In the January issue of Oprah Winfrey’s magazine O, the recently named most powerful woman in entertainment announces that she now weighs 200 pounds. She says she is embarrassed and mad at herself, saying “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?'"

While Oprah may be alone at the top of the list of powerful woman entertainers, she is not alone in her struggle to control her weight. Many women (and men) have difficulty losing weight and even more trouble keeping that weight off for the long term. One of the main reasons for this is the way that we go about weight loss: the diet.

Consider Oprah’s first foray in the arena of public weight loss in 1988. That year, she famously wheeled a wagon loaded with fat onto the set of her talk show to represent a 67-pound weight loss that allowed her to fit into a pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans. She had lost the pounds with a liquid protein diet, basically starving herself for four months. "Two hours after that show, I started eating to celebrate,” Oprah recalls. “Of course, within two days those jeans no longer fit!"

This story may cause you to nod your head in agreement, as many people know exactly what Oprah is talking about. We tend to treat weight loss as a goal to be celebrated, but spend little or no energy trying to maintain that weight loss. The word “diet” has even come to mean a radical change in the way we eat, when the term originally referred simply to what we eat.

In order to maintain a healthy weight, we should focus more on that second meaning of diet. Don’t think of a diet as a temporary restriction to lose weight. Instead, successful weight management is really about changing your diet (what you eat) for the long term. Don’t set a goal, reach it, then return to your old ways. Instead, slowly phase in changes to your diet that can last a lifetime, and celebrate milestones reached along the way by giving yourself non-food rewards.

For more information about how to successfully manage your weight, including tips on maintaining a healthy diet for the long term, see the Healia Health Guide on Weight Management. Weight management can be a difficult journey, not unlike that of an alcoholic maintaining his or her sobriety. Having a support community can help: join the Healia Health Communitiy for Weight Management or the Healia Health Community for Diet and Nutrition to share your experiences and benefit from the wisdom of others.

_{Photo: whoohoo120, Flickr, Creative Commons}