Just to be clear: I am not signing up for Precision Nutrition’s Lean Eating Program again. Like any program, they have a lot of repeat customers. A few women from my team have been struggling to stay on track and, coming on seven months since our year ended, have either signed up or are considering signing up for the year of coaching that starts later this month.
As former clients, we were all sent a special offer — a VIP offer, no less. Instead of the regular price of $229 US if you pay monthly ($2199 US if you pay all at once), former clients are offered the special price of $137 US monthly ($1319 US if you pay all at once).
I have nothing against PN LE (other than that I despise the photo contest, which is their big promotional campaign that goes against everything they teach all year about what’s important, but anyway–see my post “When Precision Nutrition’s Lean Eating Program Lost Me”). As I said in my review of my PN LE year, I learned a lot and developed some good habits. But I’m faltering a bit, feeling not on top of the habits.
And I’m not the only one. Lots of my “team” feel that way. And that’s what makes the offer so tempting. Something about paying the money provides an incentive to stay on track. Just having the knowledge isn’t enough.
In this respect, though I had high hopes for PN LE, it’s not so different from any other program or plan or (dare I say) diet. The info is good, the habits are great if you practice them, but it’s hard to practice them alone. And they know that. Like Weight Watchers and its Lifetime Membership status, PN LE’s VIP category counts on your needing them in order to succeed in the long run. It’s a huge frustration that they don’t publish any longterm results. They just play up the “after” pics of the people who are in the final two months of their PN LE year.
And the VIP price is a full $37 US (almost $50 CDN) more per month than I was paying when I signed up for $100 per month in January 2014. The “regular” price of $229 per month is unbelievable. It’s just not sustainable to pay that kind of money to “stay on track.” When does it end?
What makes me think that if I do it again I’ll be able to go it alone after that if I can’t do it this time around? Am I going to have to sign up for PN LE (and pay the ever-rising price) every time I feel as if I’m struggling? And what, exactly, am I struggling with? I don’t even know sometimes. The whole idea of intuitive eating? Keeping on top of the habits and the workouts? Life and the various challenges it throws my way?
So no thanks. It’s a tempting offer (because it’s so tempting to think that this time it will be different). The allure of leanness, as advertised in the “after” photos (that the clients are encouraged to have done by professional photographers, providing free advertising for PN’s recruitment purposes), can draw in the desperate (a feeling I am all too familiar with). But I don’t want to be pay a monthly fee for the rest of my life to to keep me on point.
