Category: 2006

Or: Another one for the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished file.

So I call the owner/creator of Sonz today about my back issues, just to see what he’d say. I was gunning for a refund of my last 5 sessions ($150), but I knew he wouldn’t do it. It’s in the contract. The conversation was almost to the letter as I thought it’d be. It went like this:

I tell him that I’ve never had back problems before but now I have 3 compressed disks due to the program that they promote. The very first thing he says is, “Well, you’re overweight, of course you’re going to have back problems!” I say, “Yes I’m overweight, which is one of the reasons why I paid you $800 for a personal trainer at your facility. So, you’re saying if someone is too fat, they really shouldn’t come to Sonz, right?” To which he goes into a long marketing diatribe about why his method (the Sonz method) is precisely what I needed and it’s not the method’s fault that my back is out. It’s my being overweight that caused this and I should get back to the gym as soon as possible. I said, “Are you serious? I WILL NOT go back to those exercises with an injured back! You are out of your mind to suggest such a thing!” Then he says, no, he’s right and his method is proven and I should not quit “because of a little pain”.

Fucking jerk. So I then ask, “So, if my being overweight precludes doing your workouts without injury, then why should I do your workouts?” And THEN he says that I should lose weight first, before doing the workouts (the opposite of what he said before). I said that perhaps they shouldn’t take money from overweight people, then, since working out like they want can cause injury if you’re overweight. Then he goes back into marketing mode and proceeds to lecture me about how his workout method is the perfect workout method and it’s my fault for being overweight.

Hmm, anyone else see the circular argument there, or is it just me?

So, let me get this straight:
1. I’m too fat
2. the Sonz workout is perfect as long as your not too out of shape or too fat
3. I go to Sonz to try to regain my strength and begin losing weight
4. but the Sonz workout was too much for my fat ass, which is not their fault, it’s mine for going to Sonz while not in shape and too fat…

Yep, that’s the whole conversation in a nutshell.

My question remains:

Why the bloody hell do they take money from fat/out of shape people if their system probably won’t work for you or at least injure you if you’re too fat/out of shape?

The owner seems to think that he knows more than my doctors and CERTAINLY more than a fat girl. He wants me to send him what I eat for 5 days so he can “help me get control of my weight”. Uh-huh. Like I don’t know that eating less and exercising more works 100% of the time. Like I don’t know that eating chicken tenders and veggies 3x a day will make you lose weight. I know that. As I pointed out, I’m not a moron. A hedonist, not a moron. :-)

I paid $800 for a PERSONAL TRAINER. I expect that person to guide me and listen when I express concerns. The trainer I had was fine, but she didn’t change up the workouts to allow for my fat/out of shape ass. Therefore, I’m now gonna have disk issues for the rest of my life.

Thanks Sonz.

My advice: do NOT get a trainer if you’re fat/out of shape. First lose 30#, THEN get a trainer. These places have no concept of responsibility and certainly no regrets about fucking you up. I’m very sorry I spent that $800. I should have stayed my fat ass at home and just cut my calories and upped the cardio and weights myself. Live and learn, right?

Oh, my GODS!

Acupuncture is NOT for sissies! It’s not the needles that hurt – they are too small – it’s what they tap into that hurts like a MOFO! Oy!

The first one in the bend of my knee was like a nasty electrical shock down my leg. I jump and curse. The right one was somewhat better. The ones on my back were a little sticky but not too terrible. The ones at my achilles tendons were a little sticky, but not terrible. The ones behind the ear, negligible. My body tried valiantly to pass out while laying face down; while unsuccessful, I did break into a cold sweat and feel nauseous. THEN she goes back to twiddle the damn things! OY! I’m freaking out, so she checks my pulse and decides that I’ve had enough.

On THAT side! Gods!

So, I turn over and she goes at me again. Left leg, right beside knee, not too bad. Right leg beside knee: OW! Then she asks me to put my hands in loose fists. She puts a needle in the side under my pinky on the left – not horrible. The right one – OW! Then she puts one at each eyebrow which was nothing. THEN she puts one in that divot below the nose right above the lip. OW! Now I’m starting to cry.

