In what is probably the biggest non-news of the new year so far, it has come out that Oprah Winfrey (otherwise known as Queen Of All She Surveys) is upset with herself that she’s regained some of the weight she worked so hard to lose:

Oprah Winfrey blames the mild depression she suffered after gaining so much weight last year on working too much at the expense of taking the time to relax.

Winfrey yesterday confessed on her U.S. television show that she was miserable - although she never came out and admitted she had depression - and vowed to change her attitude towards food.

The 54-year-old, who at one point tipped the scales at 14.3 stone, said she was determined to change in 2009.

She said: ‘It’s not about the food. It’s about using food - abusing food.

‘Too much work and not enough play. Not enough time to come down. Not enough time to really relax.

‘I am hungry for balance. I’m hungry to do something other than work.

Winfrey, who has been diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance known as hypothyroidism, says she is now devoting more time from her 14-hour workday schedule to her own well-being, which includes regular exercise.[...]

Winfrey said she began suffering sleep issues and heart palpitations over a year ago.

‘None of the doctors recognised it was a thyroid problem, but our viewers did,’ she said. ‘The moment I heard I had a thyroid problem, I thought I don’t even know how to fight this. It’s about balance. When I ask myself what I am hungry for, I am hungry for balance.’

Her fitness guru also appeared on yesterday’s broadcast and said Winfrey had lost her ‘zest for life’

Bob Greene said he was alarmed at the change in the behaviour of the chat show queen, who has struggled with her weight throughout her life.

He said things got particularly bad in 2008 when she couldn’t shift the extra pounds.

‘I looked in her eyes, and she wasn’t there,’ he said. ‘She was very vacant and distracted. It was alarming to me.

‘I think I felt she was losing her zest for life, and that was one of the saddest moments.’

Okay.  Where do I start?

First of all, if you have a thyroid problem (and I’m not blowing smoke here, I’ve been diagnosed with a very malfunctioning thyroid as well) then you’ve got to get that issue taken care of before weight comes off.  It’s just that simple.  All the rest and “taking time for yourself” and “discovering ‘me’ time” and “getting in touch with the inner me” isn’t going  to do you a spit’s worth of good if your thyroid is going wonky.  You’ve got to get that taken care of, and that should ideally be done through one’s physician.  And quite frankly, I NEVER watch Oprah’s show and I figured out on my own that she had a thyroid problem, so if her doctors couldn’t see it then I respectfully submit that she find new doctors.

Second…the woman is fifty-four years old.  I don’t care what anyone says, most (and I’m using generalities here) women in their fifties usually do carry around a few extra pounds.  Oh, I know Madonna doesn’t, but she exercises four hours and eats one organic poached fish fillet a day.  But most normal women do have a few extra pounds here and there, and they do find it harder to lose those pounds as they get older.  It’s a normal part of aging.  I’m not even forty yet and I find that it is harder for me to lose weight now than it was when I was in my late teens…that’s because my body is different now than it was then.  That isn’t failure, it’s a part of life.  Now, you can’t fall back on that as an excuse to gain weight, but you do have to work at find different ways of losing it.

And last, but certainly not least…this is why I have issues with Oprah, and generally any celeb who starts touting their personal way of life as The Way To Eternal Happiness.  How many diets, eating plans, life plans, and the like has Oprah touted through the years?  How many books has she authored or endorsed which tell us what to eat, how to eat, what exercises to do, what thoughts to think to help us be happy?  Yet, here she is, at the end of it all, still fighting a weight issue, still not happy?  Yet, she’s had the gall all these years to try and tell US what to do to be happy?  What happened to all those diets, food programs, self-help books?  Did she fail at them…or, much more likely, were they all a bunch of hooey to start with?

I’m not picking on Oprah because she gained back a little weight.  It happens to the best of us.  And she’s right about one thing…many of us do use food for something other than its intended purpose.  I’m just saying that she doesn’t have all the answers and all the Oprahloonies who hang on her every word, buy every book she authors or endorses, and participates in all the New Age crap she touts need to step back and realize their idol is just like everybody else.  Most of us do have the problem of too much work versus not enough relaxing time, and we do get depressed that we gain a bit of weight and we don’t have enough time to rest and devote to something other than work…that’s called LIFE, and in that respect she needs to stop acting like hers is somehow different from ours.  Welcome to the real world, Oprah.  Congratulations, you’re just like the rest of us.

Oprah doesn’t have all the answers, people, and this should make it obvious.  She’s so busy trying to change the world that she is losing herself.

Source: k