Kimkins former cover girl speaks out

Everyone, if you haven't already, please be sure to visit Christin's blog and view her touching and heartwrenching video where she discusses her health problems due to following the dreadful Kimkins diet. If this isn't a death knell to that Kimkins organization then I don't know what is. What else does it take to convince people that Kimmer aka Heidi Diaz is the devil personified??? Christin was the Woman's World cover girl, one of the real so-called success stories and not some pilfered photos from across the internet as are most of Kimkins' other Before and After phonies. Christin's photos are what Heidi used to sell Kimkins and pimp it across the nation to unsuspecting dieters. And now Christin has not only left the company and disavowed any connection to them, but she's come forward with very personal and intimate testimony about how much she damaged her health by following this diet and listening to this criminal, Heidi Diaz.

If that's not enough, then go read Kimkins Survivors for more tales of illness and trauma brought about by this diet. It's too real to ignore. There are those who proclaim that they are doing Kimkins safely - "safe Kimkins" means NOT doing Kimkins, so basically aren't you just doing Atkins? Who are we kidding here? Why would you pay someone to do Atkins? Especially someone who obviously hasn't dieted successfully in their own lifetime?

What is really fascinating about all of this is to consider what kind of psychological disorder one must have in order to pull this kind of scam. Does she get some sort of sick thrill out of making other overweight women suffer? Did she subconsciously wish she had the will to do a diet this strict, or any diet for that matter? Was she trying to do to them what she wanted someone to do to her, or perhaps what was done to her which resulted in her hair loss and thyroid problems? Or was it all just for the money? She saw an opportunity to run another scam and she went for it? I hate to think it was that simple but watch any news program and you'll see similar or worse stories of man's inhumanity to man, people committing wicked and vile acts against each other just for the money, so unfortunately, it is indeed possible. However, the fact that she targeted other women who were for the most part in the same boat as herself, and she deliberately mislead, manipulated and nearly destroyed them, that just speaks to a deeper psychotic problem of which we haven't even scratched the surface. We can trumpet that she's crazy until we're blue in the face, but its obvious that imprisonment alone won't fix Heidi. We need to dissect her (figuratively and literally) and get to the root of this mental deformation, and figure out how to cure it in our society. Maybe its just a symptom of everything else that's wrong with our world today, everybody is after a buck at any cost.

It's funny that one of Heidi's associates, Jeanine Baltinger aka TippyToes, was also recently exposed as deliberately passing along a sugar-laden, diet stalling dessert recipe to a forum member who innocently requested a recipe for a low carb snack. Jeanine, overweight herself, gleefully revealed to someone else that she was doing this on purpose and wanted to see the victim's weight "blow up". Who would do this to another person? It appears that this type of behavior and desire to do harm permeates the entire Kimkins company and its not clear if Heidi infected those who work for her, or if that kind of evil heart just a prerequisite to be on her staff.

Whatever the case, I don't mean for this to become another antiKimkins blog, however, I don't mind reporting on it as I see fit because its such an important warning and I definitely want to help spread the word. So I'll occasionally drop an entry here about the continuing efforts to bring down the Kimpire, and I encourage you all to stay up to date on this and help get the news out to your friends and loved ones, because Friends don't let Friends do Kimkins!

Friends don't let friends do Kimkins

"Anyone want to do Kimkins with me?"

That was the Subject of the new thread in the forum I hung out at. I knew the poster, and I knew she had been faithfully and successfully doing Atkins for at least a year, but her more recent posts bemoaned these last 10-15 pounds that she felt were haunting her and wouldn't budge, no matter what she'd tried. So I wasn't all that surprised that she was trying a different tactic, but I didn't want her to try THAT one. This was well before the whole scandal broke wide and all of the blogs popped up exposing Kimkins to be no more than a fraud and a very well organized scam put together by a morbidly obese woman herself. The whispers about Heidi Diaz, aka Kimmer, had already begun building momentum, but it hadn't yet reached the covers of Woman's World or the ears of 40,000 unsuspecting members about to be suckered in by this con game.

