Archive for category Live your best life

Date: May 13th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity, Entertainment, Live your best life
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Episode 71: From Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Christina Aguilera

Woah says Oprah on stage, hello. Hello, New York, New York, thank you so much. Magnificent Radio City Music Hall- look at this crowd. They wanted this show to be New York big, so a little later in the show, Christina Aguilera is about to make her much awaited comeback.

But first, the team who have changed and even saved lives- here they are, Oprah’s “Dream Team”- Dr Phil, Dr Oz, Nate Berkus, Suzie Orman. They all come out on stage and the crowd roar. Oprah asks them to sit and says that this is a real first. Some of these people met for the first time this morning. Dr Phil says that he met Suzie once before, but the others he met for the first time today. Oprah says that when the doctors met for the first time, it was like her sons came home. Nate says that he has Dr Oz’s cell phone number and isn’t afraid to use it. He has had a colonoscopy, and his moles checked; he says that Dr Oz is older than he is but in better shape.

Oprah says that this event is to celebrate ten years of O Magazine, the best magazine on the market, she says. Dr Phil says that he has written 120 columns, Oprah says that she has done 120 covers. He says that it is so easy to end up going through the motions in life and getting stuck in a rut. He advises that you don’t do what others expect of you, you have to find a passion in life and model it for your kids too. Dr Phil says that he has met a lot of people who didn’t know that they were depressed until they weren’t depressed anymore. He recommends that people do something different in their lives- change the furniture, swap wardrobes (not husbands) with a neighbor, shake it up. To practice what he preaches, he is going to shave off his mustache for the first time in over 40 years- his two kids have never seen him without a mustache. He is going to take it off and shake it off. Oprah brings in a master barber, Carl. Dr Phil’s wife Robin thinks it’s a joke and looks shocked. Dr Oz puts shaving cream on with a brush and Oprah asks Robin when she last saw her husband without a mustache- 38 years ago the first month that they were dating. Oprah takes a razor and removes the first part of Dr Phil’s mustache. The show goes to commercial break.

Oprah says that they are celebrating their ten year anniversary of O Magazine with their Dream Team on stage. Dr Phil is having his mustache shaved- we’ll see the results in just a minute, but first Dr Oz has been with the Oprah Show for 8 years. His show is taped across the street at 30 Rock, where they love having a doctor in the house. They show footage of Matt Lauer asking about salad and bowel movements and eczema. Meredith Vieira asks about her high heels and foot problems. Brian Williams tries to recall his name, talks of Dorothy and Kansas and tornadoes and asks if he should take a half aspirin.

Oprah laughs and asks if he is always being asked for advice. Dr Oz says that the energy of Radio City Music Hall is incredible- he loves the energy of the city. The most important thing that he learned on the Oprah show was taking the energy from the audience. Doctor Oz wrote ten things in the magazine, of those the most important are showing off in your life, and sleeping early which will increase your libido- if you have intercourse twice a week you will live three years longer than if you only do it once a week, the national average. After 40 years, here is Dr Phil without his mustache. Dr Phil looks a little unsure, his wife looks shocked. Dr Phil gives Oprah the first kiss.

They show footage of the first time Nate was on the Oprah Show, in 2002. Oprah calls him her little pup, leaving the kennel- this fall he will have his own show. His most inspiring ideas for your home is on page 82 of the magazine. At Nate’s new Manhattan apartment, he says edit what you have. Collections show who you are and tell a story- find an area in the home to display it. Nate uses his best plates and glassware everyday- it’s a little treat. He frames all his photos to make a house a home. Nate says buy art from an art school in your town. He goes to Parsons in New York and buys some work.

Oprah says everybody’s home should tell the story of who they are. Nate says that it takes effort- money and time, but it honors yourself to show who you are, where you have been and where you aspire to go in life. Nate says that his house in Chicago is not as modern, but he wanted to start something new in NY. It’s a brand new space but all the stuff inside is old and meaningful to him.

Suzie made her debut in 1998 on the Oprah Show. She encourages everyone to take an oath of financial honesty- don’t buy it if you don’t have the money for it, credit card debt is a lie. Suzie says that there was a glitch in the system in the stock market yesterday and the points plummeted. Suzie says we should go back to cash and save change. Be who you are, define the things around you, don’t let the things around you define you. Oprah thanks her Dream Team and also Bob Greene, who isn’t here today.

Oprah says check out the 10th Birthday issue of O Magazine, she says that it is the best issue ever, it is a keeper. The creative director Adam Glassman of the magazine, has chose Oprah’s clothes for every cover. He says that his favorite cover is the swimsuit one where Oprah was in the pool. She had a swimsuit on top while she was in the pool, but she had pants on underneath, she was fully dressed. Oprah’s favorite was when she had to ride a horse for the first time in ten years, and had to try and get it to stop in the right place at the right time.

Adam has written his top ten closet must haves for the magazine. We see them here in the star-studded mother-daughter fashion show. Vanessa Williams comes in with her two daughters. They are all wearing pencil skirts- Adam says that Vanessa’s is sleek and sexy and the kids are doing the mini pencil skirt and the 80’s rocker look. Next up, Jane Seymour and her daughter wear animal prints. Adam says that animal prints go with nothing yet update everything. Another favorite is the nude shoe which makes you look thinner and taller. Next up is L’Oreal Paris model Dayle Haddon and her daughter. They are wearing white jeans which Adam says are more sophisticated and dressier than blue jeans. Everyone needs a sequined scarf, which instantly changes the wardrobe and makes everything look great. This season we are looking at the statement shoe- last year was the statement necklace. Cybil Shepperd and her two daughters come on stage wearing white shirts- Adam says that you can never have two many white shirts. Adam says that the cargo pant should replace the sweatpant- dress them up and wear them out. Susan Lucci and her son come out- she is wearing a wrap dress which emphasizes the waist. She has diamond hoop earrings which are apparently hipper and younger than pearl studs. Oprah thanks everyone and wishes them a Happy Mother’s Day.

Pop queen Christina Aguilera made every woman feel beautiful with her smash hit song. She has sold more than 30 million records and is one of the most successful recording artists of the last decade. She has been belting out songs since she was 6. Her image and music have changed as she grew up. She is married with a two year old, and is back with her first album in 4 years, Bionic, and a provocative new single. Welcome Christina says Oprah. The crowd roar. Oprah says that Christina’s lips are perfection; Christina says that her make up artist will die. Christina likes to take a break between records and take time to relax and live life to be inspired. She is becoming a UN ambassador and has been to Guatemala and Haiti. Oprah asks if that changes Christina’s own life- absolutely, a child dies every 6 seconds of hunger which has had a huge impact on her life, especially now that she has a child. Christina says that having a child makes her feel sexier- she says that our bodies are superhuman and women give life and make life and after you give your body up for a while and get it back you feel more confident and inspired.

She’s back and she’s bolder than ever says Oprah, singing her new single is Christina Aguilera. The stage darkens, lights come on and Christina sings. What a performance, says Oprah.

Oprah introduces the O Magazine staff, all off her staffers have signed the No Phone Zone Pledge. To celebrate the magazine, they roll out a ten year anniversary cake. Confetti falls and the crowd cheer.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Dr Phil says that it is so easy to end up going through the motions in life and getting stuck in a rut.

Dr Oz says that sleeping early which will increase your libido- if you have intercourse twice a week you will live three years longer than if you only do it once a week, the national average.

Nate Berkus says that it honors yourself to show who you are, where you have been and where you aspire to go in life through the medium of home decor.

Suze Orman says we should go back to cash and save change. Be who you are, define the things around you, don’t let the things around you define you.

Christina Aguilera our bodies are superhuman and women give life and make life and after you give your body up for a while and get it back you feel more confident and inspired.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Apparently animal prints go with nothing yet update everything, nude shoes make you look thinner and taller, and every woman needs a sequined scarf and white jeans.

Date: May 12th, 2010
File Under: Entertainment, Live your best life, Makeover, Transformation
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Episode 69: Oprah’s Make Over My Man Crew Strikes Again

Oprah put out a call for tired, badly dressed men in need of makeovers and thousands responded. They had so much fun last time they did this, they decided to do it again. So many men, so little time says Oprah. The crowd laugh. Marilyn wrote in, desperate to get her 24 year old son John a makeover. He has dreads and calls his style hip hop, his mom calls it urban decay. She feels that he looks like a street person not a professional.

Carson Kressley is standing by in Louisville, Kentucky with his roving van which allows him to travel and meet the masses. Carson is there with Marilyn, John’s mom. They are going to ambush him while he is out playing golf and drag him into the Make Over My Man Van. Oprah says that this will be very interesting.

John asks Carson why his mom is here. Carson says that John looks dreadful but that he can work with him. Carson tells John to say hi to Oprah. John remembers saying to his mom that if she found him a makeover show on TV he would have his dreads cut off. He didn’t think that she’d do it. He is a little upset that his dreadlocks will be going. Carson says that they will work with the hair and make him look cool and young and artistic. Oprah commends John for taking this so well.

Carson greets Oprah from Indianapolis at the NCAA championship. It is crawling with badly dressed guys who need a makeover. He meets Jeffrey, a man with long hair and a long beard who hasn’t cut his hair for 20 years. They go to the grooming station on the “cruise-ship of style”. They work together for the afternoon and when he comes off the van to meet his wife April she screams and says that she is thrilled.

Project Runway star Tim Gunn joins Oprah onstage and they hug. Oprah says that she hears that people have stopped Tim on the subway asking him to make over their man. Tim feels that men think that they have a license to let themselves go. It is the semiotics of clothes and grooming, he says. Miles is an individual whose family say looks like Santa. Tim thought that he looked like a character from Dungeons and Dragons. Miles has a Harley lifestyle and they want to respect that but update his look, especially his hair. His daughters sent in a video asking for help. All his closets are filled with Harley shirts, and Miles looks like the garden gnomes he loves. They bring out Miles in a shirt and jacket with cut hair and no beard. The audience scream and Oprah shouts Get Out! Wowie Kazowie, good for you she says. Oh my gosh says his family. Miles feels great, everything was excellent. Tim says that Miles was very open although a little nervous. Tim says that they say this incredibly handsome powerful guy emerge as they cut the facial hair. Celebrity groomer Diana Schmidtke says that any man can pull off facial hair but it needs to be tended and groomed on a daily basis. Oprah asks if letting your beard grow is like women who keep going blonder and blonder. Miles says that it takes so long to grow a beard that he always changed his mind about loosing it. His family are almost speechless at how good they think he looks.

Carson goes into Hooters where he says that he goes for the wings. He says that he is looking for style violations- the staff ask him to make over their manager Terry. Carson puts on the Hooters outfit to take over for Terry… They return Terry in a shirt and blazer, with a new haircut and groomed facial hair. The crowd scream.

Oprah says that Tim will be the fashion consultant for the Dr Oz show. Tim says that he admires Carry Grant for his style, and George Clooney. Lee is 67 and his wife says that he has nothing from this century in his closet. He has a whole host of see-through shirts. All his clothes are from the 70’s, he will not get rid of any clothes. There is also a leather outfit that he feels he looks great in, but his wife disagrees and says that he needs help. Oprah says that women do this too- getting stuck in the decade where you think that you look your best. They bring out Lee, “Mr Shaft” now. He strikes a pose in his blazer and shirt and tie. His wife says that he looks good, he looks hot. Lee says that he feels great. Tim says that they knew he wanted to look good and that he likes to dress up so they dress him in separates. For a 67 year old man, they say he looks fabulous.

Carson says that things are going great in the van with John, they are working on his dreadlocks behind the closed door. Carson asks if the show can be an hour and a half long. Oprah says that she’ll see what she can do.

In 24 years of doing makeovers, Oprah thought that she’d seen it all until she saw Peter. She unveils a cardboard cutout of Peter. Her daughter says that living with her Dad is like living with a caveman. He wears hoodies and holey blue jeans. Peter says that if she can get Oprah to do a makeover, they can do whatever they want. Peter comes out on the stage in a shirt and trousers, with short hair, no beard and glasses. His wife cries and cries and hugs him. Oh my goodness, wow says Oprah. Peter models his GQ pose. Tim says that this was such a remarkable transformation that they had to recalibrate their thinking about the clothes. Peter is a 42 year old man who looked 70 and now he looks like he is in his 20’s. They cleaned up the ear and nose hair and got rid of the long hair. The daughters say that they wouldn’t recognize their dad. His wife says “I’m married to him.” Peter says that he loves it and thanks Oprah.

Their next man is a doctor who wears scrubs everywhere. 2 years ago he did a photo-shoot wearing a shirt on top and scrubs on the bottom. For their daughters’ homecoming he coordinated with pink scrubs. In Egypt he wore scrubs on holiday. His closet is filled with suits with the tags still on them, and he has an overflow pile of scrubs. He keeps more in the office and in his truck. He comes onstage in a white suit and blue shirt. Wow, says Oprah. He feels comfortable in his clothes and is now confident in his destiny as a medical inventor making the world a better place. He realized that he was trying to hide himself in his scrubs, and now he has the confidence to be himself. Oprah says that he looks fantastic and she loves the shoes too, they look so soft.

Oprah says that this is the evolution of makeovers- in the past they would do makeover like dress up dolls. Tim says that if you don’t respect the person and who they are, it will not stick. Dusty raises money for breast cancer awareness, wearing a pink bra with his hairy back. He is bald and feels undressed without his hat. At first Tim thought that there was a cross dressing issue, but Dusty has done remarkable work in the name of breast cancer. He comes on stage in a shirt, tie and waistcoat. He has a touch of pink in his pocket. He likes his look, he is not used to wearing so many clothes. He had his back waxed for the first time, he doesn’t think it will be something that he’ll do every week. He thanks Tim and says that he is priceless, and gives Oprah a hug and kiss for all his friends who are fighting breast cancer.

Carson found fashion fouls everywhere on his hunt in Indiana. Mike and Bill were sent to the van and made-over. The crowd go wild. Carson says that he had a fun time in Indianapolis and then he found a fashion emergency- a man in orange capris, a metallic shirt and giant mandels. He sent him off to the game in a suit.

