Body By Vi an unhealthy waste of time, do it the old fashioned way

If you’re friends with a few select people on campus, odds are you heard of something called the Body By Visalus 90 Day Challenge (BodyByVi).
Visalus Sciences came up with a weight loss program that provides incentives to their top distributers. For every person you sign up, you have the potential to gain free meal replacement shakes, money, or even a “free” BMW.
So the whole point of this so called “challenge” is to scam your friends into buying weight loss supplements with the false hopes of winning free swag. One of the girls on the “challenge,” who I spoke to, regrets ever joining this program. She was told she had the potential to make 600 to 1000 dollars a week.
Well, she didn’t, because she’s not at the top of the pyramid.
For example, if Steffie starts the 90 day challenge, and she gets her friend Davey to join, every person Davey signs up counts for Steffie as well. Once you reach a certain amount of sales, you start making money. Well the problem is that like with any pyramid scheme, these things fizzle out if you are all in the same demographic, and the only person benefiting will be the person who started the whole fad.  At Mercer, if you started the “challenge” late, you would have no one to sell to unless you left campus, because everyone stupid enough to join already did.
From how I’ve heard it described, there are several different types of shakes that “help” you with different things.
The one I’ve read the most about is the ViShape kit. This kit requires that you replace two meals a day with one milkshake, I repeat, one milkshake. So instead of sitting down for a hearty breakfast or a nice dinner, you simply sip this concoction through a straw.
I agree, that for some morbidly obese people, this meal replacement shake can do wonders, but as for the people promoting the “challenge” on campus, it would not do anything substantial for them because most are athletes.
I find it baffling that athletes, who are sometimes required to work out for 20 hours a week, replace two meals a day according to what the “challenge” tells you to do. The only “challenge” that I see is trying to stay alive.
Beware, the exclusive group that I like to refer to as the BodyByViers, seem somewhat cultish when it comes to marketing their product. Not only do they bombard Facebook with this so called challenge, but if you disagree with them, they spit out random facts as if they were automatons.
Every day I log onto Facebook and I know for a fact that I will see something about Body By Vi.
It’s gotten to the point where I’ve deleted friends, hidden people from my news feed, or simply refuse to log onto Facebook during the most intense Body By Vi hours. Whether it’s doctored pictures, congratulatory posts, or even the occasional Facebook status war between the BodyByViers and us normal people, I cannot escape this craziness.
If you’re serious about losing weight, I say take the old fashioned approach. Go on a jog. Eat a salad. Ride a bike. Play sports. Don’t starve yourself.
Mercer students, please, and I repeat please, do not join the vicious ways of this cult-like weight loss group. You’ll be filled with false hope and no results. Body By Vi? More like Body By WHY?

Comments, inqueries or concerns about this opinion can be sent to bryson.c.jones@live.mercer.edu