Oprah Makes the Commitment

I've known all of this intellectually for a while, but last year the click came as an emotional and spiritual awakening.

Now I live straight through the center of myself, which means telling the truth about everything. No more games. Every day I make the choice to live as well as I possibly can. And that starts with exercise. I do not have the genetics or the body type to function without it. So I stopped vacillating between "Maybe I'll work out" and "Maybe I'll take the day off." I do it the way I bathe. And guess what: I do not hate it anymore. Don't get me wrong—you won't see me jumping up and down going, "Oh, jeez, exercise is great," but I no longer dread it. And that is nothing less than a revolution.

I do at least 30 minutes of aerobics a day, regardless, and when I'm feeling especially sassy—Tina's pumping on the stereo, or Stevie Wonder—I can do up to 45 minutes. I call it a Party for One. Instead of Oh God, this is so hard (because that just negates the whole process of trying to move forward), I tell myself, I have the incline up as high as it will go—I can't believe it! Three days a week I add resistance training. I also started doing Pilates two to three times a week—this is mostly a spiritual act for me. I use the Pilates principles of moving out from the center, awareness, harmony, balance, and control to help me embody where I'm going with my life. The benefit is that you end up walking taller, feeling stronger, and looking leaner; but if you're doing it just for those reasons, you'll get frustrated because the process is very slow.

Oprah Makes the Commitment continues...