two fronts. It was actually good work, even if I didn't realize it at the time.

Every time I re-read her horrendous advice to people to eat less, take laxatives, don’t worry about low calories, I feel the anger rising up in me again. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. This woman must be stopped! She is probably still giving people the same advice privately, even though her website has been scrubbed clean of any evidence she ever advocated dangerous dieting. It is criminal the way she doles out advice that can damage people’s health. Kids could lose their moms, husbands could lose their wives, people could lose precious sisters, cousins, dear friends, or co-workers. Someone you know could right now be taking the dangerous advice of Heidi Diaz and you may not know it.

Well, I am publicly telling people here and now that she is wrong about a lot of things. It doesn’t matter that she writes eloquently and with authority. Help us give the gift that keeps on giving to the low carb community. Help us bring this dangerous woman down. Do you live in San Diego County and are you a member of Kimkins? Please, if you are a member who lives in San Diego County, contact the Kimkins lawsuit website. You can help make the world safe from Heidi Diaz, and the life you save may be that of someone you know and love.

Faux Dieting Guru

One of Heidi Diaz’ latest contributions to her viral marketing campaign is an article entitled “Are you Faux Dieting?”. Reading this article raised up in me the old memories of her admonitions. It was not a fond memory. It took me back to the days when I honestly believed I would never again be able to enjoy a dessert with my family on a holiday, have a spoonful of dressing on Thanksgiving, or a Margarita with my meal at a Mexican restaurant. Heidi’s a gifted writer to be sure. There’s a compelling reason she has duped so many people. She has a way of writing in a convincing manner that leads you to believe she is right. Most likely, she’s the same in person, speaking confidently and unwaveringly, right all the time and willing to tell you so.

The problem is, her diet advice is all based on the hot air that comprises Heidi’s persona known to us as Kimmer. She wants to continue to convince people that on the topic of dieting, she is a guru. We all know by now that she has no business telling anyone how to diet. Being incapable of sticking to a diet herself, I find it particularly offensive that this woman should tell anyone they need to make a plan for the next family gathering. I hate to tell her, but in the real world, people don’t eat a grilled chicken breast with sautéed spinach while their family is feasting on barbecued ribs, salad with real dressing (not a spritzer), homemade rolls, and baked beans. Never mind that she expects you to overlook a table full of desserts home made lovingly by your family.

We must ask ourselves do we really believe that Heidi actually does the things she preaches for us to do? I’m sure she doesn’t. She asks you to evaluate if you have made a 100% commitment to our weight loss plan. I think that’s code for “have you made a whole hearted full time 100% commitment to me (Heidi)?”. What she seems to crave more than anything is our admiration, our affirmation, even our worship. I think she parlays her own self-loathing into an opportunity to make us loathe ourselves too, in the form of denying ourselves the enjoyment most people get from food. After all, misery loves company.

The dictionary defines a sociopath as one whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. How else could you describe Heidi Diaz? While people posted about being nauseated, dizzy, having palpitations, losing their hair, and other physical maladies associated with anorexic behavior, she had a container of sugar cookies complete with sprinkles on the seat of her car. All the while, she was telling them to push through it, drive those calories lower, and don’t even think about eating that extra cup of salad greens. Do you think she felt guilty for one moment that people who took her advice were suffering while she sat on her ample rear end fat, happy, rich, and eating whatever she wanted? I, for one, do not. Even in her deposition for the lawsuit, knowing she’d been caught red-handed, she still defiantly saw her deception as a matter of semantics. One man’s need for privacy is another man’s fraud.

I contend her deception had nothing at all do to with privacy, and Heidi Diaz knows it. She lied to us because she knows no one wants to take dieting advice from a fat woman. She knows that if we had known she wasn’t the attractive 118 pound brunette she claimed to be, we wouldn't have been willing cough up so much as a penny to hear what she had to say. The only way to get the admiration she craved was to become what she wishes she were, but is not, and never has been. What is quite amazing is that she has people who continue to look to her for advice, knowing who and what she is. I’m at a total loss to comprehend why this is.

