A Ramble about Network Marketing, Health, Cults and Rationalizations

I am coming up on my first full year of being engaged in a network marketing (or multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme or whatever else you want to label it, not a Ponzi scheme because there's no tangible goods in a Ponzi scheme and Kyani's juice, gelcaps and nitric oxide drops are very real). Anyway, I could put engaged in the previous sentence in quotations because at this point my level of engagement in actively working the MLM program is close to zero.

It hasn't always been. When I first started in it, I was very gung-ho. Put too much time into it, invested too much energy in it and eventually burnt myself out after not seeing very much success while others were getting multi-thousand dollar checks (yes, I've actually seen them, they are real, the money is very real).

It wasn't just the lack of conversion from money outflow to income though that burned me out. Never having been part of a network marketing company before I'd didn't have too many preconceived notions going in. And the ones I did have were, like most people's are when they hear the term network marketing or multi-level marketing, negative. Especially since Bernie Madoff was so fresh in the news and the thousands of previously rich people who's lives he smashed against the rock of greed and unsustainable promises.

I went into it cautiously but was seduced by the lure of the formulas, the seeming ease of it and the impressive successes of others. But the funny thing is that it all felt so forced, so staged, so driven by baser impulses that I found that I really didn't have much of a taste for it. Sure, it can be very, very easy money for some people but so can selling piece of shit cars for some people but that ain't me. My inner skeptic overcame my outer adherent.

At this point, or maybe even paragraphs ago, you might be asking yourself why I'm still involved with Kyani at all. And my reason is pretty simple. In the near year I've been using the three products I have not been sick once. My job as a computer tech in elementary schools exposes me to pathogens nearly constantly and I did not get sick once. Also, the Nitro FX makes my bike rides substantially better because of the improved circulatory benefits of the stuff. Before I started using Kyani I was getting sick every six weeks or less. In one stretch I bounced from one flu to the next for over a month, losing work days and feeling like utter crap.

Yes, I know this sounds like a sell job but honestly I'm not trying to sell anyone. I've tried selling people on Kyani and that doesn't work, at least not for me. So, instead I'm going to tell my story and see where that gets me.

It works. Plain and simple. My health is, thankfully, pretty good all the way around. But it is better taking Kyani. I stay with the company not because I like the business side but because I value the health benefits of the products themselves. And I recommend them to anyone who wants to feel better. Would I make a few bucks if someone tried it? Yep, but that's not really why I'd want someone to sign up and try it. I want people to give it a try because it can make a big improvement in your life if you suffer from chronic pain or diabetes or asthma or any number of other things.

And if you do try the Kyani products and they don't work then the company will give you your money back, minus shipping and I'll give you that if you want. Seriously. The worst part about writing this stuff out is knowing how it reads, knowing how quickly eyes glaze over and attention is diverted to some shiny widget.

But if you had a way for someone to not be in pain all the time, if you had a way for someone who's hands and feet tingle constantly from diabetes, if you had a way for someone to breathe more easily, stand up more easily, not ache then wouldn't you want to do every damned thing you could to introduce that possible solution them?

Which brings us around to the cult aspect of network marketing and probably the main reason I'm not more active in the company anymore. The practice of working a network marketing business is to play to psychology, to play the prospects like instruments and get them singing by the end of the meeting. There's psychology in every aspect of the meeting, in every aspect of the invite and in follow ups and introductions and everything else. It is the selling that is distasteful to me

And the edification aspect. That is a huge part of the process, to edify your upline, to talk them up, to psychologically weaken your prospect before they've even met your upline. The whole thing felt and feels forced and unnatural and more shysterish than an honest desire to help other people feel better and live better lives. Especially once you get to know some of the people in your upline and realize that some of them aren't laudable in any way and some are downright sleazebags. In fact, there are a couple of people in my direct upline that I wouldn't stop to spit on if they were on fire.

So there's a little glimpse into the pros and cons of network marketing from a grunt in the trenches. I love the products and loathe the business side of it. I can deal with it though because I know that people who use the products will feel better and lead more complete lives.

I like improving people's lives, its part of why I find technical support so gratifying and it is one of the main reasons I was drawn to network marketing in the first place. But all of the fluffy BS stuff? I can do without it.

Put These Foods on Your No-Buy List for 2010

5 Foods You Should Avoid in 2010 via Change.org.

The 5 are:
Factory-farmed meat
Seafood on watch lists
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Foie Gras
Out-of-season produce

Of the five listed, the last was one that made me pause and think for a little bit as to why. Of course, the linked article explains it more clearly but the skinny is that the cost and damage incurred by transporting produce an average of 1500 miles from farm to fork is just not sustainable. Eat locally, eat in season.