Oprah says that Tim and Carson have shown how to polish up your man, but that manners must also be polished. Two women who have written a book called Undateable are going to shed some light on the topic. Take a look, says Oprah. Ellen and Anne are here to tell the secret list of being dateable, and if men are married, to make them sexable. They say that they are humanitarians. The first rule is to ask someone on a date, not to text them. On a first date, men mustn’t talk about their ex, complain about the bill and mustn’t be rude to the waitress. They should be polite, do not order girlie drinks, and turn off their cell phone. Anne and Ellen ask people in the bar what the worst thing is that they have had happen on a date. Don’t look at other girls. Don’t have your car repossessed on a date. Don’t chew your fingernails. A man refused to pay for a girls liquor on a date when she ordered a glass of wine. Oprah thinks that is worse than a car being repossessed.

Next up, back to Louisville for Mr Dreadlocks’ transformation. Carson is standing by with John’s mom. Tim was saying hats off to Carson for doing this in an hour. Out comes John with short hair and a blazer with jeans. Whooo, says Oprah. Marilyn says it is great and wonderful. Carson says that he looks really handsome. John says that it is different, its great, but he’s had dreadlocks for 4 1/2 years. He says that his mom is as happy as she has ever been so it’s great. Psychologically John is not there yet, says Oprah. She says that he looks fantastic and that this look will really work for him for a job interview. Oprah thanks Carson, she loves watching Carson and all the fun he has. Oprah asks all the men who have been transformed to stand up and the crowd applaud. Carson’s van has a No Phone Zone sticker on it, Oprah thanks everyone.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Any man can pull off facial hair but it needs to be tended and groomed on a daily basis.

It is easy to get stuck in the decade where you think that you look your best.

There has been an evolution of makeovers- in the past they would do makeover like dress up dolls.

Tim Gunn says that if you don’t respect the person being made-over, it will not stick.

Refusing to pay for liquor on a date when someone orders a glass of wine. is worse than a car being repossessed mid-date, according to Oprah.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Pay attention, dress well, follow fashion (not too much), be polite and well-groomed to live your best life.

Date: April 30th, 2010
File Under: Live your best life

Episode 59: Glamorous, High-Flying, Action-Packed Dream Jobs

Live in Chicago, Oprah is outside HARPO studios and way above them is stuntswomen Angela Meryl. Oprah is a little nervous, but Angela has assured her that this is just another day in the office for her. There is an ambulance standing by, this is a show about dream jobs, and Angela says that she loves every minute of her death-defying work.

But first, meet the woman who helps millions of people get dressed every morning, sometimes including the FIrst Lady. She is the visionary behind J.Crew. Watch this and Oprah will meet us back inside.

Jenna Lyons, the executive creative director at J.Crew, has had to convert an entire bedroom into her closet to house her clothing and shoes . She color codes her shoes. She shares her Brooklyn townhouse with her husband and 3 year old son. “I love going to work every day. I never sit on the edge of my bed and think, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this today,’” Jenna says. Since she was a child, Jenna has had a flair for fashion, adding ruffles and sequins and switching out buttons on outfits. Jenna landed her first job at J.Crew when she was only 21 and has been flying up the ladder ever since. Today, she oversees a creative force of more than 100 designers and every aspect of the J.Crew kingdom. She has back to back meetings on the day the Oprah crew were there, weighing in on new J.Crew creations starting on summer 2011, then moving on to wedding gowns and what is new for fall. She also directs the designs, layouts and looks for the catalogue. Jenna makes it a point to be home by 6.30pm each night even though her buzzing Blackberry comes home with her. Coming home to her son is the perfect end to any day. Better even than puppies, says Oprah.

Oprah says that she is dressed head to toe in J Crew and she didn’t realize that they made shoes and they are so comfortable. A reasonable heal and a comfortable shoe, she says. Jenna says that there is an interior platform which makes them that much more comfortable, it makes a big difference. Oprah asks if Jenna recognized that this was a dream job. Jenna said that she never dreamed that she could have a job this great. Oprah says that she used to wear J.Crew all the time for casual wear, and the first time that she saw Michelle Obama wearing J.Crew, she went out and bought J.Crew stock. And that was a very good decision. Other than Jenna, Oprah said that the First Lady is the face of J.Crew. One of the most exciting moments of Jenna’s career was seeing Michelle Obama appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in head-to-toe J.Crew. “The trailer came up and she comes up on the screen, and I could barely breathe.” She could barely talk or breathe, she slapped her husband on the head and Blackberries were flying. Jenna is a huge fan of Michelle anyway- as am I says Oprah- So to have her wear J.Crew and mention them on national television was amazing. Oprah mentions when Michelle wore the sweater, and Jenna says “she is the gift that keeps on giving, in many ways.” They laugh. Jenna lives by a few fashion rules she says everyone could benefit from following.

*Make a statement with jewelry.

*Balance feminine pieces with tomboy accents, like a military blazer.

*Wear opposites. If you’re wearing something tailored, sprinkle in some sequins.

*Mix textures—pair tweed with silk, for example.

Oprah noticed that in the film Jenna wore the same striped shirt, (“I was. I was shopping my closet,” says Jenna) with sequined pants which Oprah would never in a million years have thought to do. An easy rule to go by, says Jenna is to always pair opposites. Oprah asks how she scored such a dream job. Scoring your dream job is about doing what you love, Jenna says. “You don’t actually think about what time it is. I never look at the clock. I love what I do ,and I think I don’t care about whether I’ve been there, you know, until 10 p.m.,” (although she no longer does that now that she has a child). Oprah says that anyone who is successful says the same- do what you love and find a way to get paid for it. “And do it 110 percent, whatever you do—whether it’s getting the coffee, whether it’s putting the finishing touches on that dress—do it 110 percent. The people you work with will notice, and that will be rewarded,” says Jenna.

Oprah asks if we are in an era of our own personal style and we can mix it up. Yes, says Jenna, that is exactly what Michelle Obama does, wearing sneakers and a t-shirt and J.Crew pants. Wearing all different designers, anything goes, it is about finding your own personal style and what feels like you. Oprah asks what they are looking for when they are doing the catalogue- Jenna says that they are looking for what feels new, what they like this year, which is often what they didn’t like last year. Oprah thanks Jenna for coming on the show. And the shoes, thanks for the shoes, says Oprah. Oprah is so excited that she can wear these shoes all day, normally they are her 45 minute shoes. That makes Jenna very happy.

He is the Cake Boss. Buddy Valestro has been running his family bakery since he was 17. From rhinos to dragons to the NY skyline to a life size race car, it’s all a piece of cake. Today, customers line up for Buddy’s sweet treats, and millions tune in to see him at work on his TLC show, Cake Boss. Now he’s taking on one of his biggest jobs to date: making a cake for Oprah. He says that it is one of the most important jobs that he’s worked on. The team works tirelessly on this. The clock is ticking and the driver needs to hit the road. They ship it in one piece and drive it to Chicago.

Let’s see it, says Opah, wow! She screams. Oh my God, she screams. There’s my tree, there’s my tree! She shouts, wow. His creation is a cake in the shape of Oprah’s favorite tree, complete with Oprah and her dogs sitting beneath it. “I wanted to make something that made you feel happy,” Buddy says. “And I know that you love to sit under your oak tree.” Oprah is so excited that there is a mini version of her under the tree with the dogs, and she is reading Buddy’s new book with him and her on the cover. Wow, says Oprah, that is so good, thank you. The first time Buddy worked in a bakery, it was as a punishment. “Me and my friends got caught actually playing with matches. I was 11,” Buddy says. His Dad said: “You want to play around with your friends on weekends? I’m going to put you to work, and you’re going to start to understand what it’s really like to work.” So I went to the bakery, and to my amazement, I instantaneously loved it.” From that moment, Buddy says he knew he wanted to be a baker. Buddy’s dreams were initially inspired by his father, he says. “I so looked up to him and he was my idol and my mentor, and I wanted to be just like him,” Buddy says. “My dad passed away when I was 17, and me and my family had to keep the business running, and I had to step into my father’s shoes, which were really big shoes to fill.” To gain the respect of all the employees at 17 was a hard job. Oprah asks what his Dad would think if he saw Buddy now with his own TV show. “He would be so proud,” says Buddy, tearing up. Oprah hugs him. Buddy promised his mother, wife and sister that one day he would be on Oprah and make a cake for her. This has been a dream of his for a long time. Oprah asks his family to stand up. When it comes to landing your dream job, Buddy says it’s about working hard, following your dreams and finding your zone. When he makes cakes, “It’s like an artist painting his painting. I don’t hear nothing. I feel no pain, and I just concentrate,” he says. “When you’re done, you feel like you’re so tired because you gave everything you have into that project, but you look at what you made and you’re like, ‘Wow.’” To see someone’s reaction after you did it, it’s the best, he says. Oprah says that the description of the zone is what athletes describe. Oprah asks if he ever gets bored making cakes. He says you always change it up and raise the bar. Sometimes he needs to just make cakes, it’s his zen. For all the people who want to be the next cake boss, follow your dreams and work hard and you never know what will happen. “I mean I’m standing next to Oprah Winfrey and I made her a cake!” They hug again. Thank you Buddy and his family, says Oprah. His family is here with his signature canolis and cake for everyone. The crowd cheer as the food comes in.

Dubbed the rock ‘n’ roll florist, Jeff Leatham has made a name for himself with his unconventional style and bold designs. He’s perhaps best known as the star of TLC’s Flowers Uncut, but he’s currently the artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris. He was blown away by the artistry of the flowers at the Four Seasons in LA and right away he knew that it was something that he wanted to do. He has created beautiful bouquets for Cher, Tina Turner and Eva Longoria.

Jeff is in the studio, he asks the boys to bring out the flowers- over 32,000 stems. He loves the color blocking but this is Plan B. Originally the flowers were to come from Amsterdam but there is a “little volcano problem.” The audience get some flowers. They cheer. Jeff shows Oprah the hydrangea clouds made from chandeliers. The peonies are some of Oprah’s favorites. Jeff says that doing this job for Oprah was so much fun.

Oprah thinks it’s interesting that for his first job with flowers, he said that he had experience, but he didn’t. He’d worked in the yard with his father before. “I never wanted to work with flowers. I trained to be a model in L.A., and worked for the GAP for many years and I said, ‘I have to either move back home to Utah or get a job.’ So, luckily enough, I had a friend that worked at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles at the flower shop,” he says. They gave him a chance. “I walked into that hotel and I saw it was like art. This is like walking into a museum, and they’re creating something so special that I said, ‘I have to be a part of this.’” Jeff says his designs are inspired by both passion and color. “People often say to me: ‘What do you do with your designs? Do you sketch?’ I used to sketch a lot, but my sketches are really bad, it’s like a Curious George book” he says. “It’s better to kind of sit back and look at color and go from there.” Oprah remembers walking through the Four Seasons in Paris and had one of those Oh My Gosh moments- she asked who did this. They told her about Jeff and gave her a book. She says that there is a tilt to it- Jeff says that his whole life has a tilt to it. He thinks that you have to re-imagine what can be done with flowers. Oprah thinks having flowers in the house is one of the nicest things that you can do for yourself. If you’re looking to send flowers to someone, Jeff suggests sending a bouquet without a vase and passing on arrangements of many different types of flowers. “Just say [to the florist], ‘What’s the most beautiful flower you have in your shop right now?’ … Just send a big bunch of the same type,” he says. Spend more money on the flowers, we all have too many vases in our homes. “It’s really important, too, to really think clean, simple and chic.” Don’t get nervous. A luxury flower tip is to use carbonated water like Perrier to make bubbles around the stems and the flowers. Oprah asks what advice he would give to someone to find their dream job. He needed a paycheck, that is what he was after originally. But, like Buddy said, it’s finding your passion and doing what you love to do and creating something that stops people in their tracks. “We’re all so busy in the brouhaha of everyday life,” he says. “If you stop a businessman in the lobby of a hotel or if you make something in a restaurant and they’ll stop and say, ‘That’s amazing,’ you’ve done your job.” It’s about taking time in life to say it’s not so bad, he says. Oprah says it’s filled with flowers. The audience cheer. She thanks Jeff and his team.

Oprah asks Angela if she is still on the roof outside and if she can come down. Angela turns around and leaps off the roof.

One of Hollywood’s leading stuntwomen Angela Meryl jumped off the Harpo Studios roof. This mom has smashed through glass, tumbled down stairs, dangled from helicopters and walked through fire. She says that everyone has a dream job, and this is hers. Come on out Angela Meryl. Oprah says that this would not be her dream, how come it is Angela’s? As a girl, Angela says she was a tomboy who loved playing in the yard and getting into trouble alongside her brother. This adventurous spirit led to a successful career in Hollywood, where she’s been a stunt double for actresses like Halle Berry, Beyoncé and Vivica A. Fox, one of the stars of the Kill Bill movies. Oprah asks her if she ever gets scared, Angela says yes, but being on Oprah is more scary than jumping off a building. Oprah asks if she has ever been hurt? She got stitches in her hand falling through a glass table for Kill Bill. They show an extract of her in Kill Bill. When she looks at it, Angela says that she doesn’t know who that girl is. She says that she is shy and timid. Oprah asks what Angela’s mother thinks? At first, Angela says her mother didn’t take her kick-butt career aspirations seriously. “She told me to get a real job, actually,” she says. Thankfully, Angela didn’t listen. Angela says she lives by the belief that if you follow your passion, you’ll never work a day in your life. A delight to meet you says Oprah, thanks. Then Oprah says don’t try this at home.

If you love gadgets and gizmos, Internet analyst Omar Wasow might just have your dream job. Ten years ago, he introduced Oprah to email, when Oprah thought why would anyone want to do that? He got one of the firtst iPad’s in the world- he got it a week before it was released. He wanted to tell all his friends but he was sworn to secrecy, like the CIA. Oprah says that she had to wait until the release day. This is what Omar loves about his job, he gets to play with the future. Oprah loves books and loves the Kindle app so that you can take the books from your Kindle and put them on your iPad. Oprah loves the light. “I love to read the news, and now I read the news in bed on the iPad,” says Omar. He loves the digital photography. Yes, yes, yes, yes enthuses Oprah. It’s great for sharing photos and board games. Oprah does Scrabble! She loves it! They high five. He shows an interactive example of an interactive book, Alice in Wonderland. “I know there’s going to be a generation of kids who learn to read on interactive books. Oprah gets excited about a moving element on the screen. Omar says that it will make books more interesting for children. A mom can record her voice reading to the kid if she is away. It’s going to change the way kids learn, says Oprah. He shows her Oprah.com and the email system. His favorite thing to use it for is reading and photographs. He has all of Oprah’s photos on his iPad. He says it’s nice for watching movies and it’s super easy to navigate. He uses it for many things instead of his laptop. With 10 hours of battery life, they talk about how fabulous it is, they go to Oprah’ book club. Oprah thinks it will change the way we read. “I never knew I needed it, and now it’s hard to live without it,” Oprah says. “That iPad can do things you didn’t imagine.”"I learned to read from comics,” Omar says and he believes there will be a generation of kids who learn to read from interactive books. Oprah thanks him and says that he has a cool job. He grew up loving gadgets. As a child, Omar says his parents and grandparents encouraged his curiosity, and now, he puts it to good use.

