Ambot’s sponsor Captain Fuck Up claimed to be on Trim and was losing weight so Ambot decided to try it. Or more accurately, buy it not try it. I recently found this Amway Trim Advantage binder way up high in the cupboard behind where I store spare cookie tins. I doubt Ambot ever opened it. It has several sections in there - Meal Plans, Recipes, Exercises. At the back is a CD. Like we need another fucking Amway CD! Its called the Trim Advantage Body System. Never opened. Can we get a refund?
There’s an introduction letter at the front of the binder’s contents and then a commitment to optimal health “contract” that the IBO is supposed to sign. And here I say IBO because its unlikely that a person who was not an IBO would spend the hundreds of dollars needed to get going on the Trim Advantage diet plan. Cheaper to sign up with just about any other diet plan and get personal support. What do you do with the contract after you sign it. Give it to your upline Platinum so he can mock you in board plan meetings if you’re not losing weight?
Right behind the commitment contract is a page titled “Plan Ahead” with the Amway products you need to stock up on. Nutrilite Vitamins:
CLA 500 - $79.95
ProDigest - I can’t find it on Amway’s web site so I don’t know if the name changed or if the product was discontinued - last known cost $60.44
Chromemate - As above, can’t find it - last known cost $44
Digestive Enzyme Complex - $46.90
Below that a paragraph that says “Keep Your Commitment - Stock Up on Favorites”:
Trim advantage Protein Bars
Chocolate Delight - $24.99
Mixed Berry
Nutrilite Protein Powder - $30.75
I looked on Amway’s website to find this binder thing that we have in the house and the big thing I discovered was that Amway has changed the name from Trim. The diet plan is now called Nutrilite Weight Management Program. I found their Better Balancer Program kit which I believe may be similar to what Ambot purchased a few years ago. It costs $236.78. I seem to recall Ambot paid over $200 for the system and in addition to this binder full of “important” information it included a box of food bars and meal replacement powdered drink.
Amway also has a kit called the Fat Trimmer Plan - $265.88
So just to get started buying all of the above and I’ll go with the Better Balancer not the Fat Trimmer price. $544.78. Wow!
Now lets go to the meal plan in the binder. The first few pages talk about dieting stuff that you can find for free in the library or on the Internet such as drink water, serve meals on smaller plates, choose low fat products when grocery shopping, etc.
Let’s look at Day 1 meal plan:
Breakfast: Trim Body System Berry
Snack: 1 bag Trim Advantage Crunch Zone Snack Chips. Can’t find it on their web page but if I recall correctly it came in a box and had 2 different flavors and cost around $60 and this was for like 10 bags of chips in each flavor. At this snack time you also get a cup of vegetable juice. Horror of horrors. You need to go to the grocery store for that one because they’re not slinging an Amway product.
Lunch: Apple and cheddar salad. There’s a recipe. No Amway products. Sucks to have to go to the grocery store again!
Snack - Trim Advantage Meal Replacement Bar - $26.39 for a box.
Dinner - Beef Stir Fry - there’s a recipe, no Amway products. 2/3 cup Uncle Ben’s instant whole grain brown rice, 1 cup skim milk.
That’s over $100 of Amway products to have on hand just for Day 1. I won’t bore you with the rest of the week. Does anyone wonder if Uncle Ben is getting a kick back from Uncle Dickie?
Does anyone else see a problem here besides the cost? What about 5 to 10 fruits and vegetables a day? Let’s throw that out the window, though there is about 3 servings in their recipes for lunch and dinner. Oh wait. What the hell do you need to eat fruit and vegetables for? They have a vitamin for that. $40.99.
Obviously this is a ploy by Amway to sell more overpriced products to IBO’s who feel they need to lose weight.
Amway is hardly the only company out there to flog a diet system using their products.
A friend of mine used to work for Jenny Craig. As far as I know Carla was never overweight. I got the scoop from her about working as a Jenny Craig counsellor even though she has no training in weight loss, nutrition, counselling, etc. She was paid a salary or hourly wage I don’t recall which but she also got a commission from all the Jenny Craig food products she sold. And decent commission. Worked out higher than her salary. Just luck of the draw if she happened to be working when a Jenny Craig customer walked in and needed to buy the next week’s meals. I don’t know what the meals cost but seeing as how there is enough mark up for staff to get a decent commission I’d say they’re on the high priced side. Amway does not sell frozen entrees so Jenny Craig gets a leg up on them there. Jenny Craig charges for its services. I’m not sure if its by the pound or by the month or the year but its probably semi expensive, say a couple of hundred dollars to reach your weight goal not including food - but I’m not sure. Just ballparking.
