Oprah Winfrey Admits to Tipping the Scales at 200 Lbs
Having packed 40 pounds onto her former 160-pound self, Oprah Winfrey is declaring, “I’m mad at myself” because she’s “fallen off the wagon.”
As the media mogul, 54, writes in the January issue of her O magazine hitting newsstands Tuesday (and provided in advance to the Associated Press by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions): “I’m embarrassed … I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?’ ”
For starters, the fact that her thyroid was out-of-balance gave her “a fear of working out,” she says. “I was so frustrated I started eating whatever I wanted – and that’s never good.”
Having slimmed down to 160 in 2006, she admits, “Yes, you’re adding correctly. That means the dreaded 2-0-0.”
Past Diets
Winfrey memorably revealed her new look on her show in 1988 – by wheeling out a wagon loaded with fat to represent the 67 pounds she had shed. On that episode, she sported a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans.
“My greatest failure was in believing that the weight issue was just about the weight,” Winfrey told PEOPLE in 1991. “It’s about not handling stress properly.”
But when it came to slipping into those jeans, “I had literally starved myself for four months [on a liquid-protein diet] – not a morsel of food,” Winfrey, an admitted food addict, said in 2005. “Two hours after that show, I started eating to celebrate – of course, within two days those jeans no longer fit!”
Winfrey’s weight has long been a topic on her show – and even for late-night hosts. In 1990, she hit 237 pounds, eventually prompting her in 1996 to enlist personal trainer Bob Greene. At the time, she said she had wanted to bring an end to her roller-coaster weight saga.
‘Felt Like a Fat Cow’
Choosing a gown for the Barack Obama inauguration coming up in January, however, made Winfrey realize her self-image was no longer jibed with the person standing on the scales – though the real low point occurred last April.
“I felt like a fat cow,” Winfrey writes of the occasion when she sought to skip out on a Las Vegas show taping with Cher and Tina Turner. “I wanted to disappear.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Winfrey’s weight and height rank her as obese, with a body mass index of 31.8 – putting her at “at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol,” says the CDC.
Winfrey intends to address the issue on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which will kick off Best Life Week Jan. 5.
She is also expected to discuss her weight that same day on her XM satellite radio station’s The Gayle King Show. Winfrey will also host interactive live Web casts at Oprah.com the week of Jan. 12 to 16, nightly at 9 p.m. ET.
JEREMIAH WRIGHT CALLS HASSELBECK ‘DUMB BROAD’
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*In a sermon delivered Sunday at his old stomping ground, Barack Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright referred to one of his harshest critics, Elisabeth Hasselbeck of ABC’s “The View,” as “that dumb broad.”
Speaking at Trinity United Church of Christ for its 47th anniversary, Rev. Wright included his trademark array of history lessons, mimicry and singing, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. His ire, however, was saved for Hasselbeck, who Wright twice referred to as a “broad,” including once as “that dumb broad.”
Wright expressed pride in Obama’s longtime association with Trinity United Church of Christ, where he recently retired after serving 36 years as senior pastor.
“The hatred of the media and the haters in politics may have caused him to distance himself from us, but the love of Christ will never allow me to distance myself from him,’ Wright said of Obama. “I can no more disown him than I can disown any other child of mine who makes [a] bad decision. He made a bad decision, but he’s still my child.”
Wright and his sermons became controversial during the presidential race, particularly one in which he said “God damn America.” Obama subsequently cut ties with Wright and the church where he was married and where his children were baptized.
Also at Trinity on Sunday was the Rev. Michael Pfleger, whom Wright called “my main man.” Pfleger drew heat with criticism of then-candidate Hillary Clinton last spring.
OBAMA PLEDGES NO SMOKING IN WHITEHOUSE
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U.S. President-elect Barack Obama failed to give a straight answer when asked Sunday whether he had managed to quit smoking.
In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC’s Barbara Walters.
Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, “Have you stopped smoking?”
“I have,” Obama replied, smiling broadly. “What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon.”
“Wait a minute,” Brokaw interjected, “that means you haven’t stopped.”
“Fair enough,” Obama said. “What I would say is that I have done a terrific job under the circumstances of making myself much healthier. You will not see any violations of these rules in the White House.”
For MORE of this Reuters story, go HERE.
The Next Project…
Teaser Trailer for upcoming Book “101 Things Every Boy of Color Needs to Know” by Lamar Shields of the Urban Leadership Institute, and accompanying Documentary
are you kidding me?
this was shown on network television in the 60’s? well let me back up, as I watched “flava of luv” came to mind, so I guess things have not changed too much?
and move onto 1978…
Media Bombardment Is Linked To Ill Effects During Childhood
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2008; Page C07
In a detailed look at nearly 30 years of research on how television, music, movies and other media affect the lives of children and adolescents, a new study released today found an array of negative health effects linked to greater use.