Many people dream of soaring high through the air, and for Daphne and Eboni, it’s all in a day’s work. These women are two of the acrobatic “wine angels” at Aureole Restaurant in Las Vegas. Their job description? To gracefully ascend Aureole’s four-story wine tower and retrieve bottles for diners below. Inspired by the movie Mission Impossible, the wine angels are strapped into an elaborate harness system and pulled to top of the 42-foot glass and steel tower, which holds 10,000 impressive bottles of wine. This is an extreme job. “It’s one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had,” Daphne says. “I love it.” Welcome Daphne and Eboni, they ascend into the studio. How cool, says Oprah. They give her wine. They have never dropped a bottle. Daphne grew up in the Philippines and says that her family consider her to be a celebrity, especially now she’s been on Oprah. Eboni says this is also her dream job…for now. “Ultimately, I want to become an amazing accountant,” she says. Oprah thanks them and says next time you are in LA, check out the wine angels at Aureole Restaurant. The dream job team have all agreed to sign the No Phone Zone Pledge today, so Oprah is excited about that. Friday April 30th is the National No Phone Zone Day special event. Oprah’s first boss in television, Harold Krump stands up in the audience. When Oprah was earning $112 a week, Harold called all the staff upstairs one Thanksgiving and gave them all a week’s salary as a bonus. Because of that for the last 24 years, Oprah gives all her staff a week’s salary as a Christmas and Thanksgiving bonus. The audience each get $100 gift card from Lowe’s. They cheer.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Dream Job Hunting Tip 1: Do what you love and find a way to get paid for it.

Dream Job Hunting Tip 2: Do it 110 percent, whatever you do—even if it’s getting the coffee.

Dream Job Hunting Tip 3: If you follow your passion, you’ll never work a day in your life.

People who have to convert entire rooms to house their clothes and shoes get to “shop their closets,” whilst the rest of us just put on clothes.

The audience today received flowers, cake and a Lowe’s gift card… But no iPad.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

You might not know what it is yet, but you can get your dream job by working hard at something that you love so much that it isn’t work to you.

Date: March 30th, 2010
File Under: Celebrity, Entertainment, Live your best life, Makeover

Episode 45: Brilliantly Aging Women With Raquel Welsh

For four decades she has reigned as one of America’s killer sex symbols, with that incredible body and amazing hair. Despite being a household name she has rarely spoken about her life off-screen. But now at age 69, Raquel Welsh is opening up with a new memoir. Let’s take a look.

A 26 year old Raquel Welsh appeared in a a doeskin bikini for the film One Million Years B.C in 1966. Almost instantly, the mother of two become an overnight sex symbol sensation. Raquel went on to star in more than 30 movies and dozens of television shows. Along the way she was on the cover of Time and starred with leading men like Frank Sinatra. She took a turn on Broadway and also won a Golden Globe for her role in The Three Musketeers. Offscreen, Raquel’s signature wig line has made more than $500 million in sales, proving she has a head for business. Recently she made GQ’s magazines list of sexiest women of all time. They said, “back when women had bodies, Welsh was the body”.

If this is what 69 looks, like, bring it on. Welcome Raquel Welsh, says Oprah. The crowd go crazy. Wowee, says Oprah, wowee. Wowee. They embrace and compliment each other. Wowee, says Oprah. This is the question, do you feel as good as you look? Barely, says Raquel, laughing. She has her mornings when she likes herself but generally 90% of the time it’s Oh my God. This morning was disastrous- it takes her 3 hours to get ready which is why she looks so good- for her game face. In the book she says as you get older you have to decided if you are going to get in the game or check out, says Oprah. Raquel says that people decide that it’s over for them, they believe in the propaganda. Oprah says that there is a world of propaganda that when you reach 40, and especially 50, that it is over for you.

Oprah says that Raquel wrote the book because she finally wanted to be heard, and the title speaks to that so well: Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage. The crowd cheer. Oprah was interested to hear that she was a somewhat reluctant sex symbol. Yes, says Raquel, when she came to Hollywood she wanted to be a serious actress, she was already the mother of two small children. Oprah didn’t know that until she read this book. Oprah thinks that the powers that were at the time didn’t want us to know, because it would ruin the sexy image. It wasn’t common knowledge says Raquel, she didn’t parade it around alot. When she first came to Hollywood, it was really clear that no actresses really had children. So she didn’t really know which path her career would take. She had her first baby at 19 with her highschool sweetheart. When it turned out that people really liked her because of her body and her sultry look, then..,.

Oprah interrupts to say that at the time everyone was gaga over Marilyn Monroe and that Raquel was not blond enough. Yes says Raquel, when she came to LA and tried to do some modeling just to get a job, they hated her body, everything was wrong. Too much here, not enough here.. Can you imagine, says Oprah, the guy who turned down Raquel Welsh is in an institution somewhere.

On page 23 of the book, Raquel writes that several million copies of the image were circulated throughout the planet. She became every males fantasy from that film. What did that feel like, asks Oprah. “Part of it was really flattering and fun,” she says. “The other part was just really scary as hell.” She felt she couldn’t live up to expectations. Sex sells so then there was this barrage of attention, photographs and photographs celebrating things that she didn’t feel worthy of. She was happy that she had got a break so she could have her career, but at the same time, it was like: “This isn’t me. But this is what I have to do because this is my ticket to ride” she says. “I’m not in a position to just say: ‘Oh, no, wait a minute. You’ve got it all wrong. I’d like to do Shakespeare, I’d like to do something really serious”’.

Oprah loves that there is a point in the book where she went to see the director of the film and said she’d been thinking. It was on One Million Years B.C., when Raquel tried to approach director Don Chaffey with her ideas for a scene, making the best of her script. She said “Don, I’ve been thinking. I’ve been looking at the script and I’ve been thinking.” And he said, “Don’t.”He was the first in a long line of directors and producers who didn’t “give a rats ass” what she thought.

Oprah asks if she felt powerful or manipulated and controlled. “I felt I was being manipulated and things were moving without my consent, but I was also trying to calculate, because I’m not stupid. Maybe this has a good side to it and I better go with it and see where it might take me”. Oprah asks if they can have a really candid conversation when they come back from break because Raquel is a sex and beauty icon in the world. “Used to be” says Raquel. “No, still are” corrects Oprah, “absolutely still are”. The crowd applaud. Oprah says that she is always fascinated by extraordinarily beautiful women and what that does to your psyche. What happens when you walk into a room and the room stops. Oprah says that she has a good personality but the room doesn’t stop, you know what I mean? More after the break.

They show a clip from 1984 where Oprah first interviewed Raquel. She asked if Raquel was scared of aging because she is so beautiful, and Raquel replied “it’s a bitch”. Oprah says she learned from that interview that Raquel demanded a lighting test before appearing. Oprah had been sitting in the dark fro a year and after that she said that she wanted better lighting. That is what Raquel did for Oprah. They shake hands.

Oprah asks her about walking into the room as a sex symbol, she had been marketed that way, and went along with it, adds Raquel. Do you feel like you are that person asks Oprah. Its not that you are that person, says Raquel, she didn’t feel that she was that person, but she was addicted to the attention and power, the doors that opened for her. “It pulled me away from my more serious artistic side, and I kind of just let the other go, to tell you the truth.” Really, asks Oprah? Raquel did what people paid to see. She did a couple of serious roles and no one cared, no one turned up. They wanted to see Raquel Welsh being Raquel Welsh, just as they wanted to see Marilyn Monroe being Marilyn Monroe. Oprah says that she has talked to Beyonce a couple of times, who says that she becomes Sasha Fierce up on stage, a performer and entertainer, an artist. Totally, says Raquel, thats what she loves about Beyonce; when she’s not performing she is humble and works so hard, the humility is touching.

Oprah asks if she was afraid of getting older? Totally, she replies. To be an aging sex symbol is not exactly a picnic. In the book, Oprah says she liked that Raquel says that old is the last remaining dirty word for a woman. The crowd applaud. You can be called a ho, a porno slut, everything- none of that means anything, but if you are called old you feel like its over. Raquel felt that getting through 50 and surviving the menopause was like a new awakening. It was like Hello Raquel, you’re like that and like that, aren’t you. It was like starting over. On page 45 she said that the battle against aging truly begins in the onset of menopause. She found herself without energy and depressed. “I used to find myself just down on the floor in a corner crying my eyes out,” she says. “I couldn’t handle anything.” Nobody warns you how it will be, they commiserate. No one wants to admit that their eggs are over and on crutches, walking out the door, says Oprah. Raquel says that she thinks that it should be called, “men on pause”. For other reasons, yes, says Oprah. Raquel realized that when the body chemistry changes, it reveals some of the underlying problems that you have, some of the issues that she has never addressed.

Oprah loves that Raquel likened it to coming into the light. Oprah says its like our bodies are pushing through all the stuff that needs to be cleaned up and cleared up, the repressed stuff, so you can move into the light of yourself. Raquel had to face herself- her career and the men in her life were an avoidance of what is in her life. Sometimes a moment of silence can be the scariest thing in the world and you don’t really want to open the door and let things in, she says. Oprah is the opposite, she loves to be alone with her thoughts. Raquel does now, she says. Oprah says that when Raquel walks into the room, people are always looking at her, and what is there when she is home alone? Raquel says she has a heart and soul; her mind, her children and her emotions are all alive and well. She just had to unravel the things that she hadn’t been dealing with, she was always too busy. Coming up, Raquel Welsh says sex is over-rated, all the women watching at home can tell their husbands that when they come home tonight.

Before break, some women weigh in on what it means to age brilliantly. Linda age 55 says having a zest for life, going for it. Last year she hiked, rode dirt bikes and ran a half marathon. When her grandson was born she thought oh good, I have a playdate. Karyn loves being 62, she will not allow her husband to buy her a seniors ticket for the movies. She is excited by what is coming next, it keeps getting more exciting and she wants to live to be 120. Shirley, age 94, thinks it’s foolish to lie about your age. She was never afraid of aging, she didn’t think about it. Irene, 85, now has time for herself to play piano and read fat books, she can stay up late reading if she wants to, she can dance by herself having fun.

Raquel Welsh mentions “spending time” with everyone from Burt Bacharach, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley. In the book she made it like a multiple choice question, because she doesn’t believe a woman should kiss and tell. Oprah thinks Elvis and Dean Martin would have been irresistible to her. “They were all interesting in their own ways,” she says. Those two guys were not the whole enchilada for her. In 1972, Raquel filmed Bluebeard in Budapest with Richard Burton. “He’s like a heat-seeking missile, a smoking hot romantic,” she says. “He was just so charismatic. He was really something”. In 1964, Raquel had a small part in Elvis’ film Roustabout. “He was like high-octane energy set on idle,” she says. “He had all this stuff in him. He was charged up. But it was all contained in this cool demeanor.” Oprah asks if Elvis ever seduced her. “He invited me someplace that I decided not to go,” she says. “I just didn’t want to be another notch in his gun.”

On page 191, Raquel writes that sex is overrated and overhyped. If you are lucky it occurs with some regularity but its not the whole enchilada. “Sex is great, of course. But sex to me is an expression of the relationship and the feelings that you have for somebody else,” she says. Oprah says that people always think that Raquel, especially at the height of her “Raquelness” must be having sex all the time. Raquel says that she is not a prude but that the chemistry is only one part. She feels that we are a society of sexhibitionists. Everywhere she turns she sees porno queens and bare midriffs and big hair on three year olds. This is crazy that we are promoting this attitude to life, what about our whole selves? As a professional actress, this is what she does but “All the men that I have really fallen for are those men that have reacted to me and have made me feel like I’m a person and it’s not that they’re going to bed with Raquel Welch,” she says. The rapport must be there between them as people, and that they are not tongue tied. She’s just a human being, she puts her high heels on one foot at a time.

Oprah asks if she’s high maintenance. “I am for work but not the rest of the time,” Raquel says. Actresses are self centered and self serving and you have to be to get certain jobs done, but the rest of the time you have to be yourself. “I’m usually just in sweatpants and some kind of raggedy shirt and my Keds.” Oprah asks how raggedy? Raquel says that the year she wrote the book she went to pot and it was liberating. What Oprah said to her earlier was the key. When she came along in that poster “I was a thing to be seen and not heard,” she says. “By the time you get to 70, you might have a couple of things you’d like to say, and you might like to reach out and have a conversation with other women.”

Oprah asks what she’d like to say to other women about aging. Raquel says the lesson for every aging woman is to embrace it. “I want them to stop being scared of it, because it’s just another chapter in life,” she says. “It’s not time for you to give up. You don’t need to repeat what you did already. Don’t keep comparing yourself.” You need to get in the game, don’t give up but don’t keep comparing yourself. It used to bother her that working out or doing yoga she couldn’t compete, but now she realizes that she is almost 70 and not 19 or 20 or 30 or 50. Improve on your own terms, don’t try and repeat the past. Oprah reads from the book where Raquel says she likes to think of aging gracefully as a game. “We might as well make up our minds to play it or just bow out and be spectators,” she says. “Sitting around doing nothing is far from the best option. Just as you maintain your home, your car, your garden, you should look after your greatest gift: your body.” Oprah loves that, thank you.

Linda, 55, says step out of your box, there is no reason why you can’t do something. Shirley, 94, would tell a young woman to learn as much as she can all the time, every day, every year. Karyn, 62, always tells people that if you don’t take care of your body, the most magnificent machine that you are given, where are you going to live? Irene, 85, says be resilient, be like a willow tree bowing to the ground in the storm. An oak tree is rigid and will crack. Things are tough, but you will get through.

