Oprah’s Weight Loss Boot Camp.

If you caught Oprah’s “weight loss challenge” show, the one based on Bob Greene’s “Total Body Makeover”, you would have seen that in addition to the tactics of the program, there are essentially 4 “rules” to this very difficult 12-week plan:

1. Vigorous exercise workouts 8 times a week.
2. Self-control when it comes to eating, be conscious of what, when and why you eat — which includes NO WHITE FOOD (refined carbs)
3. No alchoholic beverages (except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve)
4. No food after 7:30pm

This is a serious self-improvement program. There is even an “Oprah’s Boot Camp Contract” on Oprah.com that can be printed out, signed and used as incentive.

On the show, Oprah proclaimed that for those across the country who decided to take the challenge to “not be fat for another summer” — a collective 1 million lbs. were lost.

The point of the challenge is to really change the way you think about losing weight and about how you live your life.

Which means, I have a lot of inner work to do before I can get serious about this program. Today’s lunch started out innocently enough: Salad, I thought.

But a salad of beautiful Jersey tomatoes, turned into a traditional Panzanella (bread) salad. To make matters worse, I piled this on top of a left-over slice of pizza…basically a big ‘ol triangle of white food, with a little red sauce.

If I have one more transgression, which could easily be wine with dinner…I can kick myself out of my own boot camp.

I hope you do better.