This time of year the pressure one is under to lose weight and get their body looking its best is somewhat overwhelming.

Advertising for all the latest in weight loss and fitness products seem to be at their highest.

And then there is the niche group of companies specifically targeting their market at mothers, as their product is considered ‘safe to consume during breastfeeding’.

The latter marketing scheme is perhaps the worst as it almost uses psychological warfare against its potential clients.

They make mothers feel safe and supported throughout their weight loss journey and sell you books that you can get for free from your GP.

Once you are successfully suckered in to these various weight loss programs, then comes my most favourite part, the before and after photo competitions.

Clients are asked to send in photos of themselves before using the product and after successfully losing weight on the product. In return the ‘winner’ will receive a gift voucher sometimes as high as $250.

Two hundred and fifty dollars. To most, that is a great deal of money. But let’s put things into perspective for a moment.

You first have to buy the product for $44 + $12.95 shipping. One $44 tub is equal to 16 servings of product. In one week if you replace breakfast as well as lunch with the product then you are looking at roughly $56.95 per week and $228 per month. How many months are you going to need to be on the product before seeing any results?

So to be eligible to try and win this $250 worth of gift voucher you have to first be prepared to outlay perhaps triple that amount.

This isn’t even close to the biggest problem at hand. My question is what criteria do your before and after photos have to meet to be able to be considered for this weight loss competition.

I personally fell for one of these companies. Did the time. Lost some weight. And then entered my photos. I then received an email back from the company stating that I “looked too fabulous” in my photos and asked if I had any photos where I didn’t look as great.

To this day I still don’t understand what they wanted from me. Was I supposed to strip off into my mismatched underwear and take my before and after photos whilst practically naked just like most of the other mothers do for the company? Was I supposed to make myself look more haggard and sleep deprived?

Is that their vision of what a mother is supposed to look like?

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Looking back on the whole ordeal I am somewhat pleased that I did not go out of my way to try and meet the company’s requirements. In fact I feel downright embarrassed that I even attempted to hand over my photos for a measly $250.

My body is worth so much more than that!

This particular company has a ‘private Facebook group’, where you will find a great number of members posting their half naked photos all in the name of gaining support from other mothers.

What most forget to ask themselves is how they would feel if the photos were to get into the wrong hands?

Just because a group on Facebook claims to be ‘private’ doesn’t mean that your photos will never leave the group. And there is absolutely nothing stopping other members from making negative comments about your photos, sure negative comments are deleted, but once you have hurt someone’s feelings who is going to be there to pick up the pieces?

The weight loss company surely does not have the time nor consideration to console a person who has been bullied in their group.

Their psychological tactics are only for financial gain; they don’t care about how well you fair emotionally through the roller coaster that they encourage you to get on.

Lastly I would like you to ask yourself how you would feel if an ex partner or someone who had tormented you in the past were to get a hold of your half naked before and after photos. Would you care?

Would you hand these same photos over to anyone willing to pay you up to $250 in gift vouchers?

Most important of all, I would like you to think about how much your body is worth, because I guarantee you that a celebrity wouldn’t be stripping off for a mere $250 gift voucher.

You are no different to a celebrity because at the core of it all we are all human beings.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com