The Oprah Reaction

Read Julia Havey's article first on the previous blog post.

Here's my comments:

Julia, I couldn't agree with you more. I watched the show and had the same reaction. As an obesity survivor too, I completely understand the “Blue Chips” vice. But, why is there a bag of the chips within arms reach from her “diet” menu? How long will it be before the “Blue Chips” creep their way back on to the daily menu. I work with many women over 50 who are struggling with various hormonal challenges, so I KNOW that the thyroid issue is significant. She’ll have to work harder in her workouts and have daily struggles to find that paper menu appealing. Oprah, one day that fish and salad will lose to the Blue Chips if they are sitting side by side on an emotional day. Throw ‘em out the window NOW! Show yourself some love and figure out the vices before trying to revamp your pantry. Remember the last time you did that, you traded potato chips for these "Blue Chips", didn't you?

It was nice to see Oprah realize the importance of strength training for the aging woman. Exercise is everything for the woman over 40! If you used a hammer and nail to mount your new healthy habits, know that you can’t get anywhere without good nutrition. It’s the hammer. But nothing STAYS off or “up” without building and maintaining muscle. It’s the nail. Build yourself the strongest anchor possible and the healthy habits will weather the “age” storm much easier.

Healthy New Year

Healthy New Year!

This is a great article from Julia Havey. She is AWESOME! I admire her greatly and I'm always encouraged that there are other weight loss gurus that feel the way I do. Read on, it's a good one. My comments are on the next post.
-Marisa

Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays were blessed and you enjoyed some relaxing downtime.

Today is January 6th and the sad reality is that 71% of people who started a "diet" have already "cheated", as happens whenever someone goes on a diet. This statistics are from a survey that eDiets.com did to their 14 million readers to research if my Vice Busting principles to losing weight were fad or fact. What we found was amazing. 33% of people polled said that they break their diets EVERY day while another 38% said that the broke it at least once during the week. So we know 71% of people who are attempting to lose weight via a "diet" are doomed to fail. Sad.

Even more sad is that in front of millions of viewers (85% of who are likely on diets themselves or trying to lose weight because that is the number of Americans on a diet at any given moment) the most influential woman on television publically started yet another "DIET". Oprah, girlfriend when are you going to learn?

I just watched the videos from the show today, the BEST Life week which she is dedicating to helping people start the new year off right and she showed her diet menu for the month. I am will to bet all the money I have, against all the money that she has that within this month she will stray from her "diet menu", I am 100% certain of it.

Why?

Because she hasn't figured out yet that her figure doesn't rollercoaster up and down because she is deficient of the right meal plan but because she "loves" a few foods that when on a diet don't show up on the brocolli, salmon, 1/2 a yam meal or the oatmeal/egg whites breakfast.

The very foods that drive 71% of people to a binge within the first week of their diet; their "Vice Foods". A diet vice by definition is any food, drink or action that inhibits the individual from living at a healthful weight--habitual food drink or action. Your routine, your habits, your favorite munchy foods. Oprah held up a bag of Blue Chips and said if she doesn't plan, she will grab the chips and eat them all.

Oprah, it's NOT the diet menu, it's the chips! You can allow yourself more variety and interesting foods and eat normally once you BUST forever the vice foods that call your name, cry out to you in the middle of a stressful day.

We all have them. The most common are chips, soda, fast food, pizza, candy, cookies and chocolate.

Imagine what the obese population would look like if these foods were forever banned from their diet?

I can't watching anymore. Seeing Oprah on the path to another up and down makes me sad, and the fact that millions will line up to do what she's doing with her.

(I will note that in addition to having gone back to her vice foods, the years of dieting, like most of us, have taken a toll on her system--it did to mine. The thyroid can really go out of whack as our weight goes up and down. I am now on thyroid medication and bio-identical hormones and feel better than I have in years. I will be discussing those in my next book geared to women like me and like Oprah!)

I turned the channel, TLC was on and it was worse. They were running a show "Half Ton Mom" (she weighed 1400 pounds and died 2 weeks after gastric bypass surgery) and next up was "Half Ton Dad",(he lost 300 of his 1200 pounds in ONE month--just by eliminating his fast food and cola diet and putting him on a bit less than his typical 30,000 calories a day diet. The show also featured a teenager who weighed an astonishing 800 lbs on his journey to have gastric bypass.

It's not the bypass causes weight loss.

It's the elimination of pure junk from the diet, adding exercise, drinking water. Imagine my frustration to KNOW that I have the answer yet we live in a day and age where 2 Million people are now considered "Super Obese" in the U.S. and another 15 million are morbidly obese (the super obese are super morbidly obese).

Wonder how we got in this mess? Maybe, just maybe it has to do with the fact that we spend over 110 BILLION dollars a year consuming McDonalds and other Super Obese diet staples. That is more money than is spent on higher education.

Want off the roller coaster and have no interest in becomming "super"? Join me won't you and learn how to live diet free and lose weight and the best part is; keep that weight you shed OFF forever!

Julia
www.JuliaHavey.com