You Gain It, You Lose It
I blogged about Julia Havey's lawsuit against Coke's "My Coke Rewards" on July 15 and again on August 2 after learning that she dropped her case. Today, I received an interesting comment from Julia Havey herself.I am well-informed, don't need the publicity this has brought as I have already had a "best-selling book" and write for 14 million people each week as the Master Motivator at eDiets.com, so their attempt as smearing my image simply has no logic or truth to it.
If I were a Master Motivator, which I wish I could become someday, I would promote the idea of taking personal responsibility in the weight loss battle. When I was 50 lbs overweight, I never thought I would sue Colonel Sanders for his fatty but tasty fried chickens that I ate by the bucket. I never thought I would sue Coke or Pepsi for their sugar-loaded drinks which I drank by the galleon. I never thought I would sue Burger King for their greasy whoppers which I chowed down 4 at a time. When I looked at myself in the mirror, boy I wish I said to myself, "How about suing those jerks who gave me this big piece of ass?". But nobody was to blame but myself, although the truth might be harder to swallow than a slice of Domino's pizza.
Haven't we grown to blame someone else for everything that doesn't go our way? It's always someone else's faults. If we are not happy, we blame our parents, our jobs, our government or now the high gas prices. If we are addicted to the cigarette, we blame the tobacco industry. Now our waistlines are getting bigger, we start blaming Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's .... Regardless who we blame, our overweight problem is the result of bad personal choices. To fix the problem, the key is to make better personal choices like staying active and eating healthy. The bottom line is: you gain it, you lose it!
Coke encouraged you to buy more products, but did its rule say that you had to drink it all in one day to win? Instead of drinking 150 cans a day, why not drink 3 cans day for 50 days? Or give some away.
The argument of drinking yourself to death with water came either as a scare tactic or out of the lack of knowledge on how the brain works. Before you are remotely close to having too much water, your brain will stop you from drinking.
Our body has very sophisticated mechanisms to protect ourselves from doing silly things. For example, have you ever heard anyone choked him/herself to death? I bet not because it is impossible. If you put hands around your neck and start choking, you will reduce the amount of oxgen to your brain. You will become dizzy and weak to the point that you lose strength in your hands. Then, you will release your hands and start breathing again.
I thought people filed lawsuits with the belief that they could win. What is the point of filing and dropping in such a short period? Oh well, that may be the point!
posted by Terry at
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2 Comments:
Terry, I did NOT sue Coca-Cola because their products make people fat (which they do) or to somehow take personal responsibility out of the picture. They were sued in an attempt to get them to not allow MINORS to participate in a contest that they set ridiculously high levels of consumption as a condition of "winnning" through their "Drink, choose and live" effort.
Your comment:"Coke encouraged you to buy more products, but did its rule say that you had to drink it all in one day to win? Instead of drinking 150 cans a day, why not drink 3 cans day for 50 days? Or give some away." shows the HUGE misconception that the misinformed public has about this contest thanks to Coca-Cola's spin on it. Terry, it is 151 cans EVERY DAY for 300 days, that is why it adds up to over 45,000 cans of cola.
I am not such a zelot that a contest requiring 3 cans a day over 50 days would have even turned my head.
However, the fact that they wanted 45,000 + cans BOUGHT at a cost of over $6500 and IF drank by an "individual" as their rules say repeatedly, would KILL said individual--and if it didn't kill them, it would equate to over 1800 POUNDS in weight gain, it was something that I could not sit by and ignore without at least trying to make a difference and help the health of my fellow humans.
After filing my suit, Coca-Cola publicly made it very clear that despite the verbiage of "Drink" repeatedly in their promotional material, that no one need or should actually DRINK to win.
If I had millions of dollars to fight the issue, it would keep going, but that fact they went on record saying the biggest issue, and that is that NO ONE Should even try to drink that much (waste their money, but don't consume what they buy) was enough of a victory for me.
I did win, in my opinion.
Secondly, I have spent 10 years motivating people and personal responsibility is the cornerstone of my advice. It is up to the individual what they ultimately decide to do, but when multimillion dollar ad campaigns intended to sway our decisions to those that are unhealthy are conducted, the other side needs to be addressed--that is the only way that people CAN hope to make informed decisions.
"Before you are remotely close to having too much water, your brain will stop you from drinking."
Really?
Two leading nutritionists who I spoke with treat a condition called hyponatremia often, they see many incidences where the brain fails to let the person know that they have too much, and again, the "carrot" of trying to "WIN" something has driven many a person to do things that devy logic, reason or instinct (Fear Factor comes to mind for one).
And, what about the brain signaling that one is full? Yet people still continue to eat,thus the Obesity epidemic that our nation is faced with.
The point, is to do what you think is right and to try to leave the world a better place, that is my point and what I am trying to do.
I believe this contest is unhealthy at best, a waste of resources if you don't drink it, a caloric nightmare if you do, or an aspartame overdose waiting to happen if you "diet" drink choose and live.
By
Julia Havey, at 6:09 PM
By definition of the contest being dangerous, all contests by all food producers would be considered dangerous. Candy companies are constantly promoting contests with free tickets of some sort inside their wrappers. Soda companies give prizes that are revealed inside their bottle lids.
At what point does the person consuming the product become responsible? In my opinion, the people are in control here. If they're stupid enough to drink a bazillion drinks in a day and gain the 1800 pounds, that's not Coke's problem. Coke didn't make them do anything they didn't choose to do.
If it's kids you're concerned about, target their parents who do have a modicum of control over their children until they're 18.
By
Donna, at 10:03 AM
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