I also remember reading the Special K diet plan directed to their website from a cereal box. A ploy by Kellogg’s to sell their cereal products but probably relatively low priced compared to other diet plans. A box of Special K cereal is about $4 and I think the diet plan had a different flavor each day of the week. Even if someone went out and bought all 6 or 7 flavors of Special K to stock up that would still be under $30 enough to cover many breakfasts. The other meals were salads or various recipes that the dieter would prepare themselves. Snacks usually were Special K bars. Yes I’ve eaten their bars and like them. They cost about $2 a box and there are 5 or 6 bars in the box. Relatively low priced. I would say a person could stock up on one of every flavor of Special K cereal and cereal bars and the bill would be under $50 and probably last the dieter a month. No fee to use their diet plan. Save money and eat healthier and choose Special K over Amway!
There’s a website called Spark People that helps people losing weight. Menu plans, exercise plans, articles, discussion forums. All free to use. They’re not flogging vitamins, food bars, CD’s, or anything else.
There are lots of diet programs out there ranging from fees to use the program to purchasing the program’s meals and supplements. It looks like Amway’s plan is the most expensive for what you get. It offers no support, no individual counselling (ha ha counsel with upline!), no discussion forums, nothing. Just pay your money, buy the overpriced shit, and hope for the best.
The secret to losing weight is no more complicated than eating less and exercising more. Cutting out products high in fat and substituting healthier options and eating more fresh fruit and vegetables. Drink several glasses of water daily and drinking green tea in the evening is supposed to help with weight loss.
All of this can be accomplished while leaving those shitty Amway products back in their warehouse.
In case anyone is wondering Captain Fuck Up put the weight back on.
Interesting within an hour of posting this one of my readers from Alticor in Ada was in reading it. They don't come here too often because I don't usually post about Amway's shitty products but they like to hear my assessment when I do post about it. They're not interested in reading why my upline are a bunch of assholes so they don't stop in too oten.
ReplyDeleteAnd also within the hour I nabbed a searcher who went to Google looking for "Amway fat trimmer recipes". I'm in the top 10 searches for that one even though I don't provide recipes. Try www.fatfree.com if you come back!
I think your recipe of "eating less and exercising more. Cutting out products high in fat and substituting healthier options and eating more fresh fruit and vegetables. Drink several glasses of water daily and drinking green tea in the evening" is a heck of a lot cheaper by hundreds of dollars and the best way to to lose weight and keep it off and just feel better overall. A lifestyle change, in other words.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with "get thin quick" methods (like Amway's get rich quick philosophy) is it usually doesn't last even if you get there. And it is too costly to maintain it 365 days a year for the rest of your life.
And with Amway's weight loss program, the most weight seems to be lost from your bank account.
~Dave
Dave - the problem when you're in Amway is you're always on the go and there is no time for grocery shopping and preparing healthy meals. You go straight from work to the board plan meeting. Some people live on Amway food bars and drinks but that doesn't stop all the hunger pains. Some stop at McDonald's enroute. By the time all the late night meetings are over you're hungry again and looking for a 24 hour drive through at a fast food place again. No time for exercise either. The Amway lifestyle is not conducive to healthy living choices.
ReplyDeleteYup totally agree that the only thing you lose on the Amway diet is money from your bank account.
I wonder why the ibo who gave me a sample wanted over 4.00 a bar and 80 or so for the diet drink. Guess his upline taught him sell sell at such a high price.
ReplyDeleteSo I somehow stumbled upon this blog while searching for answers on what Amway conferences are like. Let me explain, I myself am currently dating someone who has been taken over by amway. She made fun of her friend for doing it but then went to one of the weekly meetings and is now convinced she can make millions of dollars from it. Its causing a lot of stress on our relationship and she seems to just not care. Her upline is a total tool bag, and like your case, convinced her to buy things because he uses them. She is going to a conference next weekend in charleston, west virignia. Any tips on how to deal with all of this amyway non-sense or what those conferences are like ? I heard there all concluded with a 4 hour religious ceremony, which seems very strange. I told her not to drink anything they give her lol.
ReplyDeleteColin - there's about 8 food bars in a box therefore $4 apiece sounds about right. The IBO you dealt with will write that box off on his income tax because he shared it with you for marketing and promotion purposes. Don't know about that $80 drink. Are you sure it wasn't Monavie?