Raquel has two children, Tawny and Damon. She is very honest in the book about her shortcomings as a mother. “When I’m running around the world and being Miss Sex Symbol and having this big career in film and everything and I’m running from place to place, I couldn’t always be with my children when I wanted to be,” she says. She would have governesses and tutors but that was not the same. “Eventually, I could see that this was taking its toll on my kids, and it used to just break my heart.” Oprah asks if when she was there, was she really there, or was she someplace else in her Raquelness? Was she present and fully engaged? “I was often preoccupied,” she says. “I felt loving toward them and I would tuck them in and I would soothe them, but it wasn’t the same as being there for them as a mother 24/7.” In some birthday cards, Raquel signed “Raquel” instead of “Mom” because she was so used to autographs. They are great great kids, fun and smart decent human beings. Today, Raquel says she has a great relationship with her kids, but it took work. “I just started out realizing that I really needed to swim out to the wave. I needed to take a lot more initiative and just keep letting them know that I wanted to be there in their lives with them, that I had something I could offer to them,” she says. “Little by little, the disappointment or the lack of confidence they had in me in that area melted away.” Oprah read of a time when Tawny was in private school and Raquel went to the Parent Teacher meeting in all her Raquelness. Raquel realized that she had to change gears, as their mother that was a different thing than she was used to.

Linda, 55, does not use soap, she uses Oil of Olay daily. Shirley, 94, does a series of stretching exercises with the hope that she can stretch as much on Wednesday as on Tuesday. Annette, 52, is a big fan of Bikram yoga which is done in a 105 degree room, she takes a lot of walks with the dog. Karyn, 62, says that coconut oil is her number one thing. She uses it everywhere, she eats it, she moisturizes her hair with it. She saunas, detoxes, she drinks a green drink to get a lot of chlorophyll. Irene, 85, splashes water on her face and puts on some lipstick.

Raquel says that her friends are always asking for beauty and style advice. Oprah says that they decided to have some fun with her. Gail from Knoxville, Tennessee wrote in. Gail said that she used to be hot and something happened and she lost her mojo. Menopause hit her sideways and she never recovered her drive and enthusiasm and excitement about herself. But she has a really good spirit, she’s fun, says Raquel. Oprah say that they were talking in the commercial break about Halle, J-Lo and Beyonce, that the women have more than their faces and bodies, they have a spirit and joy. There’s a joy and femininity and warmth and heat that comes from them in a nice way, says Raquel. Raquel likes to think that she wasn’t just seen as beautiful- the world is full of good looking girls, but that there is something in your heart and mind that makes you, you, and makes you approachable.

Oprah thought Raquel should help 64 year old Gail get her mojo back. Take a look. Gail doesn’t know that Raquel is here waiting for her, she thinks she’s just getting a regular makeover. Gail is shocked to meet Raquel. They comb the racks of Neiman Marcus to find the perfect outfit. Next Raquel called in George, of George Salon, to give Gail’s hair some vava-voom. The final stop was the Laura Mercier make-up counter. Raquel has her own bag of tricks, which she is going to use on Gail. She says that she doesn’t make-over other people very often.

Gail is backstage, come on out. The crowd go wild. Look at you says Oprah. There’s some mojo in there. Oprah thinks that this is the coolest thing- how shocked was Gail when she say Raquel Welsh in Newman Marcus? Gail says that she left her contacts in Knoxville, so when she heard her name being called she thought, “I’m in Chicago, who knows me?” And all of sudden she was like oh my God, it’s Raquel Welsh, Gail was amazed. She says Raquel is beautiful, she’s sexy. Oprah asks if it was inspiring for her, first to have this opportunity and also to see Ms Mojo. Gail was amazed that this icon was the sweetest kindest person. They enjoyed shopping together, they had fun. Oprah asks how she feels, Gail says she is getting emotional because she feels beautiful. Raquel gets up to give her a hug. Gail thanks her. Great job, Raquel says Oprah, and you look beautiful too, she says to Gail.

Karyn, 62, knows for sure that she’ll continue to live in thankfulness. If you continue to show up, life is beautiful. Shirley, 94, knows that loving those around you is the best way to achieve any amount of happiness. Annette, 52, knows that if she was to do something crazy like dance around with her girlfriend, you don’t have to feel old just because you are growing old. Irene, 85 says write down the ten things you want most in the next ten years. Reach for the stars and put it in the back of your mind and your subconscious will take over. That she knows for sure. She achieved everything except for keeping her weight down. Linda, 55, knows for sure that she is not worried about growing older she just wants to ride her dirt bike for a little while.

Before she says goodbye, Oprah wants to show a photograph of Rodney Thompson. He was a Senior at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was very popular, a star athlete and a leader in his class. On October 17th 2008 he was driving and reading a text. He crashed into a utility pole and died instantly. His mother tells us that Rodney had recently decided that he would be a lawyer to help people less fortunate. She wants us all to learn from her sons story. No text is so important. Go to Oprah.com and take the pledge. Raquel Welsh is ready to take the pledge. There are three different levels of pledge to take. Raquel will not take any more meetings in her car. Her book is called Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage. Thanks to all the brilliantly aging women who shared their wisdom today. Goodbye everybody and thank you.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Raquel Welsh was the mother of two small children when she became famous wearing a doeskin bikini for the film One Million Years B.C.

Raquel Welsh was turned down for modelling jobs when she first moved to LA.

Raquel Welsh was explicitly told not to think by many producers and directors.

Raquel Welsh thinks that sex is over-rated and over-hyped.

Raquel Welsh thinks that “old” is the last remaining dirty word for a woman.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Being an aging sex symbol is no picnic. Commit to the cause, don’t give up, don’t look back, reach for the stars.

Date: March 26th, 2010
File Under: Entertainment, Health, Live your best life, Transformation

Episode 44: Ryan Seacrest and Jamie Oliver Join Forces

He is the busiest man in show business right now, he is a mover and a shaker, Mr Ryan Seacrest. This is exciting he says, it’s the first time he’s been on the Oprah set. He signed a $45 million contract to stay with American Idol, making him the highest paid reality TV star on television. He says shh his mom is in the audience, and then that there is pressure now for him to be good at what he does. Oprah says that he is paid that well because he is good. He is very pleased to be involved with something so successful. Simon Cowell said to Oprah that he thought that the 3rd season would be the last, and this is the 9th season. Oprah asks how their relationship is, and Ryan says that he will regret saying this in the real world but Simon is one of the sweetest people that you could meet in the business. He has a big heart and they are good friends. That being said, they love to compete. Simon says out loud what he hears in his head, so Ryan doesn’t have to do it. They talk about Ellen on the show- they both say she is terrific and wonderful. The crowd applaud. Ryan doesn’t have to be funny because Ellen is funny. Before the show she worried about being critical and kind, and also herself and she is fantastic at it.

Oprah says that Ryan loves what he does so much that there is not an idle minute in his day, take a look while the cameras try and keep up with him for a few hours. He starts his day hosting, booking and producing his super-popular syndicated radio show. He feels that he was born to be on the air, he likes the circus of being in the center of a whirlwind of activity. Job 2, from the same chair, is hosting AmericanTop 40 with a 2 1/2 minute break to switch jobs. Job 3, one floor up, is as host and executive producer of E News. He has a stash of green apples and raw almonds for snacking. They fill every day, every minute. Job 4, he runs a multimillion production company, Ryan Seacrest Productions, making programs such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Jobs 5 and 6 are finding and scouting talent and creating more original shows. Job 7 is hosting the biggest show on TV, American Idol.

The busiest man in Hollywood says that he thrives on being this busy. At first it was challenging, but now he is in a zen rhythm. Until Twitter he had a handle on the rest of his life. He follows Oprah on Twitter. They talk about other people’s mundane Tweet updates. In life, he says that he was always willing to come in early, leave late and work the hardest. He wasn’t the tallest or strongest or smartest. He felt that he could control his time and efficiency, he conditioned himself to have a strong work ethic. His mother Connie, who is in the audience worried that he didn’t get enough sleep. Their house ethos was work hard- Ryan didn’t want to be an attorney like his dad who worked too many hours. They always sat down for dinner to talk about their lives, so they have a great honest relationship which helped him to do what he wanted to do.

American Idol has changed the landscape of television. In Hollywood, people said music would not work on TV, and now it’s everywhere. Oprah asks who is his favorite contestant, and he says that they are like puppies, you can’t choose your favorite. But he greatly enjoyed the success of Carrie Underwood, the crowd go wild, she had never been on an airplane, and now look at the success. His new reality show with Jamie Oliver debuts soon. This is a very exciting movement for them, he sees the things people get excited for with his radio show when the phones light up. They were talking about what Jamie did for school dinners in the UK and moms get really passionate about it, asking questions- why pizza for breakfast? Where are the healthy options? He met with Jamie and knew that this project would be a phenomenal success.

They show a photo of Ryan when he was 11, and he makes the crowd laugh by referring to his athletic physique. His mom packed his lunch and he’d trade it out for more fattening options. He says that he will let someone go on his staff for releasing the photo. He was very aware of his physique and he didn’t like spring because he didn’t want to take off his t-shirt to swim in the pool. When you have that feeling as a kid it stays with you, which is why to this day he schedules working out like a meeting. Really, says Oprah. Yes he sometimes runs before Idol. Oprah says that he always seems in a good mood with balance in his life, where does that come from? He gets up and does what he wanted to do for his whole life everyday. He works on TV in Hollywood and worked for one of his idols. He learned to use his personality as leverage, to be smart not just famous. A wonderful asset, says Oprah. Recently Lisa Ling went to visit some wonderful nuns and one who was here said something that stuck with Oprah- you have to believe in something greater than yourself otherwise you can’t do anything greater than yourself. Oprah asks Ryan what he believes in- karma, what you put out you get back, maybe not today or tomorrow but it comes. Its for real, says Oprah. Ryan will stick around and chef Jamie Oliver will be here.

Ryan Seacrest has used his leverage to produce Food Revolution for ABC. Superstar chef Jamie Oliver started a one-man crusade in England to change the food in elementary schools. After 4 relentless years on the frontline he had success when the British Government spent I billion dollars bringing fresher healthier foods, like fruit and vegetables, to schools. Now Jamie has sets his sights on our shores, bringing Food Revolution the new ABC reality show. The US Center for Disease Control lists Huntington West Virginia as one of the most obese cities in America. That is where Jamie spent 3 months trying to change the way we eat. He’s here to show America that a little effort can make an enormous difference. He is appalled that the kids get pizza for breakfast, chicken nuggets for lunch and that fries count as a vegetable. The school chefs were very resentful of him coming in to change their system which they think works fine.

He is here to start a food revolution. Come on out Jamie. Oprah asks him why there is so much resistance to eating healthier? He says that we are creatures of habit and we don’t want to change unless we have to. He has found himself upsetting alot of people for the last 7 years but he is honest and knows that what he is doing is right. He almost caused a riot by removing the french fries from the school. Oprah says that the statistics are alarming- that this is the first generation of kids that are not expected to live as long as their parents because of childhood obesity. Jamie thinks it is beautiful that after 4 generations of adults making the wrong decisions, it is time to make the right ones. He doesn’t think that he is Superman, but he has hindsight on his side. Four hours of TV back home got a billion dollars from the government, rubbish taken out of the vending machines, fresher local produce and that they are on the beginning of transition of change. Michelle Obama is supported entirely by Jamie, and he hope that in the 6 hours of TV that he has, he will incite change for people to support him to support the First Lady in her job. He says that parents giving junk food to their kids consistently is child abuse. Oprah was shocked that the kids were eating pizza for breakfast. Jamie thinks that it is hard for mums to go out and work and worry about their kids. The nutrition given to kids, for two meals a day, 180 days a year needs to be safe, and he wants parents to get as angry as he is about the matter.

Jamie Oliver spent three months with an uphill battle trying to change the landscape of eating in Huntingdon West Virginia. The local DJ wanted to run him out of town, because they didn’t want to be changed. Jamie thought that there were only miserable bastards like that in the UK. He needed to get the DJ to support what they are doing. Jamie took him on a journey for a day. This is about real people and families, health, life and death he says. They go to a funeral home where they look at an extremely large jumbo casket and talk about the reality of disposing of an obese body. The normal size casket looks diminutive in comparison. The large casket has to be transported in a cargo van, burying is an issue and cremation is ruled out because the body consumes itself, like a giant candle. It is hard to have dignity in this situation, they all agree.

Oprah says that they did some research and discovered that the jumbo caskets are a booming business now in America, the audience didn’t know that. Sales have tripled in the last ten years, They bring one in to the studio. Jamie says that they are made bespoke, they are steel reinforced. Most church doors aren’t big enough, so the coffin has to be tipped on its side to get through the door. They have to be lifted out on a forklift truck – all dignity is gone. Jamie says that he knows that he is a foreigner in this country, but that he is human and can we just say that enough is enough? The audience applaud.

DJ Rod Willis joins the studio by satellite, he found the jumbo casket had a huge impact on him, that was the turning point. When Jamie came to town they were all skeptical but as they learned to trust him things turned around and that was a turning point. The CDC report came out and they were taking steps on their own, they thought that Jamie was trying to exploit them for a few bucks. Oprah says that she has known Jamie for a few years and that he has always been very sincere in his attempts to orchestrate change. The DJ says that Jamie changed him, he went and got a crock pot for the very first time. Rod says that all it takes is putting in some healthy real ingredients- like mashed potatoes- Oprah says that people have forgotten where real foods came from by using packet mixes. Jamie says that we need to re-own our kitchens and change this before it’s too late. The fact that he is on this show and that Oprah did a show on Food Inc and that he is working with Ryan Seacrest means that the time to change is now.

Do you know what your family eats in a week? Jamie showed Stacey, a wife and mother of four and she was horrified. He had all the food that they ate in a week put together in one place. This stuff is going to kill their children early, 10-14 years off their life. Stacy cries and says she feels sad and depressed, this will not help her kids succeed. Seeing the food scares her that she is setting her kids up for failure. She wants them to learn from her. He tells her that she is a good mother and that they will change from this day on. Oprah asks how they are doing. Justin, the 12 year old has lost 20-30 lbs but Jamie says that this is about health, it is not a dieting show. This is not just about obesity, this is about what goes in us. He buried the deep fryer and they did an emotional prayer. Oprah thought it was interesting that all the food was golden brown. All of Stacy’s pizza’s cost 50c each- Jamie says that the whole system needs to change. The buy one get one free culture of supermarkets needs to move from processed foods to fresh local produce. Oprah says that Michelle Obama has just launched her Let’s Move campaign to inspire parents and kids to eat well and be active. Go to www.letsmove.gov for more information.