The report found strong connections between media exposure and problems of childhood obesity and tobacco use. Nearly as strong was the link to early sexual behavior.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University said they were surprised that so many studies pointed in the same direction. In all, 173 research efforts, going back to 1980, were analyzed, rated and brought together in what the researchers said was the first comprehensive view of the topic. About 80 percent of the studies showed a link between a negative health outcome and media hours or content.
“We need to factor that in as we consider our social policies and as parents think about how they raise their kids,” said lead researcher Ezekiel J. Emanuel, director of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, which took on the project with the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media. “We tend not to think of this as a health issue, and it is a health issue.”
The average modern child spends nearly 45 hours a week with television, movies, magazines, music, the Internet, cellphones and video games, the study reported. By comparison, children spend 17 hours a week with their parents on average and 30 hours a week in school, the study said.
“Our kids are sponges, and we really need to remember they learn from their environment,” said coauthor Cary P. Gross, professor at Yale School of Medicine. He said researchers found it notable how much content mattered; it was not only the sheer number of hours of screen time. Children “pick up character traits and behaviors” from those they watch or hear, he said.
Marcella Nunez-Smith, a lead author and also a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, described the project as a “mammoth” undertaking that spanned more than 18 months.
In probing childhood obesity, for example, researchers found 73 studies over the past three decades, with 86 percent showing a negative association with media exposure. The studies most central to the analysis were large high-quality efforts and controlled for other factors.
Researchers are not interested in any sort of censorship, Nunez-Smith said, but rather an increased awareness among parents, teachers and society at large. “It really is a wake-up call,” she said.
The study did not touch on issues of violence and media, which researchers said was systematically reviewed by others. Researchers also excluded analysis of advertising or marketing. Most studies used in the analysis, as it turned out, focused on movies, music and television. Researchers said a big gap was the lack of research on the effects of the Internet, cellphones, social-networking sites and video games.
In their study, they rated as above average evidence to support the link between media exposure and drug use, alcohol use and low academic achievement. Evidence was weaker for the association with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. “It does not mean the link is not there, but the research evidence has not gotten there yet,” Gross said.
It’s legal to do what here?
So my 6th or 7th country this year, (and 4 continenets, but whose counting)…I met a wonderful bunch of filmmakers from all over the world during the week long africa in the film festival, in Amsterdam. The coordinator Heidi, finally popped me an email with some shots today, again, unfortunately, it was in Dutch, I’ve got to get me a transcription service. The other filmmaker is Petna from the Congo, a great film, I just can’t find a link to it via the internet. I can’t tell you how much fun I had there, really, I can’t!
Is O.J. Simpson’s final chapter a prison term?
LAS VEGAS – During his trial for armed robbery and kidnapping, O.J. Simpson once sat in a courthouse hallway musing on what might have been: Before his arrest, he had considered moving to Las Vegas, where he liked the climate and the people he had met.
Now he could spend the rest of his life in Nevada’s prison.
The 61-year-old former football star, actor and TV pitchman will be sentenced Friday along with a co-defendant in a hearing that marks the end of Simpson’s journey from fame and fortune to crime and punishment.
does anybody speak norwegian?
so i got a link sent to me today as a, very funny ha ha ha, reference. I was in Norway earlier this year and did an article that made the front page of what is their version of “The Washington Post” (yes the Post not the NY Times)…anyway I can’t read one word of this thing…and nothing on the web comes close to a discernable translation…HALP! )it got really cool when I saw a picture of Obama, MLK and Tupace as photo inserts!
Den fæle, svarte mannen
Er det flest svarte menn på college eller i fengsel? Filmskaper Janks Morton mener tida er inne for et oppgjør med mytene.
TRUDE RINGHEIM
tri@dagbladet.no
Are there more black men in college or in jail?
HISTORIEN: Borgerrettighetsbevegselsens Martin Luther King hadde planer.
Foto: Scanpix
IKONET: Tupac uttrykte hatet, frustrasjonen og desperasjonen.
Foto: Scanpix
SYNC MY CONTACTS!
So I spent my entire Sunday doing two things, watching my Redskins get smashed, and smashing my head on my computer desk working on this iPhone (over-the-air) sync thing.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Nuevasync rocks! (www.nuevasync.com) if you want a turnkey solution for iphone to google (both calendar and contacts) realtime updates to all synced devices, with no “sync now” button
Google Calendar sync semi-rocks…Outlook on my desktop synced with google calendar every 5 minutes is pretty cool
Jott Rocks! call into the toll free number, and make appointments automatically put into google calendar or Outlook on desktop
So what has had me stuck for the past 8.2 hours, finding a utility to sync my Outlook Desktop and Google Contacts (like Google Calnedar sync)
tried gsyncit (FAIL)
tried ogg-something or other – FAIL
help! somebody out there has got to have an insight to this one…would make my life that more complete
What Black Men Think 