I'd been trying to stay out of the fray, it was too draining, mentally, physically, sometimes emotionally. Not because I had anything vested, but because whenever I communicated with that woman, I wanted to go through my computer screen and rip her snarky little head off and toss her over a cliff. Seriously, she just pissed me off all the time. I hate for people to think they've gotten over on me, even in the cyberworld. It bugged me like crazy that she was always so nasty to people on the forum where we first met. It bugged me that her stories didn't quite add up, and the pictures always looked like someone else - a relative maybe, but certainly not her. And most of all, it bugged me that whenever I would bring this up, her fans would accuse me and others of being jealous or trying to start trouble. Or they would say stupid things like, "well, people look drastically different when they lose weight" and proceed to use examples like, "look at MY pics, I get told all the time that I look like my own daughter". Oh STFU. That is NOT what I was getting at. We all know that people look different, but certain things don't change unless you get your face cut off and replaced with another one. Kimmer's "After" pics were just NOT HER. Period. And even Helen Keller could see this woman was fake.



On the left, the original Before pics that Heidi used when she posted on the low carb forums. On the right, the recent surveillance photos taken by a P.I. hired by Heidi's former business partner. Surveillance photo courtesy of Slamboard.

When Kimmer (Heidi) put up her website and started charging a membership fee, the discussions about her authenticity started to increase, and every time, they would end the same way. The Kimkins fans would fiercely defend her and declare that we were all Jealous Haters and despite more and more people joining the other side, the devotion to Kimmer was eerily unshakeable, even in the face of such irrefutable evidence, such as when one member zoomed in on one of Kimkins' Success Stories' After photos and revealed that the lanyard around her neck bore an inscription that referred to the Universal Amphitheater's 30th Anniversary celebration which had taken place in 2002. Circumstantial? Maybe, but in light of all of the other suspicious looking Success Stories pictures, it really didn't help her case.

I remember emailing her initially out of concern for what I thought was just a poor strategic attempt to market her new business, when I saw she had used Louise Vyent's photo as one of her After shots. It was so clearly obvious that these were not the same women. Clearly. Obvious. When I mentioned it on the forum, I was flabbergasted at how many people didn't believe me and tried to school me on how people look different in photos, after losing weight, etc.

Back in the 80s, Louise Vyent was my Christie Brinkley, my Carole Alt, my Cheryl Tiegs. When black models didn't regularly grace the covers of Cosmo and Vogue, Louise Vyent was one of those ground breaking supermodels that helped break down those barriers and let young black girls see images of themselves in fashion too. It was Louise, Iman, Beverly Johnson and Sheila Johnson, among others, who made history and opened the doors for Tyra and Naomi to do half of what they're doing now. So when I clicked across this photo and saw Louise, my mouth dropped open. Not that I couldn't believe she might have possibly put on some weight over the years, but because I knew her face so well, you couldn't convince me that that Before photo was her, and if she did need to lose weight, I doubted she would go to some unknown, unemployed, faceless message board character for help. So I emailed Kimmer with the intent of just offering some friendly advice that it might not be a good idea to use fake photos on her site because of legal problems, and I was as nice as I possibly could be, even suggested that with the success of her diet, she should have real life success stories to use among her members. But I was incredibly insulted when she responded with:

Please be assured that all of the Success Photos are real.

If complexions are different that might be because very few of them are "professional" photos. Home photos turn out with various tones depending on lighting and features available. It's also why many are blurry.

But more than likely it has to do with my poor skills as a graphic artist. The photos which are sent to me are sometimes 'sunburn' red or greenish and I attempt to adjust them to more 'flesh' colored. I'm not a professional either.

Okay, I couldn't believe this chick was pissing on me and telling me it was raining. She wants me to believe that the people in her photos who changed ethnicities, grew hair, changed the shape of their eyes and noses, because SHE couldn't use Photoshop???? Unable to let it go, I fired back again and pointed out the inaccuracies of each of her fake photos on the site, and she responded with this short and simple little quote:

I thought I was done with the negativity and jealousy when I left LCF.

There it is again. Anytime you question the truth in front of your eyes, you have to be jealous. Of what, Heidi? We don't even know what the real you looks like, so what is there to be jealous of??? Her final words to me:

This is why I didn't post photos of myself. Everyone criticizes you to death. People told me my before/afters weren't me!

So, FOR ARGUMENT'S SAKE, let's say I have photos of Halle Berry & Christie Brinkley. And I'm a 97 year old man living in Bali. Now what?

Indeed. Now what. I left it alone for a little while but it was always in the back of my mind. Now what? It's not in my nature to let other people get the last word, esp when they piss me off. And Heidi had pissed me off. I hadn't given her a dime, but I knew she was a liar and I hated seeing people I "knew" being sucked in by her. And I hated that she got the last word, lol.