Jamie is cooking chicken nuggets with Oprah from 6 fresh, not out of a box, ingredients. Lemon, garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs are mixed together in a food processor. Oprah attends to the egg while Jamie slices the chicken. He says that this is about knowing and owning the food that your babies are eating. They put the chicken in flour, then toss it in the seasoning. Jamie got the ingredients for $3.75 and knows the ingredients. The processed ones cost about $5 and have 22 other ingredients. He will make a whole meal for $10 and will take less times than reheating nuggets. He is going to pimp the greens, olive oil, salt pepper and acid- vinegar or lemon or clementines. Use your hands. Taste your food. It is wonderful, nutritious, colorful. Mashed potatoes- 12 minutes, unpeeled, the nutrition is in the skin- go rugged, get used to it , it’s lovely. You can still use a little butter, but olive oil is better for you. Oprah likes truffle oil- Jamie says that can make you feel posh and it’s affordable. Oprah tries the mashed potatoes and likes them, says the greens are fabulous also. It cooks in half the time and costs less than buying processed food. Oprah and Ryan try the chicken which is lovely. Oprah thanks Jamie and Ryan, Food Revolution debuts on March 26th and the recipes from this show are on Oprah.com. While you are there take the No Phone Zone Pledge like the audience members. A life is more important than a phone call. Thanks everyone.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Ryan Seacrest is the busiest man in Hollywood.

He has 7 different jobs and gets paid $45 million over 3 years for one of them- hosting American Idol.

Simon Cowell is a sweetheart.

Jamie Oliver and Ryan Seacrest are joining forces to create an American Food Revolution.

The sight of jumbo caskets for burying the morbidly obese motivated some Huntingdon, West Virginia, locals to eat healthier.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Own what food you put in your body. Use real food and taste your food. It is wonderful, nutritious and colorful.

Date: February 16th, 2010
File Under: Live your best life, Makeover, Transformation

Episode 28: Make-Unders: How’d You Get That Way?

Oprah says look around at these pictures of some of our most cherished viewers; mom age 34 and her daughter 16 from a few towns over, Wayne from Taylor Michigan who is clearly stuck in the 80’s and Cindy, God loves teachers, but should she be wearing this to lead our children into the future?, and Dawn… Dawn, Dawn. How did these folks get this way? She knows we all know someone too overdone, too pooped, too painted. These folks don’t need a make-over, they need a make-under. They brought in the big gun who’s so much fun, with tons of experience toning down, come on in Carson Kressley.

So today they are going to have fun in the spirit of helping people look there best. Dawn is a 44 year old single mother of two. As a child, Dawn was a girl next door; shy, reserved and not outgoing. High school was really hard, she was told she wasn’t going to make much of herself and it was a sad lonely time for her. At 21 she started to change her look and she started to get attention. She started tanning, dieting, working out and coming into a different kind of look. She says her look doesn’t match her inside as much as people might think. She is a mother first and foremost. Her kids hate how she looks and she’d really like her son and daughter to be proud of her.

Carson hopped on a plane to Canada, which he says is more of a frozen tundra than Chicago, to knock on Dawn’s door. Oprah loves it when this happens; take a look. Edmonton Alberta in Canada in February, Carson says he’d do anything for Oprah. Dawn answers the door and starts shrieking. She takes him upstairs, and he asks if she’s had implants or if she’s naturally endowed. Dawn says they are natural implants. He says they got really big with silicone and she says yes. He asks about her hair- it is extensions. He asks if she’s had anything else done? She says her lips , botox, eyelash extensions. She was been doing this for way too long, over 20 years. Carson says is she asking who is this person and she says yes. Her daughter is 15 and she doesn’t want her to grow up in the same way. She says her daughter is beautiful and perfect the way she is and that Dawn does not want her daughter attracting the wrong kind of attention. Carson says that is what they should want for Dawn, right? Ok, they can do that. They talk outside her closet. Carson asks if there was a moment where she decided to change herself, her looks? Dawn says in high school she overheard a guy she liked saying that Dawn was a nice girl but too fat so he would never date her. To this day she remembers that. Carson says wow. Looking in the mirror Dawn sees someone with alot of makeup on, someone that is overdone. Not someone that is really her. She thinks her kids see.. she breaks down… she doesn’t think her kids are happy with what they see. They see someone who is supposed to be a role model for them and they would just like to have a mom like everybody else’s mom.

Oprah says to Carson that addictions affect people in all ways, and that he thinks Dawn has a beauty addiction. He thinks that a little beauty was good but that Dawn was doing as much as she could to be accepted. Just like a food or drug addiction, you do that to fill the void to make yourself feel better. Carson challenged Dawn to strip it all off and peel it down, not easy to do when you’ve had the same beauty routine forever, for 20 years. She gets up at 6am and she’s ready at 11am; Carson doesn’t do math but that’s a really long time. Oprah is speechless. This addiction was taking her away from her family and her job.

Carson asks if her look is a security blanket. yes, her hair has been a focal point, the little girl inside has always felt overweight and she felt that if she had the hair, then people wouldn’t look at the weight. They agree that’s pretty scary. He asks her to imagine how liberating it will be to get rid of it and not hide behind it. She removes her makeup, she’s nervous. Carson thinks she looks better without it, Dawn says it takes her back to the girl she was in high school. Taking out her hair extensions, they call in a reinforcement for help who says it will probably take 3 hours. Carson hikes up her top to cover her cleavage. Carson leaves her with the rules until they meet in Chicago- no makeup, tanning, bronzer, lipstick, eyeshadow, foundation, no bronzer, no hair extensions, false eyelashes and no outfit that show almost all of her boobs. He asks her to remove her false nails. She says that will be very hard. They hug. He is proud of her. He says they’ll discuss getting her nails back in Chicago. She thanks him.

Dawn’s 2 teenage children are in the studio with Dawn’s best friend, Wendy. Oprah asks how they’ve felt about their mom’s look all these years? The daughter says its kind of hard because her friends look at their mom and judge- either she’s a porn star or… her brother’s friends think she’s a MILF. It’s been hard for her whole life- Oprah says she’s in for a big surprise. Dawn’ s children have been embarrassed for years. Troy, her son says that his friends at school call her a MILF. Oprah says if you don’t know what that is, then ask your children. The crowd laugh. Carson has been working around the clock with Dawn to set her free from the make-up which binds. The kids and wendy are really ready. Dawn comes out and the crowd go wild. The kids come up on stage and they all hug. Oprah says it’s great. Dawn did what Carson said and walked around stripped down- at first the lack of attention was hard. She’s so used to being looked at and asked if she was a celebrity, it was hard. Oprah says she was used to leading by her boobs, and Dawn laughs and agrees. Dawn says that you get so used to being a certain way that all of a sudden she felt naked that a piece of her was stripped away. She says that may not make sense as she used to walk around almost naked. Oprah says Dawn used to call her extensions her comfort food, and asks how she feels without all the hair. Dawn says it’s so freeing. Wendy says Dawn looks fantastic. Oprah asks if this look reflects who she is- absolutely she feels beautiful, pretty and classy. Oprah says she looks it. Carson explains what he did- Dawn’s look was so extreme- a stripper without a pole, but getting to know her she is a wonderful mother and a kind person. They stripped everything down, she has a great natural beauty. So many people with beauty addictions are hiding and they just wanted to reveal what was there- great bone structure, beautiful eyes, great body and legs. He says that you don’t have to show it all off at once, and this is a look to be proud of. The kids are beaming as much as Dawn is. Oprah says that’s a mom you can take to the PTA and Carson says she’s still a MILF.

34 year old Liz and 16 year old Vanessa are a mother and daughter from Illinois. Carson stopped by their house a few days ago. He knocks on the door and they hug, Liz squeezes his bum and he says it’s better than a handshake. Carson says its 9.30am and they are done up like they are going to Caesar’s Palace. They say they always are. He says he sees a theme here, as the house is very, um… Liz says Soprano-esque. She does know that she’s a little much, she was a very, very poor child so she knew when she grew up she wanted the best of the best. He asks how long they invest a week in their beauty routine. Liz says alot maybe 20-25 hours a week. Carson says that’s more than he actually works a week. He asks what their friends think of their look. Vanessa’s friends think shes ridiculous and want to scrape off her makeup. her hair takes an hour a day or more based on the size of the look. They both have medium sized hair today; it can go bigger.

Liz and Vanessa haven’t seen each other since the transformation. Their husband/ father is in the audience along with some of their family and friends. Liz comes out and the crowd applaud. Oprah says it’s amazing, that she looks so much younger. Carson says that he told Liz that the photos with the make up make her look 45 not 34, and he says she almost stabbed him with a shoe-horn at that point. The make up was too heavy and ageing. Carson says make up should enhance your features not cover them up, which is aging. Liz feels freed and and is pleased that everyone else liked it as she wan’t sure they would like her this way. Vanessa who is only 16 comes out- and the crowd go crazy. Liz says she’s so pretty. Mom and daughter hug a little and cry a little. Carson and Oprah say it’s 16- young and fresh and dewey. Carson says for Vanessa, who he was calling Gosh Spice, it was about making her look age-appropriate, she’s so gorgeous. The husband/ father says thethat they look hot, he likes it.

Cindy is a 48 year old mother of 2 and a professor at the University of Missouri. She says that some of her students and coworkers don’t take her seriously dressed like this. She spends alot of time and money making sure that her hair, makeup and clothes make her look good. She is a professor in the journalism school and some of her colleagues say that some of the conflicts in her classroom may be because she dresses like the students. She likes to dress in unique clothes that you don’t see on everybody else, like this spotty dress where the sleeves join the skirt, which she loves because it’s different. Her favorite dress is a short sparkly number that she can’t understand why other people don’t like it like she does. She has evolved so many times from heavy to thin, she’d dress in the dark because she didn’t like the way she looked. She has kept her weight off for 19 years and her natural state will be interesting to see. Carson says alot of women who lose weight go too far showing off their bodies. Oprah loves CIndy’s biceps, Carson says she has Madonna arms. She comes out and the crowd applaud. Oprah says wow wow wow Professor. Cindy’s mom loves it. Cindy is getting used to it, getting rid of the nails was the hardest- Carson says she had eagle talons before with artwork on them. Oprah wants to talk about artwork nails- Carson is not a fan. Oprah says Cindy lookss fantastic and her students will love this.

Last fall they had so much fun making over men, you can nominate your scruffy, shaggy-haired man right now on Oprah.com. For a little inspiration, meet Wayne. Wayne is an 80’s guy turned in by his wife. He has 20 sleeveless tie-dye shirts. He’s a software developer by day and a rock n’ roller by night. It takes him forever to blow-dry his hair to get the curl out. Oprah and Carson are speechless. Oprah says that’s why we love America, because there is room for everybody. Patty and her daughter Stephanie are here, and Wayne comes out now. The crowd applaud. Oprah says Wayne who are you? Wayne says he’s trying to figure that out too. Oprah says she couldn’t pick him out of a line-up. His family are stunned. Wayne is not used to it yet, it’s been a thrill, he hasn’t seen himself without facial hair since he was 14 years old. People have been encouraging him, saying his wife is gonna love him, so he’s thinking ok. Carson says Wayne had so many colors in his highlighted hair. He’d tried to hold onto his hair, his youth. Many guys have a Rip Van Winkle Syndrome when they haven’t changed their clothes in 40 years and think they look great like they did in high school. That was 3 decades ago. Carson recommends that men like this go shopping every Presidential election or something. Women are better at updating. Wayne’s family are stunned, he can change his identity, he doesn’t look like the same person. His wife loves it. Carson will be back with the man makeover show in July. Oprah says he is very funny with guys. He says men are his speciality, they are like puppies. Oprah thanks Bloomingdale’s, the Laura Mercier makeup team and Salon Buzz in Chicago.

From your look to your home, many people can use a make-under for their homes. Nate Berkus says edit edit edit. He says that everyone in the entire coutry who doesn’t feel good about themselves buys another trinket, another picture frame, another vase and shoves it on the bookshelf. They think that all gifts should be displayed. Christina wanted help with her mom Lois’ busy overstuffed outdated den. Nate met them in their home in Louisiana. He goes to their home. The den makes him say wow, what is this room? The den, gym, greenhouse, trophy room and photographs share the space. He says it definitely needs a makeunder. They wanted a sunroom and a den. Nate says that they have the opposite, it feels like winter and death, quite honestly. He thinks there is too much stuff; the texture of the panelling, the texture of the brick, the busyness of the rug, busy drapery, tons of stuff. He can’t see what he’s looking at and there’s too much furniture to move properly. They sit down, Nate says that they can’t figure out where the camera guys should go as there is too much stuff in the room. He asks what they would feel comfortable editing out- Lois says the table and the bookshelf. Christina says the entertainment center. Nate agrees that we no longer have the big TV’s that once needed such big furniture. He asks Lois if the photographs make her feel closer to her daughters? She says yes, in a sense, as they live so far away. Nate wants to take the focus off everything and on what really matters. He needs their help, which means with all due respect that they won’t help, they have done enough.

Oprah says she thinks that this is so great because everyone wants Nate to come to their house, but that everyone has too much stuff going on and the focus, what rises up to meet you when you walk into a room is important. Nate says that everyone can do that and the mistake so often made is that not everything is important. If a collection of statues are important and all the photos are important, rooms must be edited. It is a maintenance issue. We don’t load up our sink and leave it for 15 years, but people do that with their bookshelves until the Opra Show sends Nate. Oprah says she’s noticed that with photographs, people add and add. You need to edit.

Nate Berkus had 24 hours and a team to get this done. The crew dismantle the den while Christina and Nate pair down the photos, she uses post-its to indicate what can go in storage. In Lowe’s he gets a softer rug and some new curtains that he says are literally perfect. There’s so much going on in the den he will neutralise the space with a light paint color. They cover the brick with panelling and paint it all to get a backdrop. The photos will be reframed to be a focus. He uses paper cutouts to arrange the layout. He says focus the photos on one wall. He moves the bulky electric firplace to a new spot and paints it. He divides off some of the room with a screen which he says is a great idea for multi-purpose rooms. He turns the exercise equipment around and adds a small TV. He says it’s brighter, lighter and understated.

