I’ve begun an exercise video series called Slim in 6 featuring Debbie Siebers. There are three main programs — Start It Up! Ramp It Up! and Burn It Up! The idea is to do the first two programs every day for a week or two each, then the last program for the remaining weeks and (voila!) slim in six weeks.

I know my body isn’t happy if I repeat the same workout everyday, so I’m doing it every other day (alternating with other workouts, including some bonuses on these DVDs) and calling it Slim in 12.

I have more difficult videos, but I’ve never committed to doing them several times a week. I’m kind of impressed already with the changes that I’m feeling in my body in just a little over a week of alternate days of Start It Up! There isn’t any of that soreness and stiffness the next day that I associate with a good workout, but the consistency is paying off. I’m feeling some surprising muscle development: upper back, top of the hips, and across the chest.

This is the latest of many purchases I’ve made over the years from MultiLevel Marketing companies. I like to support women-owned business and, so often, the first business women attempt is an MLM. Too often, of course, it’s the last attempt. I suspect the secret to success with an MLM is to keep expectations low while acting as if expectations are high — not a skill I could manage.

The thing is, I’ve always been happy with the quality of the purchases I make from MLMs. I suspect that is the first priority for establishing an MLM. You have to have a product that you can get people to believe in–not only believe in enough to buy but enough to sell.

The company that sells Slim in 6, Beachbody, is more famous for some of its other programs: P90X, Insanity, Turbo Jam. Beachbody calls their marketers “coaches.” I highly recommend my coach, Melanie Gottlieb, for her encouragement and informed suggestions about which programs fit your current fitness level and goals. If you’re interested in these workouts, visit her Beachbody page: Melanie Gottlieb. Click on the orange Contact Me button above her picture and tell her I sent you.

Slim in 6 didn’t come with a book, exactly, but there’s plenty of printed material to please a reader. Simple Steps to Success is inspiring and contains a number of tips that really work like writing down your motivators and referring to them often.

6 Day Express Diet Plan has three quick weight loss plans that probably wouldn’t hurt most people. I’m not a big fan of that sort of thing but when I was younger I might have done them so I can’t really say that no one should. My experience is that pounds that come off slowly stay off.

Step-by-Step Nutrition Guide is a fold-out brochure with all the basic information for eating healthily. It contains the don’t eat 3 hours before bedtime advice to improve fat-burning, a notion that I thought had been thoroughly debunked. It is a beneficial rule to eliminate night-time snacking which is a difficult time for a lot of us–so not bad advice even if the reasoning is faulty. I rather like the “Michi’s Ladder” concept of putting foods in five different tiers — the idea is to eat the vast majority of foods from the top two tiers of healthy foods and save the bottom tiers for progressively more rare treats. I would argue with a few tier placements from a perspective of natural over artificial and the silliness of the potato prejudice, but most are where I would put them.

The Get Started brochure is more of a commercial for the other Beachbody products, more videos by the same instructor and shakes and supplements (which I’m not doing as I discussed a couple of weeks ago, Book Review: The Complete Guide to Growing and Using Sprouts).

With Slim in 6, a couple of good gardening days, and my husband’s new resolution to say “yes” when I say “how about a walk?” — I finished yesterday with 290 minutes of exercise so far this month, putting me right on track for 1300 minutes in February!

How are you doing with your exercise goals? Check in with Bookworm with a View to see how Mari and others are doing: CHECKpoint! Feb 7.