What is Isagenix? And why is everyone talking about it?

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This post was republished with full permission from IVillage.com.au. 

It is the trend invading every single house.

Like a lot of mums, I have a couple of stubborn kilos that won’t budge.

So recently, I posted a question on a mum’s Facebook page asking for recommendations of weight loss programs. What I didn’t expect was the onslaught of private messages that quickly filled up my inbox. Before I knew it, I had every stay-at-home-mum in my immediate vicinity trying to sell me Isagenix.

So what exactly is Isagenix?

Well, according to their website:

“Isagenix will bring out the best in you. It’s an opportunity for health, wealth and happiness. You can be your own boss, own your own business and be supported by a multi-million dollar company. You’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself. Our goals are simple; to create the healthiest people on the planet, to pay out the most in commissions, and to have FUN along the way”

Basically, Isagenix is a weight loss system which apparently also aids energy levels and ageing and really, it’s network marketing at it’s best.

Isagenix is a direct sales company that relies on “associates” selling the products to their friends and family in order to reduce their payments and/or gain free products to assist in their own weight loss journey. And for around $400 a month, I can see why a lot of people would want to do this.

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So there I was bombarded by Isagenix converts, all wanting to add me to their pyramid.

I kid you not, I had more than 15 private messages inviting me to attend seminars and asking if I was, “open to a 10 minute phone discussion”.

The fact that most of the messages used exactly the same terminology word for word kinda freaked me out. So, I did some more research.

The more I looked around, the more cult like this Isagenix seemed to be. People were obsessed, and with that obsession they tried to recruit their friends.

You see, with Isagenix, everyone is on the payroll. When you buy their product, a lot of people up the pyramid get a pay day. I guess that means you can’t accept the reviews of your friends so easily anymore.

The more information I sought on Isagenix, the more my concern grew. Much of the research out there on the product is self funded, and really, it’s nothing new. For four days every month, you’ll eat nothing but some super sized ovaltine type things and drink some filthy imitation Metamucil.

Then, for the rest of the month you can drink two shakes a day and eat one meal. And the weight just falls off.

Well, maybe it does. But what happens when you decide you don’t want to eat a bunch of your food through a straw and starve yourself anymore? What happens when you want to eat real food again? I’ll hazard a guess and say that weight just creeps right back on.

Shake diets are nothing new. Is this some kind of emperors-new-clothes-thing where people are afraid to expose Isagenix for what it really is? This is not some kind of super dooper magic formula. It’s a program dreamed up to exploit the “make money easily” and “lose weight easily” dreams of so many people, especially stay-at-home parents.

The direct marketing side of things only exacerbates the issue and allows Isagenix to be not only what it is (a weight loss program) but a way of life. It provides mums with an ideal solution for staying at home with young children – sell heaps of the product to your friends and family and make a little bit of extra cash.

I guess the problem that I have here is not that mums are being recruited to start up their own Isagenix businesses, but more so that everyone is an expert on weight loss and healthy living.

Suddenly, every knob on Facebook is a health guru because they attended a seminar on nutritional cleansing and are two days in to a shake diet.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Isagenix is a miracle weight loss solution. But for something that so closely resembles the inner workings of a fanatic religious cult, I think I’ll just try reducing my calorie intake and adopt regular exercise.

Have you heard of Isagenix? What do you think about it?