Celebrity Diet: Oprah Winfrey

Most of us are familiar with the very famous talk show host by Oprah Winfrey’s lifelong personal battle against obesity. After years of dieting, Oprah was finally been able to not only overcome her weight problems but also maintain her new lighter weight for few years now.

The one responsible for her transformation was her personal trainer and exercise physiologist, Bob Greene. He did it by introducing her to a lifestyle of exercise and healthy eating but most of all, by making her realize that food was her primary coping mechanism to deal with her emotions.

In the book “Making the Connection”, Greene observed that Oprah “sought refuge in food whenever she felt unloved or bad about her self”. Eating made her feel comforted and safe – even loved. She literally buried her problems under food. She ate to cushion herself from bad news and bad feelings. Food became a narcotic. It buffered her from pain, sadness, anxiety, any emotion and she did not want to feel.

Greene wisely realized that “in order to make permanent changes in her life, Oprah had to deal with the underlying emotional issues she had been avoiding with food.” Greene says that the reaction why 95% of all dieters regain their weight in a few years is that they have not dealt with the emotional baggage in their life.