When the Woman's World cover came out, she had made the big time. A liar and a fraud, she had managed to get her diet put on the tables of millions of desperate women worldwide, and so many people responded that it crashed her servers and made her a millionaire practically overnight. All of this for a woman who never once showed herself or proven her claims of losing the weight herself, a woman who blatantly put up fake Success Story photos on her website and told inconsistent stories about herself and her own life. But people were flocking to her website and paying her money that some of of them couldn't afford, paying her for her secrets. Secrets that were all lies.

When her former business partner and her husband hired a private detective to finally uncover the truth about Heidi and her diet, I thought I was going to literally pee my pants when the photos came out. It was everything we already suspected, and more. Not only was she herself morbidly obese at well over 300 pounds, but from the information gathered, she was bald, had never lost any weight at all, and has a history of being a convicted con artist and crook and abusive mother. This of a woman who regularly took up collections for non-existent foster children, couldn't even take care of her own child, much less those given to her by the state.

The picture wasn't pretty. Literally. It was pretty damn ugly. But I'm glad its finally coming out and there's a virtual army of people out there uncovering the truth. Finally! And its a beautiful thing because it was getting more and more difficult to warn people away from it. They had seen the magazine cover and read the stories of people losing 15 pounds in 3 days, and they wanted that kind of success. Never mind that common sense tells us that kind of weight loss is unhealthy, unattainable for most, and impossible to maintain long term. Never mind that we've been taught our entire lives that the best weight loss program is one that combines exercise, water, and a healthy relationship with food, not one that calls for severe restriction of calories, does not promote exercise and encourages laxative use and diet soda in place of water. People wanted the kind of success that Heidi lied and said she had found and maintained for five years. People want fast and they want easy. That's what Kimkins promised but couldn't deliver. Yeah, some of them got fast weight loss, but if you read the stories of the survivors, you see the price they paid for that temporary high. If you read the blogs of Kimkins' former top officers and real Success Stories, like Christin, Deni, and Becky, you see that while they may have lost weight, they were sucked into a web of deceit and dishonesty, and even fraud, and they ended up virtually running for the door as fast as they could. What does that tell you, when not one but several of the biggest, most publicly visible spokespeople for a company run for the hills?

There is so much wonderful information out there right now about this whole debaucle, that I won't even go into the details. Go to any of the links above and you'll find out all you need to know to stay away from Kimmer, Kimkins, Heidi Diaz, or whatever she's calling herself these days. Just follow one link after another and you'll be confronted with more material than the screenplay for Heroes. The evidence is overwhelming, but the sad part is that there are still people that support her. There are still people that believe her and are committed to helping her fight back. And its really funny because with all of the facts at hand, Heidi is most likely planning her escape to Mexico for real. Out of all of the crimes she's pulled off in the past, this is the most lucrative and ripped off the most people, so it won't just be a little local case where she can pay a fine and do some community service and keep it mobile. She's going to pay dearly for this one. There's a lot of people in line for a piece of her sizeable ass. And at this point, "my bad" just won't cut it.

I sent my message board buddy a note with a few of the links to the so-called "antiKimkins" sites growing across the internet. I haven't heard back from her yet so I hope she's not so fully indoctrinated into the "Kimpire" that she can't find her way back. I don't think any of them will really be able to break free of their leader until she is taken out of "power" and the spell is broken.

The Biggest Loser is back!

I was excited about this at first, anticipating it returning. I searched for info on the past contestants and I admit that I was a little disappointed to find out that most of the previous "losers" and namely the first winner, had gained back most, if not all, of the weight lost for the show. Then I read an interview with one of the former contestants who revealed that all of them partook in dramatic weight loss activities in order to appear in the grand finale and win one of the prizes. Activities as extreme as severe caloric intake and even fasting, all so that they could wow the television audience and possibly win one of the runner up cash prizes. Not that they couldn't or didn't lose weight - they lost plenty! But when you're competing against another, especially for multi-thousand dollar prizes, even one pound can send you home with nothing. So even though they'd already lost 85 pounds, they'd force themselves to fast so they could get off 2-5 more for the ultimate weigh-in.

With that in mind, its no wonder they've gained back the weight. It was really all an illusion. For both us and them. But what it really shows is that fast healthy weight loss is a pipe dream. Sure, you can lose fast, but what do you lose besides the weight? Muscle, healthy tissue, a healthy metabolic rate, your thyroid, your hair - the list goes on and on. If the whole pitiful Kimkins saga wasn't enough to turn your stomach, here's the Biggest Loser back on NBC to remind us that nothing worth having, comes so easily.

