
By now you've probably heard about
Oprah's 40 pound weight gain. She's been extremely open and honest about "falling off the health wagon" and is back to the weighing the dreaded 2-0-0. Her
thyroid problem is not the cause of the weight gain or simply over eating.

Staying true to New Year's resolution is not easy, but it can be done. If you're struggling with the pledges you made, check out my five tips below for being successful in your 2009 resolutions.
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Lean on your loved ones for support.

After asking if you
kept your New Year's resolutions from last year, I was surprised to see how many of you didn't make resolutions at all. Sure, being the best you can be every day is ideal, but most of us, myself included, need some incentive in order to make big changes in our lives.
For those of you who did make resolutions last year, below are the most commonly pledged changes in 2008:
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Weight loss
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Smoking
- Living a healthier life
Do you think you'll be able to keep those going in '09?

After watching all the contestants sweat and cry almost every week this Fall on
The Biggest Loser Families, we finally got to meet the biggest loser. The live finale show began with an exciting reveal, the host Alison Sweeny is pregnant, something my husband and I began wondering in the last couple of episodes. She was glowing, as were all the contestants.

As a kid, I was such a huge fan of the show Full House. I loved the oldest daughter, D.J. Tanner, played by Candace Cameron, because of her cool clothes and awesome '80s hair.

It's hard to believe Valerie Bertinelli is 48; she still looks like a fresh-faced teenage star. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she recently shed 40 pounds. On the cover of the January issue of
Fitness, the Jenny Craig spokeswoman talks about the pressure of keeping the weight off while in the public eye.

This week's episode of
Biggest Loser Families is all about looking back and moving on — often quite literally. For their challenge, the four remaining contestants come together at a racetrack — not the sort of
track we're used to. Ali instructs Ed, Heba, Vicky, and Michelle to suit up by strapping on the amount of weight each contestant has lost; they then had to run the track, recalling what that weight felt like.

Last year,
Lily Allen slimmed down four dress sizes by using
hypnosis. Might sound strange, but it "reprogrammed her brain" to love eating healthier food and working out at the gym.
She's been able to maintain her lean figure, but it looks like this singer still has insecurities about her weight.

The competition on the
Biggest Loser Families should be heating up, but last night's show was surprisingly free of drama. Well, not quite. There was Vicky's moment of paralyzing fear, verging on a tantrum, during the physical challenge, but even that little episode struck me as placid.

At 40 years old,
Ricki Lake is a new person since she's dropped 140 pounds from her former 270-pound self, and has kept it off for over a year. She says, "I can’t believe I was a fat person for most of my life." She didn't have surgery; her dramatic weight loss was made possible by all her hard work.