ReplyDeleteCrodriguez - I’m sorry to hear your sweetie has been brainwashed into the Amway cult. Unfortunately they get introduced to these charismatic people who sell them on the dream that the only way to get rich in life is to be an Amway commissioned salesperson. They like their charismatic leader and want to be friends with them and do anything to please this person. That means spending money on Amway products and attending Amway functions. These Amway bastards are not true friends. They only like you as long as you’re spending money on the system. When you quit Amway these best friends for life will drop you fast. Its an expensive social club. Inside the Amway cult the leaders brainwash their followers to drop everyone out of their lives who are not part of Amway. They are already working on separating you and your girlfriend. They will tell her the reason she is not growing her Amway business is because of you. They will stop at nothing to destroy every relationship she has and bring her financial ruin and emotional distress.
ReplyDeleteI recommend you read an ebook called Merchants of Deception. Free download here http://www.transgallaxys.com/~emerald/ so you can understand the Amway cult and what really happens. Try to get your girlfriend to read it too but she’ll probably refuse and say she doesn’t read “negative”. IBO’s are unable to tell the difference between “negative” and “the truth”.
In a nutshell Amway conferences are brainwashing sessions to keep the IBO motivated not to quit - or at least stay in a little longer. Diamond couples parade across the stage talking about how horrible their life used to be until they got involved with Amway and now everything is roses and walking the beaches of the world. They show pictures of mansions and sports cars and exotic vacations and tell the audience they too can have all this in 2 to 5 years and have residual income rolling in for the rest of their lives.
Perhaps the group your girlfriend is in will conclude with a 4 hour religious ceremony? That does seem weird. The Diamond couples do pitch religion all weekend and thank god for bringing them all these riches to their lives. There is a religious ceremony on Sunday morning that is optional but the upline will ride their downline’s asses to attend. One of the Diamonds usually preaches this church service. Religion and cults go hand in hand.
Good luck. Keep reading these blogs to find out what you're up against. They’re written by former IBO’s like myself who are getting the truth out there so our readers know what really happens inside the Amway cult.
I got talked into trying Amway's Healthpointe 2.0 program for weightloss. Stupid, stupid, stupid! They get you to buy the program ("You can't put a price on your health!") for about $80AU but I didn't realise how much it was really going to cost me until I went shopping for the basic recommended stuff and walked out of the Amway Business Centre with an extra $600 charge to my credit card. And that was just for 4 weeks supply (of a 6-8 week program), not including the meat, fruit, veggies and other groceries for the meals that you won't replace with a protein bar or protein drink. (Oh but I racked up a lot of PV's for it, much to the delight of my upline. BTW I only got like a $24 cheque back for all that, yay!)
ReplyDeleteAs for the program itself, I was totally committed to making it work because it was so damned expensive! I could have paid a whole year's gym membership for that money. Unfortunately, despite all my determination (and all that money) I gained 5kg then lost 4kg of it over the 2 months on the program. I consider it a big fail... but lesson learnt.
Anna- i wonder during the church services where they ask for dcnations. Would the scummy cult leaders pocket the money and have some phony charity? I've never been to one and unsure how they are.
ReplyDeleteAmway is basically a religion of greed. Their "god" says that the whole purpose of life is the pursuit of material things, by whatever means necessary... deceit, lies, trickery, using other people. In Amway, the further "upline" a person is, the closer to "god-like" qualities they have, thus they worship and fawn over them.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope your girlfriend, crodriguez, can shake the brainwashing and get back in touch with the real world. But the more they are "indoctrinated" at the meetings and seminars, as well as by the CD's and books, the less open they are to thinking for themselves, or listening to others outside their "new" family (Amway) trying to reason with them exposing the truths about Amway. Just as a religious cult works to close their ears to old friends and family (the "devil" speaks through them), Amway warns them that anyone speaking against Amway are "dream stealers", losers, negative thinkers, etc. Cults twist logic and thinking. Questions are usually answered with questions (a tactic to avoid giving answers they don't want to share), and they will confuse and dance around others with apples and oranges analogies.
Anna is right. If you are not "on board" with the Amway scam, then Amway will work at poisoning your girlfriend's mind against you. You are a threat to them getting at her money. They only want mindless drones who do whatever they tell them to do and only want to please their Amway family. A "new" family who will use her to suck her finances dry and as a tool to pull in other new suckers as fresh meat to devour.
~Dave
Liz - $24 bonus on the amount you spent sounds about right. Amway gives approximately $10 back for every $300 spent. $600 Yikes! As you said, gym membership for a year. I'd say your experience is typical other than you stuck out the Amway diet for 2 months. I can see the motivation - pay that kind of money you want to lose some weight. Unfortunately the only thing you lost was your time and money! Most diets have about 95% failure rate. Amway is a system designed for failure in more ways that one.
