This morning on Good Morning America, and this month in the January issue of O Magazine, Oprah Winfrey is sharing that she has gained 40 pounds in the last year and now weighs 200 pounds.
Apparently when the magazine's staff met mid-year to talk about the
January cover, and talk turned to health, fitness and New Year's Resolutions, Oprah felt she couldn't participate in the discussion without being honest about her weight gain and doing something about it.
Oprah's best friend, Gayle King, who is also editor-at-large of the magazine, said that Oprah's feelings about the issue surprised even her. Oprah says, in a magazine essay, that she is "embarrassed" and unhappy with herself, that she was "talking the talk but not walking the walk."
I have weight issues too, as do so many of us. I can't imagine what it's like to have all eyes on you every day, as Oprah does -- every outfit, every pound gained or lost, every reaction right there for all the world to see. Perhaps it's fitting, then, that her mission for this January for health and fitness in her own life coincides with two weeks of "Live Your Best Life" shows, in which she will talk about her weight gain and ask her trainer, Bob Green, and Dr. Mehmet Oz to participate in the program.
Here's an article about Oprah's Good Morning America appearance and a video clip that is an excerpt from her upcoming Jan. 5 show:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Diet/story?id=6431388&page=1
King said it was Oprah's idea to put her whole body on the cover of O next to a much skinnier picture of herself from 2005.
"We were trying to figure out what to do for January and she said, 'You know what I think we're going to do? We're going to take our cover from 2005 and shoot me the way I am now and put them side by side,'" King said." "She said 'I have eyes. Everyone can see what is happening to me. Let's put it out there.'"
Here's a shot of the cover of the magazine:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Diet/Story?id=6431388&page=2
The reaction to Oprah's announcement has already been "really huge," King said. Viewers have emailed in with their own stories, thanking Oprah for putting this issue once again front and center in their lives.
What about you? What are your thoughts about Oprah's annoucement?