Oprah's Weight Challenges - It's A Love Thing!

Sometimes my Tivo overflows from the vast number of shows I record everyday and then goes on strike by completely shutting down. As a result, I often Tivo shows I missed the first time around taking advantage of Summertime to watch.

Yesterday I caught a rerun of Oprah's show where she confessed to her audience, and the world, how she fell off the wagon in her chronic lifelong battle with her weight.  Oprah said "it all starts with the truth." And that is exactly what she gave her audience.

(Image of Oprah Winfrey - DailyCeleb.com - All Rights Reserved).

Oprah said "the weight issue really hit home for me last year was getting ready for the Cher and Tina (Turner) show.  Because just like every women who has a special occasion coming up and wants to look special for and I feel the same way everybody else feels.  When you get up in the morning and you go to put on something and it doesn't fit."

Oprah said "well there I am doing the Tina and Cher show and feeling like 'how in the world did I let this happen to myself again'.  She said "and I was embarrassed and I wanted to be any place but there."

Oprah (53)  went on to share how it felt to share a big stage with Cher (61) and Tina Turner (68) who are both older than her but look amazing.  She said she felt a lot of anxiety about standing between those two American icons and trying to not make herself appear as big as she was.

She asked, who was the older women there?  Oprah was referring to the fact she was 53 at the time and Cher and Tina were both in their 60s.  She talked about not wanting to stand with the two women and was trying to figure out if she could put "half of her body" behind Cher's but then she noted "Cher's body is half of my body."

For Oprah it was a defining moment and it brought up the issues that she wanted to "hide" herself and her body.  She said she "felt awful".  She just wanted to disappear.  Oprah said it doesn't mean anything if you have all the money in the world and the fame if you can't fit into your clothes.

She said she is mad at herself and can't believe she is still talking about weight.  Oprah explained that her problems started to appear when she was 53 years old.  She made the rounds of the doctors who told her all sorts of things including that she needed to get off salt, she had to take heart medication and blood pressure medication.  Finally she said the viewers were telling her she had a thyroid problem.

Oprah reported she felt defeated when she heard it was a thyroid problem because a doctor told her she would have to learn to live with hunger.  She basically gave up on herself.

Reflecting back to when she turned 50 she admitted she never thought she would be 60 pounds heavier.  She also admitted she doesn't feel comfortable be the cover girl for her own magazine.  Oprah said she wasn't "proud of her body" and really didn't want to have to go through what to wear when she went to an event or get ready for a photo shoot.

Oprah said its ironic that she is one of the most visible people in the world who was trying not to be seen.  She asked "how crazy is that?"  She also talked about her motto of "living your best life" and she was very "disappointed in herself" because she didn't "practice what she was preaching" about living your best life.

February 2007

The weight started to pile on in February 2007.  Oprah admitted she became overwhelmed with her life.   She also told the audience that she knew during her long years of working with Bob that her fluctuations in her weight were always about emotions.

Bob Greene - Oprah Weight Loss Guru

Oprah's long time trainer for the past fifteen years was on the show and shared his thoughts about Oprah's lifelong struggle with weight.  As always he was very inspirational.

Bob has been a key part of Oprah's life for many years and he knows her better than most.  At one point Oprah shared the story of how she and Bob were out walking in her yard and he told her she seemed to have symptoms of low grade depression.

Bob said at one point he felt very sad because he thought Oprah was losing her zest for life.  He told her something was off, there was a dullness about her.  Bob wanted her to look into that.

Bob said he had a theory, he said he never talked to her about it, that Oprah never really learned how to be happy.  He said Oprah has a lot of work to do in that area.  While he believes she learned survival tools but not how to be happy.

Bob said that weight control is "about the rest of your life." He asked some important questions including "are you being fulfilled?"  He also asked "are you meeting all your needs in the rest of your life?  If you are...great...most likely you're going to be taking care of yourself.  If you're not...food is all of a sudden much more attractive."  He also noted "food becomes the way to comfort yourself in hard times."

Bob advises everyone who are trying to get to the answers of why have they failed with their weight loss to keep a journal.  He said in the journal you need to ask yourself is why are you overweight?  He pointed out the answer is not because you like a certain food.

Bob is looking for answers about why and what you are unhappy for.  He wants you to ask yourself what is the one area you could change about yourself.  What is it in your life you are looking for and haven't achieved.

Theme Of The Show

The entire one hour show was dedicated to the ongoing struggles of fighting overweight and learning the true secret of weight loss.  What is it?

To sum it up, its not really about what you eat or how or when you exercise, its about emotions and the balance or lack of it in your life and its a love thing.

As Oprah pointed out, when her weight was out of control it was because her life was out of balance.   She also said, it's not about the food.  It's about being hungry for something and just turning to food as the drug of choice.

The show was definitely heartfelt, brutally honest and a true tearjerker for any man, woman or child who has had to struggle with their weight at any level of intensity during their lifetime.

Oprah put herself out there like no other person of her public statue could.  She also showed why she has been so beloved for so many years and reigned as the Queen Of Daytime Talk Shows.  When it matters, Oprah will open up her heart, soul, mind and in this case her body, to share her innermost angst with the world.

Yes, there are Oprah critics out there.  You can't be a public figure like Oprah without having critics and haters.  Who knows if there are other dark secrets lurking around Oprah as the media might have us believe.  Afterall, she's human made of flesh and blood and isn't perfect.  I suspect she would be the last person to say she was.

Oprah again hit it out of the park.  She left the audience with an important question.  What are you really hungry for?

For her she admits she is "hungry" for balance.  She understands she need to make Oprah time and to redo her priorities so there is always time for her and she doesn't try to compensate for her lack of balance by eating her entire bag of "blue chips".

Oprah ended the amazing show by telling people who are struggling with their weight to ask themselves...why have you fallen off the wagon?

At the end of the show Oprah advised the audience and anyone wanting to deal with their own weight issues to Oprah.com to learn about Living Your Best Life with regard to dealing with your weight issues.

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