If you don’t watch Real Housewives but Bethenny’s name sounds familiar, you probably are remembering her (as I did) from The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.  I intially wanted Frankel to win the competition but then she  started acting badly and Martha Stewart fired her (in the finale) for “showing disrespect to her subordinates, for being a show-off, and having excessive need to make physical impressions.”

Anyway, 38-year-old Frankel, a natural foods chef, has written a book called Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting and claims to have found the secret to losing weight without much effort.

"I never thought about writing a book, but I figured out how to be thin and not obsessed, and I was like, ‘Wow,’ so I had to write about it," she tells Fox News. "I know how much my friends and I struggled. All I talked about was what I ate and I worked out all the time.  I don’t even work out that much – maybe two days a week if I can.  Women in America are going to be thinner because of this book," she says. Even Oprah Winfrey — who recently admitted she weighed 200 pounds recently "is going to be thinner.  Nobody needs to freak out anymore."

Frankel does reveal that she hasn’t always been as slender as she is now.  "Being skinny didn’t come easy for me," said continued.  “I was on every single diet and grew up in a life of diet obsession and food noise. But now I’ve freed myself, and I can worry about other things."

She has four rules for weight loss:

1. Your Diet Is a Bank Account. "Eating should be treated like a bank account – if one day you decide that you want to have chocolate cake for breakfast, you can, because there’s no ‘No,’ but you need to account for it. If you spend in one place, you need to save in another."

2. The Differential. "In the differential, you can have turkey chili and meat chili. To me, the differential between the two isn’t that big. I would just as soon have turkey chili as I would meat chili. But there’s a huge differential for me between a piece of plain grilled chicken breast and a fatty piece of New York steak. Go for it when the differential is really great to you."

3. The Point of Diminishing Return. "For example, if you order fried calamari, you taste it, it’s delicious, have another bite, dip it in the sauce, it’s delicious, but then there’s a point where it’s as good as it’s ever going to get. And that’s when you stop."

4. Downsize. "We have unrealistic portions in this country and you can order an appetizer as your main course. No matter if you’re eating broccoli or fried chicken – it’s good to get into the habit of leaving a little."

What do you think?  This sounds like common sense to me and I’ve already heard this about a million times.  The way she was acting, I was expecting to read some earth-shattering discovery but, instead, Frankel dishes out advice that we’ve all been trying to follow. 

image: Newscom

Post from: Crushable

Oprah Winfrey is known for her weight loss (and weight gain) almost as much as she’s known for her talk show.  I’ve seen people come on to the show over the years and she’s really talked to them like she’s an expert on weight loss.

Before I go any further, I want to make it clear – I really respect Oprah for not being more overweight than she is because if I had Oprah’s money, I would probably weigh 400lbs.  When you can afford to have your favorite food shipped in from anywhere (or can travel someplace in your jet because you just gotta have your favorite ribs) what would stop you from gaining weight?

The thing I never liked is that Oprah talked to show guests like she was a professional and sometimes even talked over the experts she had on the show.  I always felt like weight loss is a journey for those of us who have been overweight or obese so it’s important not to get too cocky.  In my opinion, you’ve never got overeating beat – it’s a daily struggle that will with that person for the rest of their lives.

Am I shocked that Oprah has packed on the pounds?  No.  I think she lost her way dishing out advice that she wasn’t applying to herself.  She gets major points for honesty, though.  In the January issue of her "O" magazine, she admits to "falling off the wagon" and gaining 40lbs since 2006 to bring her weight back up to 200lbs.  She said: "I’m embarrassed," she writes. "I can’t believe that after all these years, all the things I know how to do, I’m still talking about my weight. I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?"’

She explains that the thyroid problems she has been facing have caused her to develop a  "a fear of working out." I think that’s valid but if one of her guests said something like that, she would accuse them of making excuses. 

My new year’s wish for Oprah is that she gets her healthy lifestyle back on track (I wish that for everyone who needs it, actually!) but that this experience gave her a bit more humility for when she talks to guests who may be struggling to do tasks that she feels should be easy for them to do.  At least she’s aware of the difference between what she says and what she does.  She added: "I definitely wasn’t setting an example," she writes. "I was talking the talk, but I wasn’t walking the walk. And that was very disappointing to me."

image: Newscom

Post from: Crushable