Friday, November 21, 2008

Slimming Centers - Are you being robbed?

Have any of you out there tried slimming centers? Well I guess this question is more for the ladies as most slimming centers don’t entertain men anyway. One of my colleagues just recently signed with one of the slimming centers in town, but I won’t mention who or which one. She paid RM 5K for 20 sessions…which will last you roughly about a month. RM 5K a month… that’s a lot of money if you ask me. Most people I know don’t even earn RM 5K a month and here is someone spending RM 5K a month on a slimming center.

Anyway, her spending habits are her own and none of my business. But here is the best part. The slimming center gave my colleague a list of things she must not do during this 20 session program. Are you ready for this?

No eating oily and fried foods (even the yellow mee in mamak mee is considered oily, so any kind of noodles is a no no)
No rice and other white starches like White bread etc.
Only 1 sweet drink a day. The rest of the time, drink only water
Meal portions should be: 60% vegetables, 30% lean protein and 10% Complex carbohydrates (or wholemeal)
Only 3 meals a day – No snacking or eating anything in between these 3 meals
Drink at least 6 glasses of water a day
No alcohol consumption

When she told me this, I could not help myself and burst out laughing. I told her she paid RM 5K for someone to tell her what she knows she should not be doing anyway. I mean honestly guys, all of us know what foods are good for us and what foods are bad for us right. The question of us succeeding and seeing results is only a matter of whether we have enough will power to see it through or not. The biggest reason people don’t see results in a diet is because they quit. But I will cover more of this in another post.

Here is another thing. If you did stick to the diet plan above for one whole month, whether you went for this so called slimming sessions or not, I guarantee you would have lost weight anyway. Here is an example to put things in persepctive and see how you are being robbed.

It’s like me selling you Vitamin C (but lying to you and telling you it is a NEW weight loss pill) and then tell you to follow the regiment above. To make it better, I will tell you that this NEW pill causes bad side effects if you eat any oily food with it. That is the scare factor that makes people want to follow it. On top of that, you just paid me RM 5K. Do you want to spend that much money, not see results and get sick after that? No way right? You do it for a month, take my Vitamin C everyday… and voila… you lose weight. You are motivated to stick with my program because of fear (of getting sick) and greed since you spent the money. You lose weight and feel happy, I feel happy coz I made some money. What was the secret? Of course I will tell you it’s the Vitamin C (ooops... i mean my NEW weight loss pill) and guess what… so will you.

This is exactly what these slimming centers are doing guys. Playing with your fears and desires to lose weight and robbing you of your money. I hope all of you have the sense to not be fooled like this. For me, the best and safest way to lose weight… watch what you eat and of course, exercise. There is no short cut to it. When I tell people that, they don’t like to hear it and think I am hiding something or not revealing the true secret… so as usual, I like to give the following analogy:

How did Student A do so well in SPM? What was his secret? He studied hard for it… duh!!

Look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts on this.

9 comments:

anfield devotee said...

Shit yer friend could have liposuction fer RM5k lar . . .

Rajan said...

AD: Not sure how much Lipo costs, but it sure is a waste of money-lah.

People willing to spend good money to lose weight.

FatLouie said...

I agree with Rajan. Still, the best, safest and most effective way to lose weight is to exercise and diet. You are what you eat, people say. I mean, what's the difference between these slimming centre's ways of losing weight and fitness mags or personal trainers? Still the same. You have be on diet for 1 month and the worse, they only allow you to eat 3 meals per day but in fitness world, you get to eat 6 meals a day including 3 snacks..ain't that heaven? Plus, with 5k, I'd rather spend on hiring personal trainer which last me 3 months and results-guaranteed.

Rajan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rajan said...

FatLouie: For RM 5K a month, there are loads of other things you can do to lose weight. You are right... can hire personal trainer... can even buy those damn expensive diet foods.

Sigh.... its always the case, people with loads of money but dunno how to spend it.

Anonymous said...

hi achilles/rajen,

another interesting posting again chief, and am in complete agreement with a lot of yur viewpoints.

other than footie, chess (dun ask la), some left-of-centre sounds which i hold close to my hear, i was an avid follower of atheletics, a fan if you may. still do, especially the 400, 800 and the mile and to a certain extent anything up above right through to the 10k. i especially have a soft spot fer the relays, the 4 by 4 and 4 by 1 (coming to the point now). partly this was i took up atheletics at some point in my life, yu know la down the usual learning curve of school life, back when we were too darned idealistic of showin some extra curricular activities to jive up the school resume..in line with our objectives to get a scholarship, get a degree and get a job. anyway, in a strange twist of fate, it got me really interested in sweatin' myself on daily basis. there was this hill up near my hometown, and 800m course uphill (think mild version of genting gradients). at the top of the hill, there was another sloping lap of 400m, so all in all a good 1.2k. initially, i got pretty frustrated, know why? i was cursin my geeky self on why i wasn't losin any farkin weight dei. 2 months in and i almost gave up, farkin threw my wornout 2nd hand adidas handme down shoes at the bloody taman signboard. mwahhaha. but i really did. then ironically enough, a chat from an equally ironic source put things into perspective, this fella who used to run around the same route i was doin'. he started talkin about body metabolism. and he started explaining about it in laymen's terms about how some folks m/bolic rate is plain BN-pitiful compared to others. and then he went on about the need to strike of some fave foods and let the body burn on the surplus fat i was luggin up my arse. guess what?
true enough, 3rd month in, i started feelin it, in a big way.
(pity i never kept up to it though now huh chief..mwahhahahahh)

moral of the longwinded irritating story above is: exercise, but as you had pointed out, watch the food. at this age, i think, eating anything we want, is still a plausible choice, maybe decadently self-indulging, but the quantity is the fulcrum.

enjoyed reading. appreciate the layman spin yu put on fitness things dude.

appreciatively,
moz.
p.s. dun laugh, i just bought meself a pair of joggin shoes. started on a 2k routine 2 weeks back. and have pathetically not continued since. will get to it.

Anonymous said...

bang, new balance waaa cakaaaap luuuu..dun play play..mwahhahahahhahahaha

moz.

Rajan said...

Moz: How come you didn't log on as yourself? I was wondering who it was coz it wasn't in your usual writing style.... until i saw the sign off at the end. hehehehehe

Anyway, interesting story... wow... the hill sounds cool man. I know running up that hill would be instant cardiac arrest... but just walking up that hill... will be damn good work out and good for melting fat away.

You absolutely right... no point working out and losing 300 calories, but then you stuff yourself with 500 extra calories because you feel good about the workout and this is to make it all worth it. I know loads of people who siffer from this syndrom. Heck even I was a patient of this syndrom for the longest time... but not so much with eating... but with Drinking. hehehehe

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