This show also says alot about how desperate people are to lose weight. Why subject yourself to such embarrassment and humiliation on national television? It's no secret formula, what they're doing on the show, you could do at home in private, or form a group of friends who will do it with you. Why go on television and be forced to go shirtless - or bare your bulging waistline - for the titillation of the audience? We don't need to see the actual flesh, we know you're on the show because you want to lose weight, so why make these people wear those horrendous spandex suits for weigh-in? The only thing I can figure is that they think the shock value will equal ratings. After all, reality television has done nothing but sink lower and lower, and now even the ones that pretended to be altruistic have started scraping bottom for drama and filth.

I was appalled at how the trainers pushed the people to near heart attacks. Whatever happened to starting slowly and building up your strength and resistance? Is there something we're not seeing behind the scenes? Because we've been told all of our lives not to just leap from a sedentary lifestyle to trying to be a marathon runner in one day, or not only will you risk injury but you risk heart attack and stroke. But here these people were being pushed so hard that they looked as if they were about to pass out. That can't be healthy, physically or mentally. We all know that if you overdo it initially, you'll just lose interest and want to give up and not stick with the program.

Then the whole thing with the table full of food, and everyone's gagging and talking about how disgusting it is. Well, newsflash, if you take a table and fill it with ANY week's food all sloshed together, its going to look pretty disgusting. Well, unless you're a vegetarian, then you've got one big a** salad! But pretty much anything else is going to look gross. All of this is such overkill and obviously for dramatic purposes.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Biggest Loser diet itself. I think its a wonderfully healthy and balanced program of high protein, high fiber, moderate carbs and consistent cardio and weight training - you can't NOT lose with that formula. But I really wish they'd retool the show and do away with the illusions and the magic tricks and just keep it real. Unless you're going to stay on the ranch for the rest of your life, then you've got to learn how to maintain that weight loss in the real world. I used to prefer this show over Celebrity Fit Club because of the huge difference in pounds lost, but with CFC, the contestants are at home and just returning to the site bi-weekly to go through the training paces. So their three month weight loss is substantially less than TBL, but its more realistic over the long term. I would much rather see The Biggest Loser work with the contestants in their own environment, so people watching could see how to apply it to their own lives.

They do have an excellent online component to the show, where you get the same fitness and nutrition advice as the players, but I worry about people watching the show and comparing their results to these impossible examples.

My first time at the Tropical Smoothie Cafe

I've just discovered a new favorite - Tropical Smoothie Cafe. I'd seen the sign on the little window at the strip mall, they moved in quite a while ago, but I'm not a big smoothie fan so it really didn't call to me. But my daughter loves smoothies, so she was always trying to get me to take her there. Finally, we were driving past and she begged me again so I told her that I'd take her but she had to pay for it. I know smoothies are thick and all, but me being such a cheapie, I can't wrap my brain around paying $5 for something in a cup! (And no, I don't buy beer at the stadiums either!) I need to stop equating smoothies with slurpies. Slurpies are less than a buck, smoothies are like a meal replacement.

When we pulled up to park, I noticed another poster on the window of a Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wrap! Suddenly, I was interested! I actually planned on waiting in the car, but they had WRAPS! I love wraps, you could put asparagus and tofu in a wrap and I'd eat it! I think I beat her getting inside, lol.

I had no idea this was anything more than a smoothie shop, but it's so much more. They have wraps, wraps, and more wraps! And not just wraps - but exotic gourmet wraps that are thick and filling and way too much for one person. The Jamaican Jerk Chicken that drew me in from my car has chicken, southwestern rice, corn, black beans, asparagus, onions, mozarella, and Jamaican Jerk sauce!! There's also a Chicken Mango Habanero, featuring chicken, crunchy wontons and Mango Habanero sauce along with cheese and veggies. I opted for a new one that wasn't even on the menu yet, they had it handwritten on a sign at the counter - Spicy Fajita Wrap. Pretty typical fajita ingredients, only with chicken instead of steak, and a chipotle sauce. It was AWESOME. DELICIOUS. I couldn't even eat it all, I ate half and saved the other half.

Right now, I'm planning to try every wrap on their menu. Seriously. Chicken seems to be their main item, but they also have one with Tuna, one with Turkey, and a Veggie wrap that even sounds good - southwestern rice, corn, black beans, asaparagus, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, balsamic vinaigrette dressing in a garlic herb tortilla. I could definitely try that one.