She goes back and twiddles them and I’m about to jump off the table. Then she thankfully leaves me to whine and cry for a few minutes. She comes back in and twiddles the damn things AGAIN. More cursing and crying from me. I sit for about 5 more minutes and then she removes the vile things.

She asks me to sit up and I inform her that I will definitely pass out if she comes at me with more needles while I’m sitting up. She assured me that now she was going to put seeds on my ear. Yes, SEEDS. The pressure points on the ear are so tiny that you use seeds as activators. She applied the seeds with medical tape and told me to squeeze them a few times a day for a few minutes. They stay on for a few days.

Hookay, I lived through it. When I went out front to pay, the Dr told me that I’m not uncommon, lots of folks find it very painful especially when they are already in pain and the pain threshold is very low. Another chick there said that she cried the whole time, too. Well, at least it’s not just me. :-)

She gave me some teapills (those little round black pills) to take to ‘help with circulation for my back’. 8 BBs 3x/day. All rightey.

The good news: I think I do feel better, backwise. I got up with just a little stiffness today! Yay!
The bad news: the teapills have given me the trots.
The worse news: I’ve got to go through this a few more times. WAH!!

If I didn’t think it was worth it, I certainly wouldn’t do it again. I now have a new respect for acupuncture. It is some BAD ASS SHIT. I will do it again, despite my confirmed fear of it. I think it will help me quite a bit. She determined that I have three disks involved, which is very good to know.

Everyone always asks about the pain of tattoos. I can tell you straight up: tats are FAR LESS PAINFUL than your first acupuncture visit. Pussies need not apply!

We just watched Shaun of the Dead (which I’ve seen before) since there was nothing on the tube or the magic box. It’s a great movie, but not one I’ll go out of my way to watch again.

My back is slowly getting better improving. It’ll never be right again, I’m afraid. I’m up to about 80% mobility. Tomorrow I go to the Chinese doc for acupuncture. I’ve heard good things about acupuncture for treating disk problems, so I’m hopeful.

I”ll post about the acupuncture tomorrow evening. Should be interesting.

Argh. The back is still hurty, but it’s getting better by degrees. I think acupuncture is my next step. I can drive my Honda and do basic stuff, just no jumping around or twisting my body. I still get stabbing pain when I move certain ways, but I’m at about 70%. As for the hippie, she must’ve been in a bad mood, cuz she’s been sweet ever since the other day. No more lectures, at least, which suits the shit out of me!

Still busy as hell. End of period for the Moon with its usual array of stuff to do. For spice, this week Rob forgot to send the payroll until after the deadline, so we had to beg them to get the checks out and WIRE the damn tax payment. This doesn’t bode well for Payroll1. E-chx has been courting us to switch to their Citrix based payroll system and although it’s butt ugly and clunky as hell (think Win 98), it is LIVE and there are no arbitrary deadlines and NEVER any wiring of taxes. Plus they are undercutting Payroll1 by about $80/mo.

New age person apparently has nothing better to do than examine every page I put up and then tell me what else they want on it. It wouldn’t be as aggravating if a) they were consistently picky about the site rather than once every six months; b) they paid me more; and c) they paid me more. It’s hard for me to put their stuff on the front burner when it’s $15/hr. I should be getting twice that. 2.5 times that, actually. So, unfortunately for them, they are in the to-do list by priority and $15/hr is low priority. I try to get their stuff up by the first of the month, but sometimes it just doesn’t work that way. So solly cholly!

I’m in the process of starting a new website for a local produce company, if I can ever get them to respond to emails quicker than 3 days. It’s gonna be a small brochure site, but they may do online ordering at some point. I’ve also got to get the packaging company site going. They will have just a couple of pages, since they can’t really advertise many of the packaging projects they work on. Product packaging is a very competitive business and quite secretive.

So, yah, I’m busy.

Oh, also, the comment posting filters are still up quite high and they are still catching comments that they shouldn’t: sorry Nick and Dean! If your comment doesn’t post immediately, email me and I’ll fetch it from the spam trap. Sadly, the system doesn’t notify me about stuff that it deems ‘junk’, only stuff that is questionable. Sorry!

Dean: no, it’s not a kidney stone (nor is it a TUMOR!), it’s a compressed disk. Sorry to have missed lunchie this week! How about next week? :-)