We are now at the half-way point of the weight loss challenge Earl and I joined in late April. He’s lost a noticeable fifteen pounds; I’m hovering at six. Both of us feel pretty good about it. We’ll stick it out the next six weeks; there’s no harm in that. At the same time, I am still not enamored of the program itself.
We knew going in it was weighted (no pun intended) heavily toward Herbalife® products. In fact, it is sponsored by Herbalife® distributors. We also knew that use of those products would be encouraged, but that you could use any plan to lose weight that appealed to you. So it was flexible. No problem here.
What I find lacking is the presence of a real nutrition expert at the weekly weigh-in meetings. For instance, last week fiber was the topic of discussion. We saw a twenty minute video created by Herbalife® on how the digestive and eliminatory systems work, and it was clear that the appropriate amount of fiber in one’s diet helps them work better. But there was no discussion about how to include fiber in one’s daily diet. Rather the answer was to purchase Herbalife® products to keep fiber in one’s system.
There was also no discussion about how much fiber is necessary. So I went to the USFDA web site to learn more, because I think consuming fiber in one’s diet trumps consuming pills that have fiber in them.
It’s this sort of tilt toward Herbalife® products that I don’t like, even though I understand the class is sponsored by this company. Yet, if the class leaders stress that you can choose the weight loss approach you want, wouldn’t it make sense to include information about natural ways to add fiber or reduce fat or cut back on carbs? That’s where I think a nutrition counselor would be invaluable.
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