What is Oprah's Problem?

I know the title of this blog sounds accusatory, even rude, but it is not meant to be! It's meant to address the fact that I KNOW what her problem is, well at least one of them. When it comes to her weight loss (and gain issues), one major problem is I see is that she does not enjoy her exercise regiment. I've said over and over again if you dread what you choose to do for exercise, you will not stick to it, plain and simple. Read on and you'll see what I mean.

I bring up Oprah because the other day I was at the Library and saw on the sale rack for $1, a video by her called "Making the Connection...It's About Changing Your Life". I was intrigued, especially after noticing the tape was made in the mid 1990's (it IS a VIDEO TAPE). Intrigued also because of what we all know now, which is she gained all of it back.

The hour long video takes us smack into Oprah's weight loss struggles, issues, and plans to revamp and rejuvinate herself. In the tape she talks with other women about their overeating issues and how they felt about their bodies. One of the most interesting parts is her story: she goes back to key moments in her life and career where, unbeknowst to her fans, her primary focus is how much she weighs at the time. Her turning point came when she won her first daytime emmy for her talk show. She knew the show was coming up, vowed to diet to be "show ready", stressed out daily that she wasn't doing what she needed to do to lose the weight, ate more...many of us can relate. When her name was announced as the winner, all she could think about was how much she did not want to walk up those stairs and onto that stage because she felt too big and she didn't want people to look at her "big butt and how it moved"! THIS IS POWERFUL. What a shame. It was a moment I may have even witnessed on TV and who could have ever guessed that this successful woman was obsessing about her weight when she was at her highest point career wise?

So, she vows this is it, no more, etc. She hires Bob Greene as her personal trainer, apparently to WHIP HER INTO SHAPE. QUITE LITERALLY. The video chronicles her daily work outs with Bob, her nutritious meals, the whole bit. As I was watching it, I thought to myself, this is NOT sustainable. Oprah hated almost every minute of the gruelling exercise sessions. In fact, she would prance around the gym on the way out the door singing "I'm done, I'm done!!!" She would also get very annoyed with her trainer scolding him often, and telling him to be quiet. It was obvious to me that here she is doing this motivation video for people with the accent on how she wasted all this time obsessing about her weight and food, and yet this video and her regiment was all just a big waste of time for her once again in the end.

I felt compelled to go find out her weight today but could find no numbers. It seems Oprah has now given up dieting thanks to Geneen Roth, who advises to never deprive yourself and find out what it is that eating is keeping from discovering about yourself and what you are lacking in your life. I have heard about Geneen Roth and really like her theories. I will discuss them in a later blog. The point of this post is Oprah's ultimate problem: LACK OF BALANCE

In 2008 she said so herself on her show when she confessed her continuing weight issues. That is what i saw on this video: PUSHING HERSELF TO DO A TORTUROUS EXERCISE ROUTINE 6 DAYS A WEEK FOR 2 HOURS A DAY OR SO WILL NOT PROMOTE BALANCE AND WELL BEING. Only resentment and fatigue. There are just so many ways to get exercise, and the treadmill or stairmaster (2 of the worst offenders in my book) do not have to be part of your fitness routine!!!

I want to wrap this up for now, but i leave you with this: When I am (choose one) working, playing, really doing anything TOO MUCh, I lose balance, and I turn to food just like Oprah. The classic scenario for me is being so tired, but my schedule not allowing for sleep, so I stare blindly eating something, hoping that will be the magic elixir (when all i really need is sleep!) Sound familiar? Think about it.