Oprah’s Boot Camp for Losing Weight
Posted: Wednesday, June 28, 2006
by Grace Cherian
Freelance writer & editor
Oprah Winfrey has lost an amazing amount of weight and now at 50, she looks better than she did at 20. She has shared her experience with both her viewers and magazine readers many times. Here are the key points of Oprah's Boot Camp for losing weight.
Oprah decided to start her own personal three-month boot camp t o lose weight . Together with the help of her trainer, Bob Greene, and his new book, Total Body Makeover, she put together an eating and exercise plan based on what worked for her. For extra motivation, she asked four people at Harpo—all of whom she’d seen struggling with weight issues—to do it with her. Oprah claims that she has been so psychologically chained by her weight for most of her adult life that she views her ability to help others break free of their weight issues as a part of what she is supposed to do. Oprah’s philosophy is that when you learn, you teach. Here's what she told her staff: "I want you to think about why you're overweight. But let me save you a lot of time. The reason you're fat is that you give more to other people than you give to yourself, because you don't feel you're worth it." The bottom line is you cannot lose weight until you make yourself the top priority in your life.
Oprah is pleased to be living from a full cup instead of a half-empty one. As she celebrates her 51st birthday, Oprah wants to assure you that getting older is not the end. It's the beginning of your life deepening to a level you had never even imagined was there.
A firm decision
First of all, you must make a firm decision to lose weight and become healthy. Decide to do this for yourself alone and no one else. When you're wrestling with your weight and not being the person you know you can be, you are living behind a mask. Every person who is buried in fat knows that. You tend to ask yourself, “Is this all there is to life?" Of course not! You can always open yourself to infinite possibilities for transformation.
Draw up a contract with yourself right now.
Oprah’s Boot Camp Contract
I, __________________________________ hereby commit to 12 weeks of regular
vigorous exercise–that’s eight workouts a week–and to self-control when it comes to eating. I will be focused on challenging my abilities in the pursuit of elevating my physical performance.
In addition, with the exception of three days (this contract was drawn up over a period that covered Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, hence the three days), I will not indulge in any alcoholic beverages during the 12-week period, regardless of the nature of the temptation. I will also terminate my consumption of all food three hours prior to my bedtime. I will endeavor to be conscious of when and why I eat, and will, to the best of my ability, eat simply to satisfy my nutritional needs as opposed to my emotional needs. I will also do my best to make healthful food choices.
I realize that this contract is solely with myself and that it carries no rewards, penalties, or punishments other than those associated with the reflection of the strength of my character.
_________________________________________ ________________
Signature Date
Exercise
Do at least 30 minutes of aerobics a day regardless of how you’re feeling. Play music while you’re working out so that the aerobics are more like fun than work. On good days, you can even extend your aerobics for 45 minutes.
And don’t tell yourself that this is so hard because that just defeats the whole process of moving forward.
Three days a week, add resistance training to your exercise program. Like Oprah, you can also begin doing Pilates two to three times a week. However, she does this mostly as a spiritual act. She uses the Pilates principles of moving out from the center, awareness, harmony, balance, and control to help her embody where she’s going with her life. The benefits of doing Pilates include walking taller, feeling stronger, and looking leaner. But if you're doing it just for those reasons, you'll become frustrated because this is a very slow process.
Diet
With food, treat refined and processed carbohydrates as though they are poison. Such “white stuff" includes potato chips, crackers, white bread, white pasta, white rice, cookies, and cake.
Oprah believes that the more sugar you consume, the more your body craves. You think your craving is a lack of willpower, but what you've really got is a chemical imbalance.
Since bedtimes vary, keep your life simple by telling yourself that you will stop eating at 7:30 pm.
Keep water everywhere so that you can drink your necessary amount. For the average American woman, 5'3" and 140 lbs, you should be drinking 8 to 10 eight ounce glasses of water a day. The way to monitor it is to check the color of your urine. If it's the color of light lemon juice, you're okay. If it's darker than that, you should be drinking more.
Thoughts
The biggest imbalance for many of us, though, is the time we spend thinking of food and weight. If you could add up the time you’ve spent worrying about what you just ate and what you shouldn't have just eaten, feeling guilty about it, and getting down on yourself about why you’re not where you want to be in terms of your weight, it would probably be several years of your life. And you cannot recover those years.
Don’t waste your time any more. By no longer dwelling on all of these negative thoughts, you will open up a whole new energy field for yourself. It's amazing! You will feel as if you’re living on a higher frequency, a stronger, and brighter charge. The voltage gets turned up. People will stop and ask, "What have you done to look so different?" This is the answer.
Don’t perceive every big occasion as a license to eat, wondering if there will be good hors d'oeuvres. Concentrate instead on the interesting people you might meet there. When you get home at night, if your usual pattern is to head for the fridge, break that pattern. Make a beeline for the bedroom and slip into your pajamas.
Before you have a meal, decide what you’re going to eat. If you do have some dessert, just move on. One piece of anything isn't going to kill you it's the seconds and thirds and fourths that become a problem. Think also about the portions you’re going to have. Your stomach is only about the size of your fist. No portion should be larger than what can fit into the palm of your hand. So if you're having steak, the piece must be only as big as your palm—not the palm, wrist, and extended thumb and fingers combined. The same with each of the other foods you're eating with that steak. You should be able to cup the peas in one hand without them spilling all over the place. That's how you should measure your portions.
When you’ve reached your best possible weight, work at maintaining it. You don’t want to undo all the hard work you’ve invested into reaching your optimum weight. Then you will be able to give to others from a full cup!
Grace Cherian is a Toronto-based freelance writer and editor who has done assignments for both local and overseas clients. Her website address is www.gracecherian.com.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)yes,i really like that encourge word.but my mistake is eating ice when im on a lotta stress. i need help with my weight im 47 years old my weight is 188. my height 5"3 i really need help bad.
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