ReplyDeleteColin - I never attended an Amway church service. Got enough preaching at during Amway meetings. I have no idea if they pass a hat to the congregation during an Amway church service at an Amway function for offerings. Perhaps someone who's been to an Amway church service can enlighten us. I'm sure the cult leaders would be pocketing that money if they do ask for offerings.
ReplyDeleteDave - "Amway is a religion of greed". Very nicely summed up!
ReplyDeleteWe always went to the church services on Sunday at every Major. We were totally exhausted and the service was always 3 hrs. People were silly stupid tired. I felt so sorry for them. Many brought their babies and spent the service out in the halls trying to quiet them.
ReplyDeleteThe Goads would do the worship service and it seemed like just another performance. There was nothing you could sing along to. It all felt so phony. Usually Dave Severn would preach and he would go on about how amway was from God, etc.
It was always freezing at amway functions and I spent the entire service trying to stay warm. My only hope was knowing this was the last day. I would start counting down the hours to 4pm cuz' that's when I would go under the bleachers and change into my jeans and tenniies. Now THAT was heaven. But, I sure did get some nasty looks. By that time, my exhaustion level brought out a level of 'dare' I didn't think possible for me, I would look right back at them and silently tell them to bring it on. You don't want to mess with me when I'm tired.
When the day finally ended, we would race to the airport. Ah, the fun. And some would call this their vacation?
Seriously?
CASSETTE TAPE
I lost 23 lbs on the Trim weight loss plan while in the cult. I also put it back on plus 18 lbs more. I had no strategy for keeping it off. Their plan has no long term strategy which teaches better eating and exercise habits to keep the weight off. I guess if they included that, the sales would suffer. The diet was horrible, with eating the overpriced protein bars and drinking the overpriced protein shakes. The 2 day "induction period" was the pits also!
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I joined weight watchers in January. We eat our own food and go to weekly meetings to be weighed and receive support and tips on diet and exercise. I have lost 25 lbs since joining and I don't feel one bit deprived of the foods I enjoy! I can have pizza, but not the WHOLE pizza and still lose weight. I'd tell you how much my wife has lost so far, but I promised to keep that a secret between the two of us.
CT - people brought their babies to an Amway function? I thought only Diamonds were allowed that privilege?! Ha!
ReplyDeleteNothing like wrecking your vacation by attending an Amway function!
David - I'd say your experience with Trim was similar to most others. Most people need some sort of support system while losing weight and Amway doesn't offer that other than to buy more of their food bars and drinks.
ReplyDeleteAmbot was on Weight Watchers when we met so I'm kind of familiar with the point system and I know they have grocery items available in the stores now. That's a more realistic type diet showing people how to deal with real food and making your own choices. If you're not saying how much weight your wife lost then she's not doing as good as you! That can be aggravating when your husband loses weight faster. Women don't lose weight as quickly.
All I'll say about my wife's weight loss is that she has lost MORE than I have. I think you can understand the concept of "marital secrets", one that does not exist in the world of Amway.
ReplyDeleteThat's good news for both of you on the weight loss. At least this time around you're actually losing weight instead of your money.
ReplyDeleteThe upline wanted to know all marital secrets. I told them to fuck off it was none of their damn business. I'm not so sure all that Ambot might have blabbed though. Clearly with my attitude the upline wanted me out of there and worked hard at Ambot to get him to leave me. When that didn't work they held a prayerfest that I would find another man and leave him. The moral of the story is never tell your upline nothing because they'll use it against you.
Our upline paid for our daughter's airline ticket and paid her a wage to stay w/their baby the entire function. She would wonder the halls of the hotel w/baby in the stroller and she actually met some of the highest diamonds in wwdb - Ron Puryear, etc. Of course, she had no idea who these people were and she was her usual pleasant self and didn't slobber all over them.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine they thought she was refreshing.
She would describe who she had met and we would all be gaga! She couldn't have cared less.
But, yes, people brought their children w/them to the majors. You gotta remember, you never see your kids when you build amway and you get desparate at the thought of asking your parents again to babysit the weekend. That gets old. Not only do you have no life, now you'll stolen it from family members as well.
And how about the fact that we just plain miss our children? I've talked with ibos who have been in 20+ years and they ache with the pain of having lost their kids b/c of the business and never being home.
amway and all mlms are so much more destructive than people know.
