TruVision Health.. My Two Cents...

Since June 2015, I was using TruVision Health: TruWeight & Energy and TruFix Combo Pack to help aide in my weight loss journey. While using these two products, I lost 30 pounds. I started at 159lbs and when I stopped taking them I was at 128lbs. It helped control my cravings for sweets and gave me added energy to help with my daily workouts.

I am not sure about others that have used these products and lost weight, but I did this alongside a strict calorie diet (writing down everything that I ate each day) and exercised 5-6 days a week. Including running, walking and weight lifting. (I was not out of shape before using these either, I did gain some of my weight I lost back in 2011 and that's why I was trying this. I wanted to lose the 15lbs I gained back)

Let's start out by asking the question.. What is TruVision Health?

From their website: "We are a health and nutrition company that encourages people to live healthier lives through our products and their lifestyle. Our products are available exclusively through our TruVision Associates across the country."

"Our mission is to provide the highest quality products for health and weight management on the market and help people to change their lives through our culture and our business opportunities."

Back in June I was surfing Facebook and came across a group site suggesting companies to help you in many areas including organizing and weight loss. I saw a local woman promoting these products and stated she would be at the mall to showcase them. I went and spoke to her briefly as she shared her personal journey losing over 60 pounds using the Tru Combo Pack. She showed me a before and after photo. I have always been skeptical of diet pills, shakes etc. as I've tried many over the years and found no results that were positive.

She offered me a no obligation 7 day trial pack so I decided to give it a try. This 7 1/2 day pack included both TruFix and TruWeight & Energy. Enough to take both twice a day for $25.00.

First day I was FULL of energy. I am talking energy like you drank 3 cups of coffee. I went for a much needed run that day just to let go of some of the energy the pills stored up inside of me. Jitters were part of the deal as well, including a feeling of heart palpitations. I am thinking because of the caffeine and other ingredients in them that my body just wasn't used too. (I will go over ingredients later) I decided to keep using them though since I spent $25.00 and wanted to see if what she said was true. "You will lose 4-7lbs in your first week."

After the trial pack was over I lost 3lbs. I thought, not bad.. wasn't really that close to what they said would happen but I liked that it was a loss and not a gain. I decided to give it another go and ordered another sample pack for another week trial. I lost 2lbs that week. After those two initial weeks though the weight ended up coming off an average of 1-2 pounds a week so in all reality that is normal for any average diet if you watch your calories and exercise. (how I lost my initial weight back in 2011)So no shocking weight loss to share!

After using the products now for 6 months I got myself down to 128lbs which was a 30lb weight loss. (average weight loss of 5lbs per month) It wasn't easy though. My weight didn't fall off like everyone that uses it were saying. I worked HARD to lose this weight. I exercised and counted calories religiously so in all reality I can't actually say this worked for me. Other than helping with my cravings so I could make better food choices and pretty much eliminating my desire to eat AT ALL that was the main factor I believe in my success using these products.

After losing about 15lbs I was approached by the woman that signed me up to order 30 day supplies of the products. She encouraged me to share the products with my family and friends and by doing that make some extra money and help pay for the supply I was using each month. I thought to myself.. I love sharing weight loss tips and encouragement to others so why not??

First off, I am not much of a salesperson so this was hard. I'm not pushy and don't like shoving things down people's throat especially friends and family. I did send emails to those I knew that wanted to lose weight and I did get some of them to try the products. Their success? I am not sure.. I was actually afraid after they signed up to contact them in regards to using the products because I absolutely hate mixing business with pleasure so talking to them about it made me uncomfortable.

Let's fast forward two months and now we are sitting at the first part of December 2015. I get an email stating that TruVision Health is launching a Generation 2 of TruWeight & Energy. Better than before with a better success rate for weight loss.. I was like YEAH! Can't wait because I stopped losing any weight. As the information started to actually trickle in about the ingredients that will be in the new version I was starting to get a bit skeptical.

I went to a meeting in Spokane WA back in October and met one of the founders after he stated that all the ingredients were natural and the dyes to make the pills blue and green were all from plant extracts. I then got a look at the ingredients list of this new version and BOOM... FD&C Yellow No. 5 and FD&C Blue No 1. That my friends is NOT plant extracts but man made chemical dyes.

If any of you have followed my blog at anytime over the past years you will know that I am all about organic and all 'real' natural unprocessed food. I started taking these supplements because the research up to this point, pointed to natural ingredients. Not anymore. My family has eliminated dyes from our diet many years ago and we were not going to start now.. even to lose a couple pounds.

I was so disappointed. After hearing of this new development, I started looking into all the ingredients and the compensation plans of this company. I signed up as an Associate/Wholesaler. This cost me an additional $35.00 which gives me a 20% discount off the retail price for one full year.

After paying the membership fee the monthly combo pack came to $80.39 plus shipping.  Retail $101.90. If you are selling these or any TruVision products you will quickly get familiar with their compensation plan and the PV points.. (Personal Volume) In order to be 'commission qualified', which means getting paid for the sales of those signed up under you, you yourself must have a total of 100PV per month. First off, PV is not dollar for dollar. The combo pack gives you just 77 PV. You now will need to purchase something else to get yourself up to the 100PV that will qualify you for your commission. (Remember not dollar for dollar you will average out paying about $120 a month plus shipping to get yourself the 100PV you need to qualify.

