REMEMBERING OPRAH AND HER WAGON OF FAT

November 1988, the very famous talk show host, Oprah Winfrey drug a little red wagon on stage. It contained 67 pounds of animal fat. She did this to represent the amount of body fat she lost on Optifast. She weighed 212 pounds when she started the diet in July and 145 pounds by fall.

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This was one of the highest rated shows of all time. She said she did not eat for at least 6 weeks then starved for over 4 months to get into a size 10 Calvin Klein Jeans.  Women all over the world stood and clapped. They ran to liquid diets. They starved and a whole new disordered eating chapter was born.  

Diet culture goes back before this, obviously, but this moment was huge in shaping how women responded to less than perfect bodies.  If Oprah could do it, well so could we!  She says so on her show! 

What does this mean? It means that many of us absorbed this as solid diet advice. We saw her value skinny over nutrition. We saw her discipline as admirable over feeding our bodies. We saw her rewarded with accolades and press spotlighting her AMAZING accomplishments.  

We saw a path. We dialed in and tried. 

When Oprah stopped the Optifast liquid diet and went back to eating food, she regained more weight than she had lost. Rebounded.  This is the Yo-yo diet syndrome so many of us recognize. It's so frustrating!   ​

In 1992, she had gained again.  Over the next years, she continued to go up and down and so did we. She signed on with Weight Watchers so we all jumped and joined her.  We said "she's like us!"  She also made so much money with those diet influencer gigs.  

I'm not mad at Oprah. She was a woman in show business.  There are so many layers of course.

I remember clinging to her.. with the clean food cook book she sold that was from her CHEF. 
That came out in 2007!  Women, once again, flocked to purchase and lock the secret to fat loss.  Over 50 years, she has gained and lost many times.  I feel you Oprah.  You contributed but you also lived what we did.

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