CASSETTE TAPE
CT - so what you're saying is besides the Diamonds who make huge profits speaking at Amway functions - your daughter was the only one who actually made money by attending an Amway function! Ha! That's great!
ReplyDeleteYeah you probably all got the speech about how you made it in Amway you'd have all the time you wanted to spend with your kids. That the reason you're building this business is for your kids. That type of brainwashing. As you said you never get to see your kids because you're so busy building the business. Out at meetings every night. Weekend seminars. At the beck and call of the upline just in case they need someone to do errands for them or house or yard work.
Stay in Amway for longer than a couple of months and risk destroying all relationships.
You are all just really sad probably overweight POOR people. I been an IBO for 3 years now work when and where I want take vacations as I see them make over $8,000 a month bonuses of $15,000 a year I lost 120 pounds from the weight loss plan in 1 year I got 2 kids I'm 26 and I just bought my first house. Funny thing is that I only buy $600 OF HEALTHY core products from my business and they give me the rest for my loyalty and for other people I help. Sometimes it worth the cost to be healthy but the rewards your reap out weigh the cost. helping people to be healthy is not a crime. And if you don't like the product they give you your money back no questiones asked. Now tell me if you can do that ANYWHERE ELSE! I think not.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Anonymous! I can’t speak for everybody who frequents my blog but I am not sad, overweight, or poor. However brainwashed Amway IBO’s are the most judgemental people I’ve ever met in my life, quick to point fingers and accuse others and I can sort of understand why you ambots do this when you have no defence to the truth you’re quick to lie and put others down.
ReplyDeleteIf you really lost 120 pounds congratulations that is quite an accomplishment. That makes it all the more surprising that someone who was so grossly overweight would come on to my blog and accuse all of us of being overweight. I would think that someone in your shoes would be more sympathetic to overweight people. Oh but I forgot. You’re an Amway IBO and that means you don’t give a shit about anyone or anything except for your greedy endeavors.
I think you’re just another lying ambot. If you were really making that kind of money you would prove it to us by providing a link to your tax return. All ambots lie about how much they’re making.
You spend $600 a month on “healthy” Amway products? Holy fuck! Yesterday I went to the produce stand and bought a sack of potatoes, a sack of onions, a bag of apples, grapes, bananas, strawberries, avocados, sweet potatoes, oranges, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and tomatoes (and probably a couple of other things that don’t come right to my mind) for $21. Including fresh weekly produce my monthly grocery bill is around $200. Which one of us is coming out ahead on this one for buying healthy products?
Just about every company around offers refunds. Refunds is hardly an original exclusive idea that only Amway has come up with no matter what your cult leaders might tell you!
Lol what's funny is when I was at a PASE meeting and someone was recommending slimmetry pills and how she lost weight on it, but then her disclaimer was that the pills won't work if you don't also diet and exercise and I just, "Well, no shit thats the real reason you lost the weight." It was really confusing because I didn't understand why she would recommend the pills.
ReplyDeleteAnna, you are not a nice person. Men would not want to be with you, women would not want to be you. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMy lesbian lover would disagree with you!
Deletemy husband and I were IBO's for about 3 years until I got pregnant with my first child. During those 3 years, our relationship was tested to the max. We almost divorced numerous of times because we would argue about how I no longer wanted to do Amway, and he liked the association of our upline so felt like he was doing this for "our future". I get it, the people we were around weren't douchey, they were fun and we still talk to some of them. I liked a lot of the wives etc, but I also felt like most of them were trapped in the 1950's submissive lifestyle. NOT for me. I think being around those other men (who most of them were younger than us and doing "well" in the business, but not retirement level) made my husband felt important. We finally stopped going and no longer IBO's once I had my daughter and within a year we had to file bankruptcy because we were spending about $1000 on credit cards on products, books and CDs. I never felt comfortable at the meetings, and while we were apart of the business my husband was a completely different person than who he was when I married him. I am so thankful that we got out. Now we are married 8 years, 3 kids and stronger than ever!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - I'm really glad to hear that you got out of Amway with your marriage and family intact. Small comfort but your story is just about the same as so many others with only minor detail changes. Though of course they'd be hugely major to you. I think I might feature your story on an upcoming post. This is an old topic so a lot of people might miss your story. Thanks for stopping by!
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You repeated yourself, "Jenny Winslet". Oh! That's right. You are just a generic scam that wanted to put your snake oil scam link into the body of your comment.
DeleteMakes sense. Snake oil scam on a site that talks about Amway's snake oil scam.