Don’t Fall for “Bait and Switch” Tactics

I must admit to a pet peeve and I’m probably not alone in this.

Occasionally on Twitter, I’ll discover new people are “following” me. Great, love new followers! I’ve developed some fabulous friendships this way. But what really gets me ticked off, are those who only go on “fishing” expeditions.

You know the ones I’m talking about.  Those who “follow” my Twitter account in hopes I’ll click onto theirs and follow back, then unfollow the next day? These are “bait and switchers.” They care nothing about me. (Don’t like phonies, never have, never will.) They only want to add to their numbers (even some Christian sites do this! Shameful!) Sorry I won’t fall for it. I can “unfollow” faster than follow.

I don’t understand their thinking. Why are they only searching for numbers? Do they believe an agent/ publisher will think, wow, so many followers! I’ll sell twelve more copies of their books. I’d rather have a 100 true friends than 74 thousand phony ones, wouldn’t you? My followers become friends and I praise God for some amazing people I’ve met through blogging, Facebook and Twitter.

Well once again, as a nutritional counselor, I connected this to false diet plans and the gurus who create and profess “Join this diet plan and lose ten pounds in the first week as millions have done in the past!”

You see, like those who bait and switch to create a huge false following, those diets are fishing too.

“OVER A MILLION PEOPLE HAVE LOST WEIGHT ON THE __________ DIET PLAN. YOU CAN TOO!”

But you protest, “A million people can’t be wrong!” Sure they can. An old Chinese proverb professes, “Even if 5,000 men are wrong – they’re STILL wrong.” Numbers mean little except when it comes to Heaven.

“There is no salvation by anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10 ISV)

Of course millions have lost weight on diets – any diet will allow you to lose weight. But there’s no easy way to do so. More importantly, how many have kept it off? My guess is not many!

False diet plans can’t be consumed forever because they are unbalanced. It’s physiology. The body’s chemistry would rebel. Those diets lack vital and necessary nutrients for normal physiological functions. The body wants to survive and will do all it can do rectify this false mindset, even shutting down your metabolism in order to conserve caloric energy. Or worse, retaining fat because it perceives the crops have failed and you need rescuing!

False prophets and false diet gurus profess all types of claims because they want followers too. Their false claims aren’t backed up by Truth. And those who snidely remark how naïve I am to believe God’s Word over “science” are the same people who claim it’s unhealthy to eat potatoes, eggs, dairy, avocadoes  . . .  Then physiological truth appears and scientists whisper, “whoops, never mind.”

I declare, some who follow these false teachings are the same people who wistfully believe a hot dog and ice cream diet will make them slimmer and healthier. (Oh, in case you think I’m exaggerating, just ask Oprah who in the mid 1990s set up a false diet center in a mall professing that bogus claim and had 41 people sign up in 2 days!)

“The inexperienced inherit foolishness, but the sensible are crowned with knowledge.” (Proverbs 14:18 HSV) 

What I am asking you to do is research before you act. Signing up for crazy diet plans will only make your wallet slimmer, not your waistline!