Oprah asks if you can paint over panelling? He says to ask an expert at a paint store as there is a base to go over almost everything. Oprah says that she’d never heard of Lowe’s before Nate started doing these shows but now she uses Lowe’s all the time. Time for the big reveal- Nate tells Lois and Christina not to open their eyes until he says so. When they do open their eyes, they scream. They say it’s beautiful and pretty and they both have tears in their eyes. They couldn’t have imagined it. He shows them the moved painted fireplace to reorientate the room. He used alot of the same pieces and painted them. Lois says it’s elegant. Nate changed the background to be able to use their furniture. Now it’s calmer to the eyes, lighter and fresher and more like a sunroom. He kept the exercise room, added a TV, and screened it off to take the focus off the exercise equipment. He has edited down the plants and photos which used to go all around the room. Now Lois can really see the pictures and not a whole bunch of clutter. She’s blown away, her daughter is happy. Lois, live in the studio via Skype says the experience has inspired her to edit more rooms in her house, she is thoroughly enjoying it- she and he husband watched the superbowl in the den. She got so pumped up and excited that she decided to light up the walls in her other rooms. Christina says Nate did an excellent job in 24 hours and that he could hone in on what is important to their family was incredible. Oprah thanks Lowe’s.

Recently Nate took the No Phone Zone Pledge and he hasn’t broken it. He didn’t realise he’d have to reschedule his life- he used to call people in the car when he would have no other distractions. Which he sees now was stupid. Oprah won’t talk to anyone on the phone, God forbid someone gets into an accident and says I was on the phone to Oprah. Nate says he’d be seen on the expressway and someone would call Oprah to report him. They both say that they would turn the other person in. They laugh and high-five. Oprah says be like Nate, take the pledge. She then says when Carson comes back he’ll take the pledge. Carson says he lives in New York and calls people on the subway, even though it’s underground and doesn’t really work. Oprah says it’s a commitment to saving lives so we don’t have to keep telling stories about the 6000 people who got killed last year. Take the pledge. Thanks.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Just like a food or drug addiction, a beauty addiction fills the void to make people feel better.

If you don’t know what a MILF is, then ask your children.

Make up should enhance your features not cover them up, which is aging.

A lot of women who lose weight go too far showing off their bodies.

Oprah says we love America, because there is room for everybody.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Too much make-up is aging, too much clutter is messy. Edit, edit,edit.

Date: February 11th, 2010
File Under: Live your best life, Transformation

Episode 25: The High School Quarterback Who Became A Lesbian

Kimberley Reed was once Paul McKerrow, a high-school quarterback in Montana. He was the starring quarterback, valedictorian, and voted best looking and most likely to succeed. He was the golden boy every guy wanted to be and every girl dreamed of, now he is a woman. She looks like this picture and she’s a lesbian.

Growing up in 70’s Montana, Paul’s father Lauren was a doctor and mother Carol was a schoolteacher. They adopted Kimberley’s brother, Mark, and probably conceived Paul the day they picked Mark up. A year later, along came another surprise, Tom. It looked like a dream childhood, but appearances can be deceptive. Paul did the things in high school that you were supposed to do, he thought it would make the other crazy idea go away. He began to question his gender identity around first grade. As he grew up, Paul was attracted to girls, but he didn’t feel like a typical high school boy. He dated women, pretty innocently, alot of the times he wanted to be one of the girls. After college he moved to San Francisco, where he first started dressing as a woman. He would segregate restaurants, going to some only as a male and some only as a female. It was crazy to live like that. You can only live a double life for so long. Over the next few years he took it further, and started taking hormones which helped his body feel right, then in his late 20’s he undertook gender reassignment surgery. Paul became Kimberley. Sexual reassembly surgery fashions a vagina from your genitalia, and she had some help with her breasts. She checked into her apartment as a male and left as a female with a new name, drivers license, social security number and passport.

Oprah says that if we dont relate to Kimberley’s story, most of us can admit we have something which holds us back from being all we can be, whether it is weight or a bad relationship. As you hear this story, think how great you could be if you had the courage to live your own truth. Kimberley joins Oprah onstage. Oprah says she is always fascinated by these stories because it’s so hard to imagine not being in the right body. Oprah says she can relate to most issues, but not this one. Kimberley says she found the right body by a process of elimination, she was magnetically drawn to it. She tried to avoid it, to not be weird, to fit in. She started to feel different in about kindergarten or first grade, she wanted to be with the girls but she had to repress it. During her teenage years she wondered if she may be gay, later she tried all the options. In high school she felt that the thing going on which made her different had to be shut down, so she went all out to be a football player, to do all the things that you should do. Becoming a football star was part of the rules. She is glad that she grew up as a boy, but it makes her sad because boys can be strong and independent whereas girls often withdraw and doubt themselves at around age 11 or 12. Oprah interrupts to say that Kimberley can sing that Beyonce song “If I Were A Boy” and mean it. Kimberley doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t have the urge to be female, but she took specific steps towards it around 5h or 6th grade. She had a paper route and she got up very early in the morning and dressed as a girl to deliver the papers.

When Kimberley traveled back to Helena, Montana for her 20th high school reunion, she didn’t know what to expect. Last time her classmates saw her, she was Paul. She says the first part of her life she lived trying to deny that she was a girl, the second part of her life she tried to deny that she was ever a boy, and now she is trying to reconcile the two parts of her life. She is pleased she got the sense of entitlement, license and freedom of boyhood, and wishes girls got that. Oprah says we see that parents treat their kids differently even if they say they don’t treat their male and female children differently. At High School Paul went to the prom and felt awkward, she felt she was trying to play a part but it felt off, like she was putting on an act. She went to college in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a very conducive place to experiment. She tried to date men as a man, but that didnt feel right, but she did start to know she was attracted to being a female. She lived as a male student in Berkeley, but would drive across the bridge to San Francisco to be a woman. She was an exchange student in Norway, she deliberately went where the other students wouldnt be. She took the train as far north as she could go and camped on a fast, awaiting a revelation. She realised she’d been trying to avoid this in so many ways, but the revelation was always there. Oprah says its like Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz; nothing is outside of us, it’s inside always, the answer is there. Kimberley was waiting for the big revelation, and it was there. That was a big turning point. The movie she has made, Prodigal Sons is interesting, according to Oprah, because it focuses as much on the family dynamic as Kimberley’s gender. Kimberley told her mom, probably later than she should have done. Oprah says she feels parents know but don’t want to see it, especially seeing the feminine side in their sons. Carol in the audience says she saw nothing, not a hint. Kimberley says she hid it well because she was hiding it from herself. Carol doesn’t see hints even looking back with hindsight.

Kimberley travels back to her hometown for her 20 year high school reunion. Oprah says everyone who is worried about going to their highschool reunion, should imagine this. The video footage plays. Kimberely decided to go back for the reunion, this would be the first time that most of her hometown will see her, although they heard a few years ago of her gender change. The party is at the co-captain of the football team’s house, Kimberley, as Paul, was the other captain. She goes to the party and greets her old friends and former dates. One of the women says that all the girls had crushes on her back in high school. There was no adverse reaction at first, but one women says she still doesn’t get the difference between gay, homosexual, lesbian and transgender. Kimberley and her girlfriend patiently explain. Oprah in the studio says, I’m like her, I’m all durr. Joining us on Skype is Paul’s former team mate and best friend, Tim. Tim says that as a friend it’s been a little bit weird, he was protective so didn’t want to say words like weird. It’s surprising that his mother didnt know. When Kim’s dad died, Kim came back, and Tim’s mom told him that Paul is Kim. When his mother told him that Paul is Kim, Tim said what and she repeated herself and they had that exchange about five times. Oprah laughs hysterically. There was another woman named Kim that he’d just seen at Carol’s house who was pregnant and he thought wow Paul really went all the way. Oprah laughs hysterically. Paul was great at everything, she was good at every sport she tried which was one of the sources of sibling rivalry in their household. Tim says they were close friends throughout school and they stayed in touch. The first time they tried to go out for a drink, Kim was too chicken, so Tim went to meet her and Claire. It was a bit surreal to go back to her old house. The next night meeting the whole team, 8 overweight bald players, she was shy. Look at her, sure she’s attractive. He didn’t know if she was gay or straight. Kimberley was incredibly nervous, her former team mates showed up with cases of beer. She looked around at one of them swigging cheap beer with an arm around her girlfriend Claire, and she thought this would be ok. She feared that her past would be erased. She doesn’t look the same and alot is different, but many of her friends feel that she is the same person. Tim is happy and proud of her- Paul was a little awkward and shy, but Kim is very confident. Oprah says it is because she is her authentic self now.

Much of the footage today is from Prodigal Sons, her documentary. She thought that throwing the perfect spiral would cure her. She had her first kiss on the bleachers. She had so many problems figuring out her gender. She’d play games with herself where the penalty would be that she’d have to be a girl for the night. So then she’d run slowly so she would have to be a girl. She had shut alot of this out but she needs to bring it back somehow, it’s half her life. Oprah says so many people who grew up in smaller communities grew up, married and did what society expected, and they are miserable. That could have been Kimberley’s life. She says the number one thing she hears is that transgender people wish that they had done it sooner.

The documentary captures the intense sibling rivalry which has taken a toll. Mark, her older brother was adopted, so he felt a bit of an outsider, He was held back in school so they were always in the same grade. Mark spent his childhood living in the shadow of his highly accomplished younger brother. At 21 he crashed his car and had suffered a traumatic brain injury. He had repeated surgeries, his mood swings got worse, his short-term memory began to fade and he began clinging to the past more and more. Footage shows him ranting and raving about how popular he was in school. Kimberley says she felt like Mark would have given anything to be the man that she would have given anything not to be- they were both haunted by the same ghost. In the studio, Carol says the confrontation ended with a 911 call, it was Christmas Eve and it was not a Christmas Eve to remember. Mark was taken to jail. Oprah asks if prior to the car crash, all the anger and jealousy existed and it got exascerbated by the event. Kim felt the sibling rivalry acutely, Carol was aware or that, it was always present. Carol thought the adoption was part of it, but Mark had his own strengths, but he didnt go in those directions because he single-mindedly wanted to be Paul. Oprah is aware that there are no doubt millions of people feeling like Mark did about this- she asks Carol, do you believe in the bible and how do you reconcile your religious beliefs with your son or daughter? Carols says for her that was never a question- she believed in her child and believed that this child was thoughtful and intelligent and gave so much thought to what was happening. She knew that this decision was painfully arrived at.

When Kimberley began her transition to a woman, she kept it a secret from the whole family. She told her mother but she couldn’t tell her dad. Having been the perfect son, she didn’t want to take the element of vicarious living from her dad. Carol waited one year to tell her husband that their son was now a woman. Carol says that her husband was ill and his health was a real issue, and she wanted to time the news right. There never was a right time but she decided she must tell him. She made appointments for herself to visit a therapist and, on the third visit, her husband came along and she told him. It was really hard. Kimberley says she feels bad that she couldn’t do it herself, what a thing to put on someone else- Carol was juggling the whole extended family. Kimberley wishes that she hadn’t put her mom through so much. She feels its important to talk about this on the program and on the documentary. She hopes that people can come out earlier and earlier in the newer generation. Oprah says with regards to coming out, many people, maybe not transgender but maybe are coming out as gay. Oprah says she got goosebumps earlier when Carol said she believed in her child. Oprah says that’s beautiful, Kimberley and Carol hug.

Kimberley has been dating Claire for ten years. Claire says she feels we are all a little in drag and projecting, and for women that’s feminine. What was striking and attractive to Claire about Kimberley was how comfortable she was with herself, and that to her is feminine, female. Oprah says it’s all about finding what is authentic to yourself. Oprah clarifies that Claire is a lesbian.She then asks if as a lesbian you try and strike a balance between feminine and non-feminine. Claire says she had some gender issues herself , she liked alot of boy things, she may have ovecompensated so she wasn’t viewed as a lesbian. Oprah asks if she finds that when you shed your false exterior, the world and your perception of it changes. When you change, it changes. All the things you were afraid of, the people you thought would reject you and wouldn’t love you anymore still did and the people who were upset and jealous of you still are. It takes alot of courage to stand up for who you are. Oprah would like to encourage us to watch the movie and to inspire you to dig in and figure out what is holding you back and become the best you can be. Thanks everybody, and take the no-phone pledge. Bye everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Think how great you could be if you had the courage to live your own truth.

Like Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz says; nothing is outside of us, it’s inside always, the answer is there.

Many transgender people wish that they acted on their gender-change earlier.

So many people who grew up in smaller communities grew up, married and did what society expected, and they are miserable.

When you shed your false exterior, the world and your perception of it changes. When you change, it changes.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

The person that everybody wants to be may not want to be that person; be true to yourself.

Date: February 4th, 2010
File Under: Health, Live your best life

Episode 20: America’s Silent Killer: Oprah and Dr OZ Want To Save Your Life

Oprah has a radical goal- to save million of lives in the next 60 minutes. Diabetes is a ticking time bomb, a silent killer, annihilating 100 African Americans a day. That number may not be alot unless it’s your mother or friend or your family or yourself. It’s time to get out of denial. Dr Oz is here because as a heart surgeon he sees the affects of diabetes daily. Its the fastest growing disease in history 80 million people in America have, or or on the verge of having diabetes. 6 billion are walking around undiagnosed. We spend $174 billion a year on this diease, more than all the cancers combined or AIDS. The healthcare system will be bankrupt if we don’t do something about diabetes. Believe it or not, the bright side is most diabetes is treatable and preventable and even reversible. Dr Oz is here, his new show is doing great, congratulations. They high five. He says he learned from the best, he was well-taught.

