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Body Obsession is an Equal Opportunity Obsession

Written on June 01, 2008

I read it and I couldn't believe it. I read it again, thinking for sure this is just another attempt by the media to harass Oprah Winfrey about her weight. But the deeper I dug, the more I had to say to myself, "Say it ain't true!" But alas, Oprah is going on a diet.........again.

Well, maybe you wouldn't call it a diet, but given that she's attempting to change her diet to only vegan dishes for 21 days, well in my opinion, it's a diet. She and 3 other friends are going on this "diet" in an effort to detox, i.e. lose weight.

She will have her chef to create the vegan dishes and of course a personal trainer on call and well, it's an interesting observation because although she has the luxury of a chef and a trainer and staff to cater to her, she continues to struggle the way most women struggle with their weight.

At first when I read that she was going on this 21-Day Diet Detox, part of me was enraged, "What kind of an example are you setting when one minute you're telling women to embrace who they are, and understand diversity and in the next breath you're swearing by Optifast, going gaga over the Sugar Busters diet? You have a responsibility to young girls and women everywhere to stay away from crazy weight loss schemes and walk the talk, embrace who you are and be done with it!" But then I realized, just because she has loads of money (gross understatement) she is still a woman that cares how she looks, cares what people think and say and at the end of the day she feels fat and frustrated.

When I came out with my book Reality Fitness in 2000, I was literally a phone call away from being on her show. They requested 25 copies of the book. I received a letter saying that they would get in touch with me and well, the rest is history.

I really wish that I had been given the opportunity to be on that show if for no other reason than to say to her, "Look, you are not meant to be a thin woman, but you ARE meant to be a healthy woman. Don't let the media dictate what size you wear or what the scale reflects. Make choices based on your health, NOT on the scale because at the end of the day, if you base your choices on your health, you'll naturally make better choices."

I would have told her, "Thousands of men and women struggle with unrealistic expectations about their body every day. It's time that you realize that EVERY TIME you embark on a new diet you are actually compromising both your mental and physical health. In fact, most "first time" dieters are usually not more than 5-10 pounds overweight. Simple lifestyle changes here and there could have taken care of that. But instead, they enter in to some wacky diet and food (or lack thereof) becomes the focus in their world. It's unfortunate, but I see it all the time. Diets perpetuate body obsession and unrealistic expectations about the body. Additionally, they never TEACH they simply preach."

Though I didn't have an opportunity to go on her show, I did meet her and walk along the lake with her many years ago, right after her book, "Making the Connection" came out. We had a lovely, albeit brief conversation and she told me that she was really excited about finally understanding the connection between lifestyle and weight and that Bob (her personal trainer) had played a key role in helping her see that.

But like everything and everyone else, life got in the way, her body began changing due to hormones/menopause and well, rather than working with the natural changes her body was experiencing, she gets nailed for being "Fat again" and gets back in to the world of dieting, it's too bad.

But the obvious illustration here is that no matter how much money and power one may have, it still doesn't exempt them for the natural struggles that we all encounter be it personal relationships, insecurity or body image problems. Either way, I wish that she could stand back and realize the impact of this 21-Day Diet Detox (if it's anything like her book club it will surely trigger mass detoxing by the world), not a good thing; it sends the wrong message.

Though I suppose at the end of the day this "diet" humanizes Oprah and makes us all realize that in the scheme of things, none are impervious to the pressures put on us by society to be something we're not all necessarily meant to be, skinny.