She asks the question “are you faux dieting?”. I ask the question why would you want to follow the advice of a faux diet guru? After all, that’s exactly what she is. A faux. A fake. A wannabe. Save your time, save your money, and save your hair. Find a free diet advice forum and get help from people who have really done it. A list is at the top of this page. Get a book written by someone who knows what they are talking about. There are lots of diet plans written by doctors, nurses, and nutritionists. Take the advice from someone who knows what they’re talking about. Stay away from Kimkins. Stay away from faux.

TGIF!

TGIF is a term all working folks are familiar with. Friday is known as the best day of the week, mainly because it heralds the weekend. However, on the Fascination with Kimmer threads, it has taken on a new meaning. Friday seems to be a day very popular with a group of people we call Five O’clock Charlies. They are known for their propensity to show up on Friday with admonitions about our behavior or our position on various topics. They were given the affectionate term Five O’clock Charlie from an episode of M*A*S*H in which a well-meaning North Korean flew past the compound on a regular schedule in an ill-maintained airplane lobbing bombs and missing the target.

They have a party line that has become so familiar it’s almost predictable; we have no case, we are mean spirited, we are wasting our time, we should let the court system decide, we are neglecting our families and other responsibilities…………… blah……..blah……blah…… It is starting to take on the persona of the teacher character on the Peanuts cartoons. You know, the one whose voice is the muted trumpet droning wah, wah, wah. It is very hard to take someone under your duck wing when in their introductory post, they tell us we are wrong on all points. It doesn’t endear them to us. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

The most recent dissenter to grace us with his presence is Sam Redman. He started with a garrulous post along the party line that in a bombastic manner referred to John Tiedt as an opportunistic lawyer and accused the ducks of being guilty of tortious interference. These are fighting words to be sure. Sam Redman doesn’t seem to recognize that a blog or bulletin board post is an opinion, nothing more, nothing less. One cannot be guilty of tortuous interference when they are posting an opinion. In his vast reading, Sam does not seem to have stumbled across the First Amendment to the Constitution. Sam Redman is an enigma to me. He came out swinging at the ducks, but then morphed into someone who seemingly agreed with us and was willing to be helpful. The jury is still out on whether or not he believes that Heidi Diaz is guilty of fraud. I don’t get him and not sure I want to put for the effort to try. All I can say is, thank God Sam Redman is not the judge of the case, although he seems to think he is.

Another poster who is a regular on the thread is known to us as Lola. She is our virtual mother, wagging her finger at us for perceived wrongdoings and admonishing us to get back on the straight and narrow path, one of her definition. She’s cornered the market on civil behavior and insists that we live up to her example of perfection. Surely we will continue to disappoint her and we’re doomed to repeat performances from her that will certainly remind us that she is the one who knows what’s right and we are naughty recalcitrants who need to hear her brand of morality. A legend in her own mind, surely she will save the world from the ducks and their nefarious behavior.

Honorable mention must be given to Crispy Bread. It is believed this poster is none other than Heidi herself. Her posts of late have cheered Sam Redman on. I can’t help but contemplate there may be a connection between the two. Crispy Bread’s latest appearance oddly enough was a Friday on which an important court decision was handed down. This court decision, in response to a motion by the Plaintiffs, ordered Heidi Diaz to hand over a plethora of documentation she has withheld, claiming confidentiality. Sorry Heidi, if that argument didn’t work for Richard Nixon, it’s not going to work for you.

The ducks have come to look forward to Friday, for we know not what it will bring, or should I say who it will bring. It may be a wannabe lawyer telling us we are wasting our time and have no case, or it may be our virtual mother giving us the temperance lecture about our actions, or it could be Heidi herself disguised under the crust of Crispy Bread. Whoever or whatever it brings, TGIF!