So what is diabetes? Dr Oz wants to be crystal clear that the problem is not just a little bit of sugar. A tortilla in the mouth goes into the stomach, the liver takes the nutrients and decides what to do with it, including making sugar. The pancreas is the hero today. The food in the small bowel is washed by the bile and the yellow stuff from the pancreas. The molecules of sugar get absorbed into the body. In the bloodstream, the sugar is traveling, particles of insulin are being released from the pancreas to attract the sugar. The pancreas is trying to take the sugar and funnel it from the blood into the tissues- to the brain so we can think, to our muscles so we can exercise. Simple carbohydrates are sugars. If you have too much sugar going in, we store it in our belly, just as our ancestors did to survive. Belly fat gets ponderously large and poisins the insulin so sugar can’t get out the bloodstream. This is a problem because in the heart the blood vessels are delicate and the sugar is like glass shards scraping and making holes.As our body scars and attempts to heals, it breaks and ruptures. The open surface forms a scab like anywhere else in your body. The scab in the artery gets larger and larger and kaboom. Right there, you saw the leading cause of death in diabetics. A diabetic will most likely die from a heart attack. 1/4 of the patients he operates on every day has diabetes. Oprah summarises that too much sugar is like shards of glass inside the body. We scar and heal which equals hardening of the arteries. It influences all of our organs: a scarred kidney gives us kidney failure. An image of a healthy kidney is shown next to a diabetic kidney which has shrivelled. The blood vessels in the eye are very fragile. A diabetic eye has cracked blood vessels, which means that you get dark patches in your vision. This is not just a little bit of sugar.

Oprah has family members who takes insulin every day. Dr Oz wants us to feel diabetes, not just think it. He took a film crew to New York Presbyterian Hospital to see Laureen who is on insulin, who has had diabetes for much of her life. Diabetes ravaged Laureen kidneys so much so that by age 34 she needed a transplant. Just 7 years later, diabetes destroyed that kidney too. 3 days a week, she is on dialysis for 3 hours a day to clean her blood. Now at age 44, diabetes has taken a further toll on her body. She ended up with lesions on her feet; she has lost half one leg and half a foot. What would she say to people who say diabetes is just sugar? Take care of yourself- she thought insulin would compensate for eating soda and cake. She used to be very active and was a nurse. She says people dont take it seriously when they feel ok. The day it hits you, it’s too late. The day she saw the dialysis machines she thought this is not me, it can’t be happening. She cries. Dr Oz says shes a brave woman. Looking at her body, Laureen says its so shocking to see her foot and leg gone.

86,000 amputations are done every year as a result of diabetes. Imagine that your blood vessels look like a straw. The diabetes causes scars on the inside which twist up the blood vessels, which shuts off both the blood flow and the protective white blood cells so you get infections. Often the first problem is a toe infection- diabetics can’t feel it and they loose their foot. People change their lives based on what they feel, not what they know. So Feel Laureen. She is Type 1, which is genetic, 10% of diabetes is Type 1. Type 2 is a lifestyle issues- the belly fat has poisoned the insulin. This is a perfect storm. When you go to get food, you get sugar which is like crack cocaine. He says he is going to blow our mind He shows the 150lbs of sugar that each of us eats a year. Their generation ate 40lb of sugar less. That is shocking, says Oprah.

This show should be a big wake-up call. Everyone in the audience today has diabetes, pre-diabetes, or a family member living with diabetes. Oprah brought Dr Oz out of surgery and off his own show to be here today to give the brutal facts. $175 billion a year in diabetes spending will be doubled in 25 years. We will have to take care of a good portion of the population.

Warning signs:

Constant thirst
Frequent urination
Non-healing infections
Tingling toes
Blurred vision

Your whole immune system is depressed. Those symptoms will be there with Type 1 or 2. Type 1 can not be prevented, but it can be treated. Up to 90% of Type 2 can be reversed.

Risk Factors:

Belly Fat
Sedentary Lifestyle
Family History
Smoking

Dr Oz can walk around and see people with big bellies who have diabetes. It is not surprising. Exercise can help reverse diabetes. A little bit of fat is hard to reverse. Oprah asks if only overweight people are at risk. If the average height woman is 150lbs, has an increased risk of diabetes. If your waist size is more than half your height, you’ll have an increased risk of diabetes. Oprah is 5′ 6 1/2″ so her height is 66 1/2″ so 33 1/4″ is the limit for her waist size. We are not talking about really big people. And please women of America. guys never change their belt size after age 40, they just let it hang over the top, so you have to measure.

Oprah asks why is diabetes running rampant in the African American community? The big reason is because the cheapest calories are those with no nutrients. Every day on his show, Dr OZ gives Doctor’s Orders, and when the guidelines were to eat 100% wholegrain foods, because that’ll prevent the problem, people wrote in by the thousands saying that they couldn’t find those foods in their neighborhoods. We need to change that. Find it and demand it. Forget the cheap foods, get food without a label. The Hispanic community is also hard hit. We have to eat better. Essentially, we must avoid the white foods, the processed foods. White flour, pasta, rice, bread, sugar… white bread is like a candy bar for your stomach. Oprah reads an email letter from 33 year old Rochelle- she lost her mom due to a massive stroke and renal failure brought on by diabetes and high blood pressure. She was only 53, and spent most of her life as a nurse. Rochelle is concerned for the health of her church, over half of the members have diabetes; they fellowship over food. Breakfast is fried chicken, french fries, pork chops and maybe a hamburger, after evening service they serve sweets. They are slowly killing themselves and they need change.

Oprah thanks Rochelle for the email which prompted the show. Dr Ian Smith is a Harvard Educated diet and health expert, author of the 50 Million Pound Challenge, where he is mobilising the country to loose weight and get healthy. He went to Rochelle’s church to try and light a fire to mobilise change. African Americans tip the scale in record numbers- they are twice as likely to have Type 2 diabetes, twice as likely to have kidney disease, twice as likely to have amputations, and twice as likely to die from diabetes. A familiar scene in churches across the US, the congregation are enjoying their usual meal. Dr Ian asks who in the audience has or knows someone with diabetes- everyone raises their hand.Walgreens is going to test all of their blood sugar levels- it’s a simple test. Dottie is living with diabetes and Dr Ian says she’s a walking ticking time bomb. He is alarmed by the numbers and the denial. The members with diabetes are on a crash course for disaster.

Oprah asks him how it was, he says it was unbelievable. African Americans have obesity in record numbers- its a habitual thing. Habits are tough to break, especially around food. They take a heels in the ground approach that they will not be told what to eat and how to change, This disease comes down to attitude. So 24 church ladies from Dayton Ohio are in the audience in their hats. Dee Dee was told she could end up in a diabetic coma- she thought about what he said and she’ll do better with exercise, diet and medicine. As a diabetic she should test herself daily, Dee Dee hadn’t tested for a month. Nell who cooks the food has diabetes, as does her husband. Her mother and sister died of diabetes so she has decided to take it seriously after the wake up call. Typically African Americans are diagnosed with the disease at later stages which means that the reversibility is more difficult to happen. You can almost always reverse it, but not the side effects such as heart disease. Outreach is so important, Dr Oz says if we can figure out the people who don’t know they have it yet, we can answer Laureen’s wish. Dr Ian’s goal is for people to do something now. There’s a sense of resignation that the family history is there, and a lack of urgency unlike in say pancreatic or brain cancer. Diabetes can take years to kill you. People believe they can change in the future and be ok. By the time they get diagnosed, it’s too late. Dr Oz says that taking insulin is not the solution. The pills paint over the cracks, but you don’t want the cracks to form. We must address the foods that are stopping us from putting one foot n front of the other, which is something we have always done.

Fitness expert Bob Greene, author of Best Life Diet: Managaing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes says its up to us to save our own lives. His parents have it so he is a candidate, but by changing factors of lifestyle, you can change your risk. Exercise is huge, it’s hard to tell people to eat right and it’s harder to get people to exercise. We dont move in our culture as we used to. Bob was charged with getting the church ladies to move. They do not wear pants, ever, so they wear skirts on the treadmill. In footage, only a few say that they exercise regularly. 30 minutes a day of exercise, lowers your risk of diabetes by 60%. Exercise is not negociable. If they do it consistently they’ll drop weight which will lower their risk. He shows them strength training. They have to do cardio every day. They are lowering their blood sugar by exercising. After exercising, one of the congregation walked back rather than take a wheelchair as previously. The group craved the information. Bob says some are really ready to make the commitment, some will need more emotional homework to make the commitment.

Bob gave them a sermon on sugar after the exercise- hidden sugar is the big problem, well find it in ranch dressing, and each plate had about 4 servings of dressing. Take soda off the table, there is 10 tsp of sugar in each can. Women who drink one can of soda a day, increase their risk of type 2 diabetes by 83%. 2 tablespoons of ketchup has 2 teaspoons sugar in it. The doughnuts can each have 13 teaspoons of sugar in each.

Dr Oz says cut out the white foods. Dr Ian says cut out fried foods- bake, grill, steam. Bob’s book is all about food choices and exercise and changing behaviour, unwiring ourselves from how we grew up. He has a specially designed website that Oprah actually went to with all the information, everyone can get a free 30 day trial at thebestlife.com.

After Oprah’s former chef, Art Smith, was diagnosed with diabetes, ten months ago, he’s lost 85lbs and now no longer needs to take his diabetes medication. His diagnosis horrified him- his parents have diabetes. His first goal was to loose 50 lbs, he thought at first he was getting older and couldn’t see as well, he thought he was having a heart attack and he other ailments. Dr Oz measures his waist -it’s 40 inches- which has reversed his diabetes. Without the belly fat, it no longer sends out chemicals to the body saying ignore the insulin.

Bob Greene has great recipes in his book, including fried chicken without frying it. Art says once a week he makes skinless chicken in a multi-grain cereal coating. Greek yogurt is zero fat and has protein, to coat the chicken. Bob’s cheesy cornbread has less calories and sugar than regular, and there is a black-eyed pea salad. We should have legumes, the super-food, 3-4 times a week. Apple cider vinegar drops the glycemic index of any food. The recipes can be found on Oprah.com.

Extra belly fat, thirst, urination means you should get tested. Walgreens is stepping up in a big way- tomorrow from 11-11pm, you can go to any 24 hour clinic and get a free blood screening, or you can call 1-800-Walgreens to set up an appointment. It’s free and easy and you can get tested and help reverse this silent killer. Thank you.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

People change their lives based on what they feel, not what they know.

If your waist size is more than half your height, you’ll have an increased risk of diabetes.

The cheapest calories are those with no nutrients- white bread is like a candy bar for your stomach.

It’s hard to tell people to eat right and it’s harder to get people to exercise. Exercise is not negociable.

Stop eating white foods, stop frying foods, do 30 minutes of exercise daily.

VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Women who drink one can of soda a day, increase their risk of type 2 diabetes by 83%.

Date: January 27th, 2010
File Under: Live your best life, Public Service Announcement, Transformation, Uncategorized

Episode 14: Before You Grocery Shop Again… Food 101, With Michael Pollan

Oprah will turn 56 in a couple of days and she still loves it when she learns something new, and she recently saw an eye-opening, fascinating documentary, Food, Inc. It makes you think, like any good documentary- we all have to start paying more attention to what we put into our bodies and look at the bigger picture beyond carbs, fat, calories etc. Do you know where your food comes from? In the studio they do a quiz. The most consumed meat in the world is not beef as the audience guessed, but rather goat. Goat is lower in fat and cholestorol than chicken and has more protein than beef. In Chicago in midwinter, grapes travel further than tomatoes or mushrooms to arrive in the grocery store. Children today drink twice as much soda as milk. Americans take 3 million pounds of antibiotics and livestock take 28 million pounds, which is why they are doing today’s show.

An extract from Food, Inc: The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than the last ten thousand. But the image we are sold is still the old rural America, a view of farmers, 30’s farmhouses, fields and picket fences. Food in our supermarkets (average 47,000 products) has become seasonless, tomatoes are available all year rounds. There are no longer bones in the meat aisle. If you follow the food chain back from the shrink-wrapped meat you have a very different reality. In the 70’s the top 5 beef packers controlled 25% of the market, now the top 45 control over 80% of the market. A handful of companies have changed what we eat and how we make our food. Modern agriculture is about making things faster and bigger and fatter and cheaper, nobody is thinking about the ecological health of the whole system.

Oprah says that some food industry organizations are saying that the film Food, Inc is biased and misleading but that we can make up our own minds, because we live in America. Isn’t that wonderful? For Oprah it boils down to making more conscious food decisions. Oprah recommends we watch it for ourselves and make our own decisions.

An extract from Food, Inc: Birds are raised and slaughtered in half the time they were 50 years ago and they’re now twice as big. People like white meat so chicken’s have been re-engineered to have bigger breasts. A farmer asks why you would raise a chicken in 3 months when you could do it in 49 days? More money in your pocket, The chickens never see sunlight. In the chicken house there is dust and feces everywhere, it is an assembly line with mass production. With the rapid growth of a chicken from a chick to fully grown in 7 weeks, alot of the internal organs and bones can’t keep up with the rate of growth, so many of the chickens can only take a few steps and then they fall down. Th intensive production systems produce alot of food on a small amount of land at an affordable price.

Oprah says after seeing the film she had to spread the message. Michael Pollan award-winning journalist and 4-times bestseller author is one of the foremost authorities on food in the world. Pollan says we re-engineered the bird- it is a great achievement in one way, it is now the cheap meat- the reason is breeding, diet, antibiotics and our willingness to tolerate this feedlot system. There is a price to be paid for the shortened lifespan of a chicken, and the price is antibiotics. If we give so many to the animals, they will no longer work for the people and we see alot of antibiotic resistant germs coming out of feed lots. Cheap food is great, and we have to acknowledge the achievement, but also the cost. Oprah asks how we feed America without mass-producing food- it’s the American way. Americans have done a good job of driving down food prices; we spend 9.5% of our income on food, the smallest percentage in the world. It’s hard to imagine we can make food production fair, humane and sustainable without increasing prices. Can we figure out how to mass-produce sustainable food? We don’t know exactly how yet but we can figure out how to do it if we can re-engineer a chicken.

Oprah asks how the Western diet relates to the rest of the world. It’s a confused treacherous landscape where cereal promises better focus in the classroom and a healthy heart. Most of what is in the supermarket is not “food”, it is an edible food-like substance. The western diet was invented about 100 years ago- lots of everything- processed meat, sugar, additives, added fat- except fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In other parts of the world people are healthy eating seal blubber or cow’s blood. Before the Western diet, people did not suffer from Type 2 diabetes, heart disease obesity etc. It’s not about fat or carbs but whole foods. The Inuit diet is very high in fat-75%- seal blubber- but they do not suffer from Type 2 diabetes, heart disease . How is that asks Oprah, we don’t know says Pollan, maybe it is all the Omega 3’s. What we know is that traditional diet eaters are not suffering high rates of chronic diseases. It is about eating minimally processed plants, meats and fungi.