Regular readers will be aware of my war against HFCS and how much worse for you it is compared to plain old sugar. Granted neither is great for you but HFCS poses a much longer term health risk by vice of the body's inability to effectively process it and the fact that HFCS does nothing to satiate the consumer (that is, you don't get full after eating something loaded with HFCS which means you will tend to eat more than you need or should and end up fat).

I'm not sure why Foie Gras is on the list really, it is an insanely expensive delicacy that most people on the planet have never tasted and will never taste. But it is some seriously nasty stuff even if it tastes great (I don't know because I wouldn't eat it even if I could afford it).

The factory farmed meat makes sense to avoid even if you don't find the factory farming process to be like hell on earth for animals. It is unsanitary (as in chickens with Mad Cow Disease unsanitary) and perpetuates what amounts to torture before consumption.

It is hard to eat properly all the time and I don't think anyone expects perfection in consumption but it pays to be aware of and try to limit the ingestion of foods that do you more harm than good.

Links from the Intertubes!

First up, an explanation of how tech support really works via XKCD.

What Does the Internet Think - get an answer about what the internet thinks about anything you care to ask it. A cool rough polling system.

20 Reasons to Ditch Soda - they had me at "a 21-year-old woman, drank up to three liters of cola a day and complained of 'fatigue, appetite loss and persistent vomiting.'”

Someone’s gone and hacked a “don’t worry be happy” Billy Bass fish to read out tweets…

Five Reasons Parents Need to Stop Saying "Good job" to Their Kids - can you say "praise junkie?", I thought you could.


10 hot news items you might've missed: Damned atheists, quivering seamen, perverted iPod

Stand Up for Health Care Reform - via the LiveStrong Foundation. The campaign centers around two main tenets:
No American should be denied health insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

No American should lose their insurance due to changes in health or employment.

Why Is This Man Smiling?

People spending any amount of time in my company these days, the lucky bastards, will note that I'm more upbeat and happier than usual. You might wonder why I can be so upbeat in such a shitty economy.

I mean, if I stopped to think about it, I'm facing the distinct possibility of another layoff next month. We're not making enough money to cover our bills. Our house is valued at a good $50-60k less than what we paid for it a few years ago. I've got weeds trying to take over my back yard and I don't get a chance to ride my mountain bike anywhere near as often as I want to and need to.

And yet, I'm a happy camper. How's that work?

Well, in a word, Kyani. In a few words, Kyani Sunrise, Sunset and Nitro FX. The Sunrise is an anti-oxidant juice with vitamins, the Sunset is wild Alaskan sockeye salmon fish oil and the Nitro FX is a nitric oxide vaso-dilation delivery system that enhances the effect of the other two.

Let me disclaim here for a minute before I launch. I'm not being compensated for talking about Kyani. Well, not directly anyway, you see, I've become a distributor for the company and am working hard to bring more people on board. But that isn't the main thrust of this post really. I wouldn't say no to someone who wanted to get on board solely based on this post but that isn't my main point here. And I'm not even going to touch on the business possibilities (but they are outstanding!).

I want to talk about the ways that my use of the Kyani triangle of products has positively affected my life, my outlook and my energy level.

I've been using the products for a couple of weeks now. What means is a dropper full of the Nitro FX first thing in the morning followed by one ounce of the Sunrise to get the day rolling. Some people on the plan use the Nitro FX throughout the day to keep their energy levels high but I haven't found a need for that. I take another dropper full of the Nitro FX at dinner time and then two or three of the Sunset softgels.

Its simple, the juice tastes good (unless you've just brushed your teeth and then think of how nasty orange juice tastes and you're right about there) and its easy. I wake up right now and look forward to getting my supercharged anti-oxidant burst in the morning.

And, for the first couple of weeks it had a decent effect on me. I felt healthier, felt like my energy levels were elevated, felt like I could ride my bike further and faster. But then something changed yesterday. It was like driving an 8 cylinder car and only being able to use half the throttle and then, all of a sudden, the block gets removed and I can mash that accelerator all the way to the floor. I don't feel energized, I feel flippin' supercharged.

And I am definitely not the only one, the testimonials page reads like it is too good to be true but I've met some of these people and heard them tell their stories.

I'm loving the new found energy, loving how strong and powered up I feel and am looking forward to sharing this with my friends and family. Want to give it a try? I'd be happy to get you a sample so you can get charged up too!

The Worst Food in America

Here's enough to make you get up and go get on a treadmill or go ride a bike.

* Worst Beverage of 2009: Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake, 2,600 calories, 135 g fat ... "more than a day's worth of calories and three days worth of saturated fat, and, worst of all, usually takes less than 10 minutes to sip through a straw."
* Worst Sandwich of 2009: Quizno’s Tuna Melt (large), 2,090 calories, 175 g fat ... "Puts tuna’s healthy reputation on the line. A large homemade sandwich would likely provide one-fourth of the calories."
* Worst Salad of 2009: T.G.I. Fridays Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad, 1,360 calories, Fat: unknown ... "Six out of the seven (TGIF salads) we analyzed topped out with more than 900 calories, which means that lunchtime can be the start of something big—namely, your belly."
* Worst Burger of 2009: Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing, 2,040 calories, 150 g fat ... " ... Two-and-a-half day’s worth of fat—a full third of which is saturated. To do that much damage with roasted sirloin, you’d have to eat about eight 6-ounce steaks."