My daughter loved the smoothie, it just tasted like a smoothie to me, but they do offer them with Splenda, which is a nice option for low carbers! Their wraps are the same price as the ones at my job, but about twice as thick. I could buy one and have lunch for two days, something I will likely do soon (next week!).

The wraps and sandwiches are supposed to be good for you, and I guess they are, there's nothing fried, everything is fresh and accompanied by veggies. They also have soup and really scrumptious looking salad, in addition to a kid's menu of wraps. Oh, and I can't forget about the fresh baked cookies - the wraps and sandwiches come with chips, cookie or fruit - the cookies are literally to die for. I said to my daughter, "what do they PUT in these?" She said with the straightest face, "crack". We walked out with an embarassing supply in my purse. So there goes the healthy aspect of it, but I couldn't leave without extra.

If you haven't tried them and there's one near you, check out their website and then give them a try the next time you want something different than the usual. We're just about burned out on Subway but we've really been getting into sandwiches and subs for our "take out" lately, as opposed to pizza and burgers. It's good that the kids love it too. And even though I always get wheat bread for my subs, I was concerned about the carbs in the bun. Wraps aren't always much better but I don't stress over it as much. I figure, if I'm not enjoying what I'm eating, then I'll just end up sabotaging myself later. It's a mental thing, I feel better anyway when I have a wrap than when I have bread.

Funny thing was, I woke up this morning thinking that I wanted a wrap, and I went to the Mr. Pita website to see if there was a location near me, and I ended up there instead. I've never tried Mr. Pita, but they do have a really large line of wraps, less gourmet, just everything from peanut butter to salami and cheese. Right now though, I think I'm sticking here for my wraps until I get sick of them.

The infamous "after the holiday" diet

I'm sure right now a huge portion of the US is either recommitting - or starting - some form of a diet. After a long holiday weekend that generally consists of irregular eating and sampling of goodies, its common to wake up the day after and make a decision to get back on track. This is actually the most popular time to start a diet - with seven major food-based holidays in the year, that technically gives you seven different times to undertake a new healthy way of eating - out of 12 months, that's not too bad! The problem is, for most people, that new commitment only lasts an average of two weeks before its tossed aside in favor of the old lifestyle.

But if you look at it this way - if you really started a diet seven times a year, stuck to it for at least two weeks, losing even an average of 5 pounds - that's 35 pounds a year. The key is to fall off the diet without falling off the wagon. How do you do that? Well, you may slack off on your decision to eat only fruit and salad daily (who can stick to THAT?) but don't slack off on your dedication to MORE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. Studies prove that adding even a small amount of daily exercise will increase your metabolism, make you look and feel better, and REDUCE your cravings for the unhealthy snacks.

It's nice to get that initial weight loss that new diets give, but its difficult to stick to most. However, if you can keep up the daily 30 minute walks, and slowly add in some light weights along the way, perhaps pick up a weekend kickboxing class - you will find that while you haven't been 'dieting', you've unceremoniously adopted a healthier lifestyle, and it didn't even feel that hard. So you tried to do low carb but barely made it through induction? No problem, keep up the exercise, keep the good endorphins pumping, don't let your motivation slip - you'll soon find that you naturally crave less and less sugar. Maybe when the next "after holiday" rolls around, you can try the diet as written again - with the sugar cravings already out of the way, it will be easier to work on curbing the starch monster.

The biggest thing is to stay committed to MOVING and BREATHING, and all of the rest will fall into place. Don't beat yourself up over cheats, just walk it off, pump it out, and keep it moving. I can't stress how important exercise is to any diet regime, whether its Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem or Atkins, don't let anyone tell you that its not necessary or that it doesn't matter. It makes the difference between temporary weight loss and long term body reshaping.

To that end, I'm posting my favorite walking or workout mp3s! I zipped them all in one file but feel free to delete the ones you don't care for. Load them into your mp3 player of choice and take a long walk - I guarantee this will keep you going for at least two miles. This is the playlist:

Sean Paul - (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me
Rihanna - Please Don't Stop The Music
Fergie - Fergalicious
DMX - Get It On The Floor
Daikenkai - (song from DDR)
Blackalicious - Alphabet Aerobics
Ciara - Get Up
Bubba Sparks - Miss NewBooty
Kanye West - Workout Plan
Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
Linkin Park f. Jay Z - Numb/Encoure
Missy Elliott - Lose Control
Justin Timberlake - LoveStoned
Van Halen - Dreams
Foo Fighters - The Best of You

(Yeah, I went way back with Van Halen, but I could really work out to any of their entire albums!)

Download Workout Playlist