Oprah is Fat, Can Anyone See That?

Guest Post by:  Leslie Ungar

***The views expressed in this article are soley those of the writer’s and does not reflect the opinion of Boomer Diva Nation*** 

Oprah is fat, period. That’s OK. Most of us struggle with weight and end up on the losing end at some time.

There are two things that are not OK. One is her self-imposed expert status. Two, is Oprah being photo shopped on the cover of her own magazine. Oprah is a goddess here on earth. She has done amazing work as an angel. And no amount of tonnage will change that.

To protect her own value, Oprah needs to stop talking about weight as if she is the expert. Napoleon Hill said, “It is not enough to know, one must know and do”. We all know what we should do; the difference is in the doing.

Credibility is devised from three sources:

How we identify our value, communicate our value, protect our value.

When Oprah sets herself up as the diet or physical fitness guru, she is not protecting her value. She can interview experts; she just can’t set herself up as the expert. Her value is not in communicating as an expert. Her value is in the quality of guests and the quality of conversation that she can expose the American public to on a plethora of topics. Or actually, any topic she wakes up and chooses.

Oprah can get away with this disconnect between what she says and what she does, because she is Oprah. The problem is that most of us mere mortals cannot protect our value when there is this schism between what we say and what we do. As a professional speaker and expert on communicating value, the damage is in the example she sets.

Oprah is a freak of nature. A good freak, but a freak. Just like LeBron James is a freak of nature. A good freak, but a freak. The unfortunate consequence is that if we do as Oprah does, if what we say contradicts what we do, we will come across s freaks, and not the good kind.

The second error in her near perfect judgment (except for that horrendous movie she produced her record is near perfect) is the cover of her most recent issue of O. Oprah photo shopped? That’s bad on so many levels. From the perspective of her credibility, how is being photo shopped protecting her own value? How is it communicating her own value?

To tell her readers, through a picture, and a picture is worth a thousand words, that what she looks like is not good enough even for her?

Leslie Ungar

Electric Impulse Communications, Inc.

Does Your Male Doctor Really Know For Sure?

Women and men doctors have some divergent views about women and depression, according to a recent survey conducted by the Society for Women’s Health Research, a Washington, D.C., based advocacy organization.

Women doctors are more likely than their male counterparts to believe that women are specifically susceptible to depression during two key times of hormonal transition in a woman’s life: puberty (67.5 percent to 48.2 percent) and perimonpause (92.8 percent to 67.5 percent). There was no difference in the beliefs of male and female doctors about the risk of depression in the postpartum or post menopause periods.

When asked what the major symptoms of depression are, female doctors were significantly more likely to mention lack of motivation or giving up easily and being unable to concentrate. Trouble sleeping, lack of energy or fatigue, not feeling well, feeling sad, crying, changes in appetite, and a loss of interest in friends, activities or social life were the leading responses for both sexes.

“The beliefs of female and male doctors about women and depression are pretty consistent,” said Jo Parrish, vice president of communications for the Society, “but our survey does reveal a few areas where female doctors may be more in tune with the changes women undergo and the feelings they experience, which is not unexpected.

“The survey findings are a good reminder for all of us, both patients and doctors, to communicate carefully and clearly with one another about health so that we can get the right diagnosis and the right treatment for each patient, regardless of sex. It is easy to fall into the lull of thinking that our doctors have all the information and know everything they need to know, when in fact what we tell them and how well that information is received has a tremendous impact on our health and health care outcomes.”

On the topic of risk factors for postpartum depression, female doctors were considerably more likely to mention difficult or complicated pregnancies or deliveries; lack of support or help with the baby; and difficulty dealing with a newborn, including sickness. In general, female doctors were more likely to attribute a woman’s sense of being overwhelmed as a source of postpartum depression.

“Women doctors, many of whom are mothers themselves, are likely more sensitive to the immense burden that new mothers can place on themselves for the health and care of their new baby,” Parrish said. “When things go wrong, women can blame themselves, which can lead to sadness or feelings of guilt and contribute to depression. It is an issue about which women need to talk openly and doctors need to be mindful.”

The survey did find consensus among male and female doctors on several issues. Almost identical percentages of women and men doctors, about 84 percent, agree that women are at higher risk than men of ever having major depression. Strong majorities of women and men doctors also believe it is safe for women to take medication for depression in the postpartum period and under the right circumstances during pregnancy, opinions not as strongly shared by women in the general population.

Don’t Eat on the Weekends

Saturday can be the worst enemy for our waistlines, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

They found that people on strict diet and exercise programs tend to lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends than during the week.

Past research had confirmed that people tend to gain weight during the holidays, particularly between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, but this is the first study to carefully monitor daily body weight, calorie intake and calorie expenditure for several weeks throughout a year, and to demonstrate that increased caloric intake isn’t just a problem during the holidays. It also happens on most weekends.

“We thought weekends would present a problem for some people attempting to lose weight, but the consistency of our finding before and during the interventions was surprising,” says Susan B. Racette, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy and of medicine. “Subjects in the diet group lost weight during the week, but over the weekend, they stopped losing weight because they were eating more.”

People have social events, parties to attend, and if they have children who play sports, they might be at fields all day long, relying on concession stands for food.”

“Planning ahead can’t be emphasized enough,” Racette says. She recommends packing healthy food if you’re running errands, eating a little something so you aren’t starving when you arrive at a party, even packing a light lunch before going to the kids’ ballgames so that you have a choice other than junk food at a concession stand.

“In addition, she says, “paying closer attention to portion sizes can enable a person to enjoy the weekend without sabotaging weight-control efforts.”

7 Dirty Words of Heart Disease

Thanks to George Carlin we know there are seven dirty words you can never say on TV. There are also seven dirty words about heart disease that everyone should know:

• Diet – fat, sugar and foods high in cholesterol are known to contribute to heart disease; diabetes (also diet related) also damages the heart and blood vessels.
• Genetics – African Americans, Hispanics, native Americans all have higher rates of high blood pressure and heart disease
• Stress – working too much, dramatic personal lives, worrying, depression; also feeding stress with too much alcohol and other drugs (Carlin reportedly went through drug and alcohol rehab in 2004)
• Smoking – constricts blood vessels and strains the heart and lungs
• Inactivity – the heart is a muscle that needs to be exercised; even moderate activity is helpful, and losing 10 pounds can reduce your cardiac risk
• High blood pressure – leads to undue stress on a variety of organs, including the heart; combined with other risk factors it increases the chance of a heart attack many times
• Denial – saying “it won’t happen to me,” without changing your lifestyle, guarantees you won’t see a decrease in your risk

“Advances in heart research and changes in the way physicians manage heart disease have made heart disease a chronic illness. Modern therapies, such as statins and the simple drug aspirin, together with our knowledge of prevention, have prolonged the lives of many people who, just 30 years ago, would have died much earlier,” according to Dr. Cam Patterson, chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of the Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Heart Disease remains the number one killer of women.