And 16 more worst foods in America in 2009 at Men's Health (along with a rather annoying instant pop-up exhortation to subscribe to the magazine).

Got an iPhone and want to know what you're about to order while sitting in the line at the drive-thru? Check out Fat Burgr for a pretty comprehensive and easy to access list of basic nutritional info.

Contrast this list of what not to eat with the list of The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating.

The Obesity Epidemic

I had an appointment at my chiropractor's last week and, as is their custom, they had some general health information to pass along. The handout from the other day dealt with the rapid and deadly ascent of caloric intake over the last three decades.

I'm trying to find better trending numbers but the rundown looks like this.
1975: 2206 cpd (calories per day)
1985: 2431 cpd
1995: 2599 cpd
2003: 2757 cpd

What does that mean? It means people are eating too much and getting fatter faster than ever before.

The average caloric requirement for an adult man is 2200 calories per day. Stacking an additional 550 calories per day with an equivalent increase in activity means that the average American male can pack on 3800 "bad" calories a week. That's a pound per week in possible weight gain.

The graphic up there details the sharp increase in obesity rates since 1976. The flat line in the middle is the number of overweight but not obese people, its the only promising data in the chart. What we are looking at is nearly 7 in every 10 American adults between the age of 20 and 74 being overweight at best and about half of those are clinically obese. Obese is the definition of anyone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or above.

Want to get a rough calculation of your BMI? Click here. In the interest of disclosure, my BMI stands at 23.7, a couple of points below the overweight border. But one inch shorter and five pounds heavier and my BMI creeps over into the overweight territory.

It used to be that fat people were fat because they could afford to be and being fat was a sign of wealth. This is no longer the case and with good reason. It is easy to eat a diet stuffed full of empty calories. Go through the drive-thru at Taco Bell, Wendy's or McDonald's and you are going to get a whole assload of worthless fat and carbohydrates.

Becoming aware of the problem is the first step to addressing it. I know I need more exercise and now the issue is just making it happen.

Good Eats

The New York Times has an interesting article about the 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating. The foods are listed below with my ever-so-important comments in italics.

1. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power. Not a big beet fan but maybe I'll have to take another look.
2. Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes. We actually eat quite alot of cabbage, my wife makes a fantastic cabbage salad. I'll try to get the recipe and post it here.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
3. Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and sauté in olive oil.
4. Cinnamon: Helps control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal. The worst way to get cinnamon is to take eat a big heaping spoonful. But, if you do, make sure you videotape it for YouTube fame and hilarity. I put cinnamon into our pancakes for some extra flavor and spice.
5. Pomegranate juice: Lowers blood pressure and loaded with vitamin C and other antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it. Great stuff when mixed with other juices as its pretty harsh on its own. Its also really expensive right now but I think that's because the market is so new.
6. Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
7. Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad. Pumpkin seeds taste awesome but they are really high in L-Arganine which can make people susceptible to cold sores have wicked painful breakouts. Counteract the seeds with Lysine supplements and eat the seeds in moderation.
8. Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.'’ They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread. Do Kippered snacks count as sardines? Because I liked Kippered Snacks but can't stand sardines. Though the dijon and onions spread idea might work.
9. Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,'’ it has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
10. Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds. We get the big fresh pack at CostCo and eat them by the handful. Everyone in my house loves the blueberries.
11. Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.

My Flag's Still Here

It feels like I've been through a battle (the likes of which I'll not disturb you with) and I'm still a bit sore from the whole thing. But I am back on my feet again and not half doubled over in pain anymore, which is kind of a refreshing change.

And just in time to go back to work tomorrow. Some interesting happenings on that front.

It feels like spring has just sprung or I just got a new pacemaker or something. I'm pretty damned happy to be alive again.

Right Message, Wrong Target and Wrong Delivery

Miss England told to fatten up before the Miss World competition (which, thankfully, isn't owned by Donald Trump). Now, take a look at the picture and tell me she's too thin. She looks to be in good shape, healthy and pretty darned pretty.

I appreciate the message that is attempting to be sent, that the waif thing, the size 0 model, is an unhealthy image and role model to aspire to. But Georgia Horsley isn't a size 0, she's a size 4 and looks as healthy as can be.

This message would be alot more effective if it were leveled at the scrawny runway models featured in those fashion shows. You know, the ones that have these women parading around in ridiculous looking outfits showing off their ribs and bony knees and calling it sexy and fashionable when nobody in their right or wrong mind would ever wear the stupid looking outfits.