Now that you've qualified, now what? For EVERYONE you sign up as a Preferred or Associate Customer you will get 7% of their total purchase, minus shipping, as commission. Let's show an example. In order to BREAK even... to basically get your products free making no extra money.. (since to qualify for commission you HAVE to purchase 100PV) ALL that is under you will have to have a total combined monthly order of $1650.00. An average person just purchases the monthly combo pack which is 80 a month. So if everyone under you purchases just that you will have to sign up over 20 people to break even. Of course there will be some that will try other products.  You will also need to factor in those that have tried, and didn't like and never purchase again, and those that use for a few months and stop purchasing. In this business you will ALWAYS have to recruit new people to keep up with the 20 people under you to break even.

At this point we are only talking breaking even, we haven't even started to make any extra cash.. At this point you've made NOTHING extra as far as commission. They tell you the money is in the recruiting to get them signed up but in all reality it is NOT. 7% commission is literally pennies to the hard work you will have to accomplish to get these folks signed up. They say sign up people, because those above you benefit. As you sign up someone the person that signed you up, and the person that signed them up, etc. up to 8 people above you make money! They've done nothing and get a check from 7% down to 5% of your hard work signing up those under you, their total sales.

You yourself won't see any benefit of this until you push the selling onto those under you, and those under them until you gain a big under line or what they call a down line. You sit back while they work and you reap the paycheck. My husband calls that the pyramid effect.

 For the Associate wanting to really make money it's in selling the sample packs. You sell them for $25.00 each while you pay wholesale cost between $9-12 for each. You make a minimum of $13.00 in your pocket for every one you sell. You sell 20 to get those 20 people to sign up and you've grossed $260.00. This is money straight into your pocket and nobody had to sign up and you didn't have to wait for your commission once a month. Instant cash! Commission for those 20.. ZERO! Because you just basically paid for the 100PV they require you to purchase to gain commission!

Keep in mind in order to gain up to 8 levels of commission you have to be ranked as a 4 Star Director which you will have to have a total of 1000 people under you to accomplish this level!

Let's use my 'commission' that I've personally earned last month. I have a total of 11 people under me that have purchased products in the previous month. Out of those 11 people I grossed $45 and some change... That doesn't even cover half of the cost I had to pay to be commission qualified. So at this point as a recruiting associate, I'm losing money as far as signing up people.

That wasn't the case for my selling sample packs. I've grossed enough money off the sample packs since September when I started selling, I was able to purchase a brand new refrigerator for my kitchen over the black Friday event after Thanksgiving. Sample pack sales= money... Commission= no benefit.

Unfortunately they got you as far as keeping you 100PV each month. You have to be commission qualified to actually qualify to purchase sample packs.  So in order to buy sample packs to sell you have to keep purchasing products for yourself. The question then comes, when you reach your weight loss goal, they want you to keep buying their products because you have to ALWAYS be 100PV qualified to make money.

After all that, you are stuck. You will ALWAYS have to purchase products to keep your commission. The only way to get around that is to sign up RETAIL customers. Retail customers count towards your monthly PV total. You would need to find at least 2 people to purchase their monthly supply in order for you to not have too. Unfortunately once they get wind that they can save $20 a month signing up, you've now lost your PV points.

Now that I've done my research on their ingredients and took a closer look at their benefits package, I've decided to no longer purchase or sell these products. This means losing any future commission off those I've signed up already (which is fine).

I feel my time is better used to share weight loss techniques and healthy recipes to those interested in learning how to lose weight and eat healthy the right way. I am going back to my original way I lost my weight back in 2011.. Eating Right, Exercising, & Lifting Weights.. I hope you will stay connected to my blog here or LIKE my Facebook Page HERE to follow me.. I love sharing healthy recipes, weight loss and fitness motivation and more..

MY WEIGHT LOSS UPDATE!

I've read tons of reviews on this product. All unfortunately just discuss the weight loss benefits or the compensation plans of becoming an Associate, but hasn't touched base at all on those that have stopped using the products after losing weight.. Well here is my two cents. I stopped taking the combo pack almost 2 weeks ago. My weight then was 128lbs. My weight today.. 134lbs.

I started right away with a ton of cravings, and my appetite came back with a vengeance. I was able to control that since I'm used to writing down my food so I could keep control of my daily calorie intake but it was still hard to get used to since the past 6 months I've never had to work on controlling junk food cravings or the feeling of overeating. My energy level was low and needed to take a nap each day for the first 3 days.

Now after almost 2 weeks of being off the combo pack, my energy level has stabilized and I'm back working out regularly but my weight is still up at 134. I'm now worried that not taking these I'm going to gain back all the weight I've lost.. So is the benefit of taking these at this point  to stay on them forever to keep the weight off? I am working out each day and watching what I eat, but the weight came back on.. I look forward to writing up another weight loss post in the future to determine if the weight comes back on quickly even after working out and counting calories.. The verdict is still out!