Make The Connection, Ten Steps To A Better Body And A Better Life

By Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey

           Make The Connection  concerns Oprah Winfrey’s battle with her weight and how she overcame it.  Oprah discusses how she set goals in her life and became very successful.  She realized that she needed to set goals in order to conquer her constant battle with weight gain.  The book discusses Oprah’s story and her rise to fame, but more so she discusses her battles of constant ups and downs with her weight.  She was overweight, out of shape and depressed.  She had to figure out why she gained weight and she had to accept responsibility for her weight gain.  She had to “Make The Connection” as to why she had such a problem.  She had to become self aware of what made her happy, what made her sad, what stressed her out and what made her want to overeat. She learned that food was for nutrition, not for comfort.  She learned that exercise will make you feel better about yourself, in turn adding to her happiness.  Oprah talks about how she deals with failures (falling of her diet), and how she got back on track.  She talks about daily renewal, the concept she used when she was under temptation.  First, live in the moment.  Second, find joy in your life.  She says without these two concepts she would have a difficult time maintaining any of her results.  Oprah calls these revelations life changing.

I read Oprah’s book about two years ago.  I weighed 75 pounds more than then I do now.  Oprah’s book had a tremendous effect on me.  I became aware of why I gained weight.  I started to become more self-aware of what I was doing and feeling.  I began to make changes in my life before I even began dieting.  I stayed away from things and situations that made me unhappy.  I concentrated on the things that I enjoyed.  I looked for the good in any situation.  I went through an attitude adjustment, as Oprah did, about life in general.  I believe that you need to have self-awareness in order to know what makes you happy, sad, stressed and at peace.

After becoming aware of what I needed to do in order to lose weight, I set goals.  I dreamed of being a normal weight and physically fit.  I dreamed of going into store and not having to buy the biggest size they offered.  I knew that these dreams were not going to happen by themselves.  I knew I had to set goals in order to achieve these dreams. I believe that this is the most important part of achieving any dream.  I researched numerous diets and chose one that I knew was realistic for me.  I knew that this diet would probably take longer to reach my dream, but I knew it was one I could stick to.  I learned how to eat healthy.  And again, it is amazing what this did to my self-esteem.  I felt really good about myself.

After I started losing weight, it was amazing what it did for my self-esteem.  I was more confident.  I stood up straight, and looked people in the eye.  I then decided that I wanted to start to exercise.  In her book, Oprah talks about how she set a goal to run a marathon, so I said to myself, “why not”.  I began exercising, and soon after began jogging.  I have not gotten to the level where I would even consider running a marathon, but again, I cannot believe how good it feels to exercise, not only physically, but mentally too.  It makes me feel powerful, like there is nothing that can stop me.  It is really empowering when you do something like diet or exercise.  It gives you a tremendous about of self-confidence and self worth.

After I lost a considerable amount of weight I began to look at other aspects of my life.  I used the self-awareness method and tried to figure out how I could make my life better.  That is when I decided to return to college.  I don’t think I would have ever made this decision had I still been overweight and miserable.  Losing weight and exercise gave me the confidence and self-esteem I needed to make this decision.  A positive change leads to another positive change.  Now I have set more goals and I have more dreams.  I have the confidence that I can achieve these dreams, as I did with my weight loss, by setting goals and sticking to them.

I chose to write about this book for the First Year Experience class because I believe the book had a lot of good points, especially becoming self-aware, setting goals, and achieving dreams.  All of these concepts can be applied to any life situation.  You need to know why you are in the position you are in, how to change the situation, and how to achieve change.  If I had not applied these concepts to my own life, I would not be writing this paper.  I would not have had the self confidence to return to college and pursue even more dreams.