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Oprah:
Well, hey, everybody. Welcome night number one of our Best Life Week of webcasts. About a hundred thousand of you are joining us right now—yea!—in our worldwide Web classroom from South Africa to Singapore, Australia to Afghanistan and everywhere in between, including all 50 U.S. states. So hello, world. I had this idea to kick off 2009 with a solid week of Best Life Oprah shows followed by an entire week of webcasts that would help give all of you the information and inspiration, hopefully, to create the change you've been wanting to be and the change you've been wanting to make in your own lives. So, I'm doing this as much for myself as for all of you. You know, you teach what you most need to learn, so I wasn't living my best life last year, as you heard me say in last week's Monday show. And we're starting off with how to get back on the wagon, which I talk so much about in this month's edition of O magazine. I said I've not only fallen off the wagon, the wagon had fallen on me. Last Monday on The Oprah Show, I shared with you my own story about falling off and, after that, so many of you, thank you so much for e-mailing us saying that my story is your story, that you're also in the struggle to lose weight once again. Your life is out of balance. You've put yourself last on your priority list. That's what I did last year. I wasn't even on the list. And you can't believe that you're fighting those same pounds again. Well, joining me to help get us back on track to get the wagon off of our heads and put ourselves back on the wagon is fitness expert Bob Greene, who has, over the past 15 years, become a brother and friend to me. Bob is the author of The Best Life Diet and the brand new Best Life Diet Cookbook with wonderful, delicious recipes, one I just had for dinner. We're also taking your calls live. We want to hear from those of you who have questions about how to get back on the wagon and stay there. So you can start calling us right now. The live phone line is on the bottom of your screen. There it is—866-OPRAH-XM. Is that it? Good. That's 866-OPRAH-XM. So start calling now. Tonight we're going to give you specifics about Bob's diet, Best Life Diet and exercise plan, but nothing will help until you figure out what the weight is really all about. And that's the emotional component. Bob has an exercise that he calls the (singing) Circle of Life, so let's put that on the screen. You're wearing green.

Bob:
I am and you are too.

Oprah:
Did they tell you to wear green?

Bob:
I think you did on the show. You said, "Let's match in a little bit."

Oprah:
I've never seen Bob Greene wear green. Okay. So let's put up on the screen right now so that everybody can see what we're talking about. Okay? Bob, explain this—oh, hi, by the way. Hi, Bob.

Bob:
Good to see you.

Oprah:
Good to see you.

Bob:
This is really asking yourself—"What's important to you?" is another way to say it.

Oprah:
What's important to you?

Bob:
Yeah, in other words, each person could be a little different. But there are certain categories that always come up.  

Oprah:
Mm-hmm.

Bob:
But sometimes you have to prompt it. Is your health important? If you've known anyone that's lost their health, you know that's a part of a fulfilled life. Another way to ask this is, "What is part of a fulfilled life to you?" Not necessarily how you're living your life right now.

Oprah:
What is a fulfilled life?

Bob:
What is a fulfilled, meaningful life to you? So you get to create and paint what you think would be the perfect life for yourself.

Oprah:
I think that's really an amazingly powerful question.

Bob:
Well, this exercise is really powerful for several reasons. One, when I do this with just about everyone I work with, the first thing is just so simple. What is important to you? And many people just say, "I've never—I've never asked myself that." So that's the fascinating part is—

Oprah:
So you just assume all your—all the stuff you're doing is obviously important to you.

Bob:
Yeah, so it is very important just to ask yourself, "What is important?" And the next step to the exercise is really to—

Oprah:
Okay. So tell me again. So you do the circle. You divide it up into as many pies as you want, correct?

Bob:
Yes. Eight is typical. You can go to six. Some people have a problem filling in two or three. There's a problem. If you get five, six, seven or eight areas that are important to your life, that's good. That's a good step. So you identify those areas, and that's the first step. But then the next one is to identify how well are you doing in each of those areas? And I have you fill in a positive sign if it's going pretty well. For example, if your finances are fine, that's not a stressful area.

Oprah:
Yeah, mine are fine. I'm not stressed there.

Bob:
I think you're doing pretty well there.

Oprah:
I'm okay there.

Bob:
You will can put a positive sign. You can do that if you want. How are your friendships? Your family is one that we see on most people's. That's important.

Oprah:
Uh-huh.

Bob:
Career. How's that going? Do you enjoy what you do?

Oprah:
Yeah, I'm doing really good there.

Bob:
Yeah. Health and fitness.

Oprah:
Mm-hmm.

Bob:
Do you have an answer or are you doing this also along with us?

Oprah:
I'm, Bob, here we're talking to the people.

Bob:
And really health and fitness are similar. But other categories, community. Your sense of community. Your sense of spirituality.

Oprah:
Uh-huh.

Bob:
Whatever is important to you, you ask yourself, you put it down, and then you rate it as either positive or negative. And that's extremely important just to identify, "Wait a minute, this is—"

Oprah:
Suppose it's some positive and some negative, because everybody has issues with their family.

Bob:
Usually it is.

Oprah:
Some things go very well with family members. Some things don't go so well.

Bob:
Well, there's where you have to say, "It needs help, it needs improvement, it needs attention," and you have to make a judgment call. Maybe it's going okay, but in general, most people know is it going well or is it going not so well and needs attention? 

 

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