Friday, January 30, 2009

Calories in Lettuce

Despite setback after setback in the court cases against Kimkins, Kimmer still finds the time to caution her members about the calories in lettuce. In a recent reply to a member that wondered if she needed to increase her calories over the earlier recommended starvation level, Kimmer responded:

"Are you sure you are eating 897 calories? The main reason I ask "stalled" people for their Fitday link is to check the food descriptions they picked."

"People can also get confused about quantities. Many times people either don't weigh food and guess at the amount, or they don't know which foods should be measured vs. weighed so their Fitday entries are inaccurate. As an example, 8 oz of lettuce in a measuring cup would be the size of a yogurt container, but 8 oz of lettuce on a food scale would be 8 cups."

A diet for which an additional 31 calories and 2.1 gram carbs from an "excessive" amount of lettuce is making a difference is a sad one.

But what can you expect from an obese diet "guru" that looks as if she never managed to follow any diet at all?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Kimkins Bankrupt

In an attempt to avoid certification of the Class Action Lawsuit, Heidi Diaz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Kimkins.

Luckily, that did not prevent certification. Heidi failed to show up for the Class Action hearing and had a default judgment entered against her.

It remains to be seen what will happen with the bankruptcy. She may have a hard time explaining why she started a new website, Simple Choices Diet, when she supposedly is busy reorganizing Kimkins to regain it's footing as a viable operation.

There has been speculation that Heidi would move the existing Kimkins members to her new site. I doubt it. Not unless they are willing to become subscribers and pay the monthly fee the new site charges. Of course, she may offer them a free trial membership for a few months to just populate the forum for her. That would save her the cost of hiring professional sock puppets.

It's not surprising that Heidi is now changing her business model to a monthly payment plan instead of the lifetime membership she had on Kimkins. She must have regretted choosing that option. Lately, the only new posters on the site have been returning members that do not bring in any new revenue.

Personally, I think the new site is an attempt to get rid of Clexus, a joomla tech support company. Clexus may have helped finance the buy out from Catherine, the partner Heidi initially had for Kimkins. At least there must be a reason that Heidi is continuing to pay money to this company. Around 25% after business expenses, if I read the bankruptcy data correctly. Having seen how Heidi operates, my guess is that she is not too happy about sharing any income. She did not like Catherine getting 50% of the profit when Heidi "was doing all the work." Surely she has the same opinion about Clexus.

The new site is using SMF (Simple Machines) free forum software. Brandon has some experience with it as he has had it on his own forum for some time (thecorruptedcanvas.com). I wouldn't call him an expert as he seems to have had problems with custom tweaks he has done. But at least Heidi could hope to get rid of the tech expenses she now has for running the joomla board on Kimkins.

I'm sure that Clexus is not too happy about what is going on with Kimkins. Having the company run down by Heidi. Spending a lot of money on google ads that don't result in revenue. Seeing the reputation of the company going down the tube. But not having presence in this country, I suspect they have few options of making their voice heard. However, my guess is that they have already gotten a higher payback than they ever expected.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Busy Court Month for Kimkins

The Kimkins Class action suit is moving along with a snail's pace, as legal cases generally do. After the first filing more than a year ago, we have finally reached the point of having a hearing for the motion for Class Certification. This is scheduled for 01/14/2009.

Kimkins is no longer represented by a lawyer. Heidi Diaz will represent herself, unless she finds a new lawyer the next couple of days.

So will she show up? She doesn't have a good track record for court appearances in the past.

What happens if she doesn't show up? Unless she has filed some type of excuse I would assume that there will be a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, i.e. class action certification will be granted. I may be wrong.

The next scheduled court hearings are on 01/27 and 01/28. These are a number of similar hearings all dealing with determining jurisdiction for the defendants in Heidi's counter suit (SLAPP suit). As none of them is a resident of California it is not that obvious that they can be sued in Riverside Court.

What happens if the plaintiff, Heidi, doesn't show up at the hearing for HER counter suit? I would assume that it is dropped. Again, I could be wrong.

The third item in court is a hearing on 01/29 in Small Claims Court. The City of Corona is suing her for failing to pay a business license fee. They are not asking for much money at all, and it wouldn't surprise me if Heidi has already paid it. But then, it didn't make sense not to pay it in the first place. I would expect her not to show up for this hearing and just get a default judgment against her. Leaving the City of Corona having to try to collect the money owned.