Oprah Opens Up About Thyroid Condition

Everything Oprah touches, it turns to gold right? Well, not the cookies at least. As it turns out, O is claiming that it's not her fault for her recent weight gain of about 20 pounds. In the most recent issue of her magazine, she writes that she is dealing with hypothyroidism. No offense of anything, obviously Oprah has a really slow metabolism. Right?

"My body was turning on me," she wrote. "First hyperthyroidism, which sped up my metabolism and left me unable to sleep for days. (Most people lose weight. I didn't.) Then hypothyroidism, which slowed down my metabolism and made me want to sleep all the time."

Problems involving you thyroid have a direct effect on your metabolism if you are not familiar with it. Often time people who have problems involving their thyroid do not know it or it diagnosed very late in life. However, it is very easy to check for thyroid problems through simple blood tests. If you are getting your cholesterol checked, your doctor can use the same blood sample, just ask to be tested.

Now for my diva input. I feel for Oprah, really I do. My mother has a hypoactive thyroid, and when she should be losing weight with regular exercise and diet, it's much harder for her than someone like myself. However, I'm also 30 years younger. I think Oprah places so much emphasis on her diet and exercise that the public constantly looks to see how she is doing. It's her own personal life long battle. She will forever be a Yo-Yo dieter. She has so much money, and since she cannot keep off the pounds with personal trainers, chef's, all the plastic surgery she could ever want, etc... it seems kinda important for her to give us an explanation.
"If Oprah can't lose weight, what chance do I have?" some people may ask themselves. Well, Oprah has a thyroid problem, that's why. I think it's a silly excuse for her recent weight gain (which I did not, and still DO not notice). Is she trying to bring herself down to a level that her viewers can relate to because they can't relate to her on any other level?

Eating disorders, drug problems, rehab, medical conditions... celebrities seem to know how to garner publicity, and I'm sorry but I think this is just one of those for Oprah. Call me out, if you think I'm being too harsh, but let's face the fact: A lot of overweight people have thyroid problems. Oprah is not the first or the only one, so why is the media treating it like it's some epidemic.

Lastly, I would like to give a shout out to two of my friends in college who have hyperactive thyroids. If you don't have a friend with one, don't go looking for them. Cher and Caitlin are two of my favorite people in the entire world, however they can eat everything and anything they want, have WAY too much energy all the time and are a blast to hang out with. Cher used to bring extra large M&M bags to class and eat them through the lecture. After we'd go to starbucks and she would get a frappaccino and some cookie brownie thing. She one day decided to cut out pizza from her diet. She dropped pounds in 5 days. Caitlin, would only eat bagels, pizza, chicken wings, and Joey Bags (A buffalo chicken cheese steak sub from Freddy's on Main Street) our senior year. She lost weight. Sounds awesome right? Not so much. One has to take an extremely expensive prescription every day. One has mini heart attacks in which her heart beats way too fast. There are many other issues that go along with their hyperactive thyroids that I am not familiar enough with to tell you all about, but thyroid problems, if detected, can be managed like most medical conditions.

By the way, Cher and Caitlin are both extremely skinny if you couldn't tell.

October 19, 2008

Celebrity Drive & Perfectionism Leads to Disorders

Who is the latest celebrity to admit to having an eating disorder? You'll never guess who else she outs!

Sorry I have been MIA for awhile. Things have been super busy for us at Diet.com. Finally it's Friday and I could use a serious long weekend! I am anti-columbus day, but hey, I'll take the day off from work. Any way, here is what you all have missed in celebrities and diet while I've been away.


-Brittney Snow is speaking out about her stint with anorexia in this weeks People magazine. Dropping down to as low at 87 pounds by age 14, Snow is now reaching out to other women with eating disorders. She appears in an educational video for the Jed Foundation, which brings awareness about mental health disorders and suicide in college students. Snow says it makes her upset that people think she is appearing in the video for publicity, which is often what it looks like when celebrities come out admitting a problem like an eating disorder. Here is the paragraph that was most eye opening for me:

The therapist diagnosed me with anorexia, exercise bulimia- instead of throwing up you go to the gym for hours-depression and body dysmorphia. All that, and yet I still had a career! It's shocking how many people in the business have great careers and this too, and don't talk about it. It's that drive and perfectionism.

October 5, 2008

Country Stars Ditch Fried Chicken 4 Fitness

Last week, People magazine's BodyWatch gave us the inside scoop on how country singing sensations are dropping pounds. Here I thought southern folk all enjoyed the slow pace of living and good old fried chicken? Who knew?

Well, in all honesty I knew as soon as Carrie Underwood was crowned American Idol that she would soon slim down. I mean, the girl went from college senior to best female vocalist. When I graduated college, I slimmed down a good 20 lbs in 4 months... without really trying. I guess I tried a little bit, but it would've been more of an effort to keep the weight on. Too much partying, late night food, then too hung over to workout and needed the grease to feel better so I could study all day. Yeah, it's a rut you get into.

Carrie tells People she shed her baby weight (or freshmen 15 as I would prefer) by amping up her cardio. After she won season 4 of AI, she decided to slim down but didn't change her diet or fitness routine radically to do so (OMG, are we like the same person). Underwood says she does not workout with a trainer, but does "lots of cardio." She watched what she easts, but Underpants is a longtime vegetarian. She was actually voted sexiest vegetarian by PETA this past year. Her tips for people like us are to carry a snack around with you at all times. She always has a kashi bar in her little purse on the red carpet. Maybe that's not something we relate to, but maybe when you're shopping and pull out a snack you can say, "I'm pulling a Carrie Underwood, duh."

Following with AI trend, People also profiles none other than, Kellie "bricks for brains" Pickler. Seriously, watch a few clips when she was on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader." She really is that dumb or trying to pull the biggest JSimp ever on us. Pickler dropped 17 lbs since appearing on Idol in March '07, when rumors swirled of a breast augmentation. She claims she does not diet, doesn't give anything up and hits the gym only when it fits her busy schedule. Huh? How did she lose the weight then? She claims she is drinking more water and no longer eating when she isn't truly hungry. She says, "It's not about losing weight anymore, it's about getting everything to stop flopping around!" Her cardio of choice when she time are swimming, running or playing a game of football with her band (with her new set of twins I'm sure it's no contact).

Now quickly onto the boring country stars we don't really care about:
LeAnn Rimes has gotten really into Yoga, and does circuit training. Yes she has a trainer, she can bench press her weight which is very impressive in my opinion, and keeps her tour bus stocked with healthy choices like cottage cheese, turkey, fruit and whole-grain breads.

Jewel (who knew she was considered country?) says she workouts with a trainer, and loves to do 'hot-yoga' when she is in Nashville. She lives in Texas so I'm not sure how often that might be, but People found it interesting enough to print. She works out for an hour 5-times a week ocmbining weight cardio and ... football exercises. Yes, football. She eats whole grains and lean protein (obv) and the occasional dark chocolate! Jewel says no to the elliptical because it's boring. I say no to the elliptical because I don't feel like I truly get a workout.

Thanks People Bodywatch! I can't weight for next week's bar raising journalism.

January 28, 2008