I heard that Oprah (via a spokesperson) announced on Good Morning America today that she's achieved another epiphany regarding her weight and has embarked on a new plan to lose weight and increase her health. The person describing it said that it had all of what I would call the hallmarks of Willie Loman Syndrome; she's found the "it" of all "it" and is finally on the right track for good. This is the mega-deal she's been searching for, blah, blah.

She's going to do a special show about it on January 2nd. Resolution central, yeah? Her January magazine is all about it, too--or at least related. One article about how to identify diet "scams" has some major holes in it, but it was written by a doctor, so what can be done? Millions of sheep will graze that land, content in not having to sort it out themselves. Yay sheep!

Someone said, "I'll bet her new epiphany is going to be the diet+exercise is the only way." I'll bet she's right--the person who made that bet, that is. Cos it seems like for Oprah, it's all about salvation. I have a subscription to her magazine and already have her January issue. It's all about diet + exercise and some variations on "push yourself away from the table".

Her biases about weight are pervasive and persistent. For the past year, in her magazine, it's been evident that weight issues are on her mind. That's fine. It's her rag. But, I feel dismayed at the lack of alternative points of view, just the same.

I hope that her new approach works for her. Of course I do. I want her to feel healthy, strong, and in control (to the extent that anyone can be). But, I also wish that she'd open her mind regarding the alternatives. She's never been super morbidly obese, as far as I can see, and doesn't really know what that's like. Yet, she is prepared to make judgments about the choices people who are make regarding their own health and healing--and to cast an entire class of solutions in disfavor.

Beyond that, I think it's telling that she has only addressed bypass surgeries, to date. Their invasiveness and the extreme nature of their solutions makes them easy to dismiss if that's one's goal. She hasn't taken on adjustable gastric banding and I'm starting to wonder if that's cos it's harder to make it out to be a negative option.

I'm not trying to say AGBs are better--because I have come to understand that there are different indications for each kind of surgery--but they are significantly less invasive and risk-prone than by-pass surgeries. So, it wouldn't be as easy to get all dramatic about them or dismiss them as too drastic to consider. I keep thinking about the show during which she had the women who are in the documentary on obesity. Rather than deal with the fundamentals of weight loss surgery, she was focused on farting and the smell of post-op sh@t, with the occasional foray into "issues". Not really the heart of it, in my opinion.

Her recent compliment to the woman who crash-dieted 300 pounds off in one year--approving of having done it "the hard way" despite the fact that Carnie was sitting on the stage is evidence of this. It seems like she's is ready to take advantage of any opportunity to trivialize the efforts of bypass patients (and ignore bandsters altogether).

We tend to believe in the things we choose. For example, my bias is still that too many people are being convinced to go with the 20 lb sledge hammer as the first way to try and hit the nail, but it is what it is. Maybe that will change. Maybe it won't. What's guaranteed to continue changing for the better is the amount of information available to each new WLS candidate.

In Oprah's case, it seems like she keeps trying to become someone who isn't prone to weight gain. Each new program is the "it" that will land her at a reasonable weight, ingrain the habit of exercise, and release her from her weight history. I have no idea what she feels or what motivates her, but observing her and trying to guess, I sometimes wonder if she thinks that WLS requires an admission about lack of control that she's not willing to make. I don't mean the kind of control that makes it possible to stick to a diet and exercise regimen--I mean something more basic: lack of control over how her body works. Cos if whatever is going on with her body and weight is beyond her will, then what? Is she willing to embrace powerlessness?

I think the reason it bothers me so much is that I really like a lot of what she puts out into the world. So, the toxins she's exuding regarding weight and weight loss are all the more repellant.

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