View From The Top

The story of Christine San-Heires, President of Slender World (originally appeared in Women's Edition Magazine)

By James T. Heires

My greatest reward comes from my clients on their way out: ‘Christine, I always feel so good when I leave Slender World,’” says Christine.

Christine in redChristine says that a goal at Slender World is to treat their clients with respect and thoughtfulness. “My goal is achieved when my ladies see themselves worthy of life’s little luxuries, and determine on their own if they need to improve part of their life, without feeling guilty. I also believe that women who believe they do not measure up to the glamour girl image can cause self-depreciation and pain, which hinders self-esteem.” Ultimately, Christine believes that one’s ability to be loved is affected by her inability to be relaxed, confident and spontaneous. Christine has herself experienced the extreme loss of confidence and spontaneity in her life.

“Let me tell you how I have experienced discrimination,” says Christine. “Any form of discrimination hurts and affects you the same—pain is pain!” Born in the latter part of World War II in Munich, from a German mother and French father, Christine found herself as a young girl only able to speak German with her mother (her father only spoke a few words). By first grade, Christine realized how divided Paris was at the time. “Little did I know that school then was a very rough place for German-speaking children.” The French hated everything German at the time. “If the language barrier was not enough, my blue eyes and dark hair were not typical of French girls.” Christine experienced teasing, being excluded from activities, and other forms of discrimination. “I couldn’t understand why I was being punished; I had not done anything wrong.” Nor did Christine’s young mother understand why all this was happening. “Then came the time for my vaccination,” Christine explains. “The French doctor refused to touch a little ‘Bosch’” (derogatory term for a German). Can you imagine the pain a mother must feel to hear this from a doctor?

“It dawned on me early on in life that humans created a monster with discrimination, and somebody had to be the victim.” Today Christine is plagued with a chronic immune system problem. It will never be known whether not having that childhood vaccination facilitated her illness in adulthood. You can see why Christine understands the feelings of those who are being judged unfairly. In business, she strives to build her clients’ self-image so that they may overcome the discrimination they feel in their own lives.

Despite the negative experiences in her life, Christine still manages a healthy sense of humor. We know immediately if Christine is present, for when she is, her laughter fills the place with life.

Just as Christine is unique, so is her Slender World program. To begin with, it is based upon the use of regular grocery store food. “We are so blessed to have better than average quality and quantity of food here,” observes Christine. “That gets us back to nature, and will benefit us physically and emotionally.” Dr. Heath Whittle has been Slender World’s biochemist for over 25 years, creating an individualized menu for each client. He considers each lady’s age, height, health condition, current and desired weight, and establishes proper food portions from the client’s favorite foods. “We have to constantly train our ladies how to eat properly,” explains Christine. “The client would surely fail once they left Slender World, if they didn’t learn to eat properly using regular foods.”

Although the meal plan solves the client’s long-term problem, immediate benefits are realized with Slender World’s European body wrap treatments. Christine explains, “Our patented contour lotion, unique to Slender World, stimulates microcirculation in areas of the body which have expanded as a person grows larger.” The problem is that since blood vessels do not grow into fat deposits, the circulation system has difficulty flushing fat from these areas. This makes it hard to lose weight. Because heat softens fat, it is an essential element of the body wrap treatment. “Our special blend of aromatic oils and allantoin gently warm the body to soften these tough bulges making them more available for your body to flush naturally,” says Christine. This is the reason that drinking water is so important—without a means to flush the liquefied fat, it will simply harden again and stay in place.

But don’t worry about the science, Christine and her staff are there to lead clients through their program, every step of the way.

“One of my greatest complements received lately is from Kay Donohue. Kay suffers from Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis, and sees Dr. Brooks (a rheumatologist). She is a former Miss Virginia, tennis pro, career nurse (28 years) and was once very active with her husband Mike in the community. Now, she takes many medications and cannot walk or exercise for even short periods of time without tremendous pain. After being on the Slender World program, she is down to a size 12 petite from a top weight of 170 pounds!” exclaims Christine. “The body wraps are saving my life and my sanity,” adds Kay, “and Dr. Brooks has even encouraged me to continue on the program.” Kay says that the body wrap program has helped reduce her arthritic pain and the home products, such as the algae bath, provide relief on the days she is away from Slender World.

Another client that likes the Slender World program is Dixie Maas. “Christine, I love your mind and body connection,” Dixie says. “Dixie, unfortunately comes to me after each hip replacement (three so far), and finds the help she needs to lose her excess weight and maintain her proper nutrition.” “My physical therapist is impressed with my results,” says Dixie. The self-improvement goes way beyond the weight loss, however. Consultation on hair, makeup and wardrobe are bonus services that Slender World clients have come to expect. “I try to make my clients become more of themselves,” Christine says, “because authenticity is a big turn-on!”

Not every Slender World client has such serious medical conditions. Some otherwise healthy clients find value with Slender World’s friendly environment and supportive staff. Kathy Barry likes the enthusiastic, upbeat and positive environment at Slender World. “I needed a little push to achieve an aggressive goal before my cruise, and Slender World provided the motivation I needed,” says Kathy. “It was a comfortable, fun place to go for me. The guidance was always good and the program was professionally carried out.” Ms. Barry especially likes the meal plans because they promote a sensible, healthy eating habit and come with sample menus that can be mixed and matched to obtain lots of variety. “I didn’t feel hungry or deprived while on the Slender World program,” Kathy says. “It’s a great program for anyone wishing to lose weight.”

As you can see the Slender World approach is accessible to everyone who would like to learn good eating habits. “Obesity has almost passed AIDS and lung cancer as a killer disease,” Christine explains. “Slender World is for the not-so-young to refill their reserve of enthusiasm and recharge their emotional batteries.”