The rules

#2: Dont eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

#7 avoid food containing ingredients that a third grader couldn’t pronounce

#13 Eat only foods that will eventually rot

One of theories is do you pay for real food or pay for the doctor? In 1960 they paid 18% of national income on food and 5% on healthcare. Today we pay 9% on food and 17% on healthcare. The less we spend on food the more we spend on healthcare. This is not about nutrients- as soon as you demonize one nutrient, another gets a free pass. Look at the low-fat kick we were all on for the last 40 years; everyone got fatter. Fat was taken out of the product and replaced with sugar, so now you can get a fat-free yogurt with more calories than a full-fat yogurt.

# 39 Eat all the junk food you like as long as you cook it yourself.

We shouldn’t deprive ourselves of pleasure, but we should earn it by cooking. Cooking is key to take back control from the corporations, who cannot cook well and use too much salt and so on. Oprah calls for a food revolution because it all boils down to convenience- cheap fast easy. It’s not that hard to eat well if you are willing to put a little more thought, a little more effort and a little more money into it.

Food Inc: With a dollar to spend and two hungry kids, it is easier to get a small burger at the drive-through which will fill the kids up more than a single vegetable. Candy and soda are really cheap. Diabetes is a national crisis.

One comment Pollan hears all the time is that people can’t afford to eat well. He says it is amazing that fast food is cheaper than fresh produce. This is because the fast food has been subsidized through federal agricultural policy, to the tune of $56 billion in ten years and we do nothing to subsidise the fresh produce industry. Corn, soy wheat have been subsidized. With a dollar to buy as many calories as you can, the snack aisle will get you 1250 calories, versus 250 calories in the produce aisle. The bottom line as seen in the documentary is that we see that the consumer has the biggest voice. We get three votes a day to vote with our forks. If you vote with consciousness, we can change. It is empowering.

Pollan eats everything but is very picky about what he eats. He’ll eat grass-fed beef, which is more expensive but becoming more common- they don’t need antibiotics because cows are meant to eat grass, rather than corn which is what most are bred to eat now. Corn-fed animals grow faster but they get sick. We should choose to eat meat which has been fed well. Oprah says she has nothing to say about the beef industry, she has gone radio-silent. The audience chuckles. Milk, he buys from pastured animals- it has more beta-carotene and omega 3s. He buys alot from farmer’s market. Getting out of the supermarket is a great way to get nearer to the source of our food. If we eat real food, we don’t need to worry about nutrients. It all boils down to one rule. Eat food, mostly plants, not too much. Oprah reminds us that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that we should watch the film and make up our own minds.

Alicia Silverstone is best known as the actress in the comedy classic Clueless. What you may not know is that she suffered from asthma,insomnia eczema, and acne, and she was constantly constipated. 12 years ago she revamped her diet and no longer suffers, she sleeps like a baby and has tons of energy. At 33 she feels great and she joins us from satellite by New York. Oprah says she loves Alicia’s book, The Simple Diet, and has got a lot of recipes from it. What did Alicia do? She stopped eating meat and dairy and processed foods and now eats a lot of deliciosus incredible easy food which makes her feel amazing. Her skin changed drastically, her body changed and her energy level changed. She used to have those white marks on her brittle nails and now they are so strong she can’t bend them. She used to feel puffy, then her eyes got really white and she feels amazing. She was on a steak and donut diet and then went cold turkey. She leaned in to it from age 8-21, because she was an animal lover. She would flirt with ideas of vegetarianism. At 21, after seeing some documentaries similar to Food, Inc showing how the animals were raised, she decied that if she couldn’t eat her dog then she couldn’t eat any other animal species. The kind diet refers to being truly kind to yourself, letting yourself have your best health, look your best, feel your best and feel your most vital. Being vegan is Alicia’s choice, Oprah tried it for 21 days on a cleanse and missed cheese so much she was dreaming of the cheese in an omelette. She asked if the chickens are treated well and there is music playing, and the cows are happy, is that ok? Alicia said she’d like to see the happy chicken and cows.

The book is about taking baby steps to become your best self, to flirt with the ideas wherever you are at. Alicia understands wanting and loving cheese- even she sometimes slips up on cheese, usually after wine, and she gets gassy and her skin breaks out. It’s about weighing up the benefits- and the costs. Yes cheese is delicious. but so are all the recipes in the book. Oprah just had something from the book today and last night. But being practical, Oprah doesn’t want to frighten people into trying to give everything up. Alicia says add things in, don’t give things up -things like kale, collard greens and bok choi.

Alicia takes the cameras around the grocery store. Grocery shopping is her most favorite thing in the world, she says that you can flirt with a healthy lifestyle. She picks up vegan fake chicken breasts from the freezer counter. She is eating better food than ever before. Wholegrain rice will change your life. Rice milk and help milk are great. Have greens twice a day. Have maple syrup instead of sugar. Ice cream alternatives- Rice Dream Mud Cakes will change your life.

Alicia heads to her Broadway costar’s house, to cook up some favorites; leek and mushroom and pesto crostinis and the cheesy oozy beany guacamole dip. Oprah has some cooked up meals from the book that she says are delicious. Treat yourself more kindly because you deserve to feel your best and find your truth. They talk about vegan poop and how fabulous it is- Alicia says she wants to show it to her friend, Oprah just wants to talk about it. It’s effortless, and quick and she’s in and out 2 or 3 times a day.

The average American eats fast food four times a week. Steve Ells, the man behind Chipotle, wants to change the way fast food is served in the US. Fast food with a conscience. Just because it’s fast doesn’t mean it has to be a fast food experience. Fast food to most means cheap and processed. At Chipotle everything is fast and never frozen, organic and local if possible. 100% of chicken and pork is naturally raised, and 60% of beef is naturally raised. This year they will serve 70 million pounds of meat. It’s really important both taste wise and enviromentally that the animals are allowed to roam outside. Sustainable food should not be a luxury, it should be an everyday experience.

Oprah welcomes Steve and he tells her to come to Chipotle. In 1993 when he just got out of cooking school, he set up Chipotle to provide seed money for his fancy restaurant but it got really busy. They had a great attention to detaill not usually found in fast food. They keep their standards high by doing a few thing s and teaching people how to cook, and fast. In the beginning it was just about freshness. But he was sourcing a new pork supplier and came across an Iowan pork that was humane and antibiotic free and it tasted great. Looking at pork in confinement, he decided not to base Chipotle on that model. We eat 200lb per person per year of meat- if all our animals were raised outside there would be a trade off- we’d have to eat less meat but it would be better quality.

Amazon.com friends are offering Food Inc for $9.99 with a free digital download. Michael Pollan’s final thoughts are that pioneers like Steve wil help us figure it out. You have to pay a little more and decide if it’s worth it to you. Think about how your decisions affect you and your children and their children. Thank you everybody.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Modern agriculture is about making things faster and bigger and fatter and cheaper, nobody is thinking about the ecological health of the whole system.

We can make up our own minds about these issues, because we live in America. Isn’t that wonderful?

Most of what is in the supermarket is not “food”, it is an edible food-like substance.

Consider being truly kind to yourself, letting yourself have your best health, look your best, feel your best and feel your most vital.

Vegan poop is effortless, quick and fabulous enough to consider sharing it with your friends.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Eat food, mostly plants, not too much

Date: January 15th, 2010
File Under: Entertainment, Live your best life, Tragedy
1 comment

Episode 6: Oprah Fridays Live

Oprah is live in Chicago and is deeply saddened by the catastrophic loss in Haiti. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was one of the first journalists on the scene, he joins us now.

Anderson Cooper says that each day is its own kind of horror- there is desperation fear, frustration, and aftershocks- after which you hear people screaming and screaming. People can’t go back to their houses, so are crammed into public spaces like parks. Even seasoned journalists like Anderson Cooper have never seen anything like this. The hospitals and clinics are utterly overwhelmed- people are dying stupid unnecessary deaths which should not be happening. You can die of a broken leg with an open wound because there are no antibiotics which cost pennies. The cemetries are utterly overwhelmed, there is nowhere to put all the bodies. They are opening old crypts and shoving in bodies. The dead are just going to disappear, there are no photographs, no records. No one will know where there relatives are or where they can grieve.

Oprah says she heard a mass grave was dug for 7000 people; Anderson says he hadn’t seen that. He is trying to keep everything very factual, to only report what he or another CNN correspondent has actually seen as their is so much hysteria with so many rumors spreading. Oprah recounts some of the footage on the 360 show. He believes some people may still be trapped alive, and that every minute counts. There is essentially no government to rely on in Haiti- the international rescue workers are a remarkable sight. The heroes here are the Haitian people, everyone is banding together to dig through the rubble with their barehands. Oprah reiterates that this is unbelievable suffering for an already troubled people. The best thing to do is to step up and give to the Red Cross. Thanks to Anderson Cooper.

Last night Stedman and Oprah went to a movie theatre for the first time since Dances With Wolves. Wowee Kazowee, was Avatar the best thing. In four weeks Avatar is the highest grossing movie, after Titanic. Director James Cameron is the man behind the film, he is a visionary genius. Every second of this 3 hour film came from his own imagination. He had a team of 3000 people and 10000 computers. For four years they worked around the clock on this movie.

They say I see you in Na’vi. Oprah says this is a Sidney Poitier moment- when she was ten she saw him receive an Academy Award and Oprah thought if he can do that what can she do. She felt that way this morning. Oprah asks if he is spiritual and Cameron says he probably is. The environmental message and the sense that we are all connected is the basis for the film. Oprah says that all the energy and good karma of the film will come back to him- with lots of money- to do so much good in the world. This is the message Oprah sees over and over in her life; we all want to be seen, to be really seen, to be understood.

This movie connects with so many people, especially women – on opening night 78% of the audience were male; now it is split 50-50. The idea for the film came from his love of nature, which he has had since he was a child. As a scuba diver he became aware of nature’s imagination. The story communcicates with people, especially women. There’s a fine line between cliché and archetype. The writing came out in a gush. A botanist designed and labelled every plant, and a linguist made a language so that there is a common accent and a common language. Cameron only knows the lines in the movie, can’t say wowie kazowie in Na’vi.

Normally he can’t watch his movies, but with this one he can still marvel at the effects, the flying scenes, as he didn’t create them. Normally Oprah watches movies at Harpo studio, last night they actually went to a movie theatre. After doing this film, Cameron has a different view of trees. They both talk of mourning trees when they fall down. As the film makes money they will make a sequel. Oprah shows images of herself as an Avatar. She asks if he’s difficult to work with- he invites her to act in the next one and find out. He says he is intense and has energy- he only and works for 16-18 hours a day. He took a half day off with the swine flu. He did not nail cell phones to the wall, he says you have to use a screw gun otherwise it is too messy. His idea of fun is hanging out with the kids and playing lego, doing science projects, just hanging out with the family. Or going to the desert and playing on dirt bikes or going scuba diving. They are on cloud nine about the response to the film, it is a worldwide success. It may knock Titanic off the top spot. Oprah wishes him continued success and tells everyone to go see the movie.

Lady Gaga is the hottest thing in music. In 15 months: 8 million records sold, 6 Grammy nominations and the first artist in history to have 4 number 1 hits on her debut album. Here she is, Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga comes onstage with her troupe of dancers. The crowd stand and clap/ dance. The performance over, the crowd applaud. Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, she had a strict Catholic upbringing, with a privileged NY background- Paris Hilton was her classmate. She likes being called Gaga. She can’t believe her life right now, she can’t believe all her fans, how lucky she is. She has always been a really creative visual person which not everyone knows. She wanted to paint herself blue but now Avatar came out. The name comes from Radio Gaga the Queen song. The first time she performed onstage, her father thought she was nuts. The shock art visual art performances have meaning, the VMA performance was about Diana and the media and Gaga’s relationship with Diana. Looking at her outfits she explains that they are all considered, they all have meaning; the Kermit dress speaks of how she doesn’t wear fur, meeting the Queen she wore a latex dress homage to the Queen.

She wakes up in the morning and spends the whole day planning creatively. Its all about being provocative, but being true to her vision. She spends the day arguing with the House of Gaga about what she wants to do. She says she should be able to bleed out on daytime TV if she wants. She says her work is about being true to herself and commenting on the crazy media-saturated world in which we live.
We see a backstage view of her life, her vision. All of the songs have an outfit to go with them. She show us the infamous disco bra she made herself. She says she dresses the same onstage and off. She is bossy and spends hours on the phone getting her dream show perfect. They do a prayer before the show which ends with “Joanne” her aunt who died whom she believes is on the stage with her every night.

Oprah says it looks like the most fun in the world but she was just talking to Gaga who was saying that her life is isolated, her friends are her fans. She is removed from the celebrity world. Gaga wants to say that there is Ghandi and there is Oprah, and Oprah is an amazing woman, and we really love her. We must remember that there is nothing more inportant than what is happening than Haiti. Gaga grew up in NY during 9/11 and always felt that people didn’t understand what young people were going through. All proceeds from the Monster Ball ticket sales on the 24th January and all merchandise sold on that day goes to help Haiti. Oprah’s job is to continue to talk about this in the coming weeks so we don’t forget the suffering.

Gaga is a secret foodie. Fried chicken this morning helped her find her soul, so she had a renewed soul to be on Oprah. Gaga wants people to free themselves, celebrate who they are and celebrate what they dislike about themselves. Be good to your parents, be good to yourself. she loves her fans and wants to look in their beautiful eyes. It’s about what makes you feel good. She has made some heartbeat headphones and everyone is going home with a pair of Lady Gaga headphones. Thanks everyone

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

Every day since the earthquake in Haiti brings it’s own kind of horror

The heroes here are the people of Haiti

There is a fine line between cliché and archetype

Be provocative but true to your vision

Be good to your parents, be good to yourself, celebrate yourself

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Be good to your parents, be good to yourself, celebrate yourself, go see Avatar

another one year projectThis year we follow the words of Oprah Winfrey

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