Oprah Winfrey frequently shares her love of hiking, including a recent 10-mile trek over the holidays.
Now she’s explaining why it’s her favorite form of exercise.
The legendary talk show host and entertainment mogul outlined what it is about the activity that appeals to much to her in an interview on TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle on Jan. 13. She has gone on regular hikes after having double knee surgery in 2021.
“The reason why I love hiking so much is because you’re looking at the top of the hill, and this is what happened when I got my knees done. I would just look at the window because I couldn’t walk and think, ‘God, I would like to get to the top of that hill.'”
“But you’re looking at the top of that hill, and this is what I love about it: Don’t look at how far you have to go,” she continued. “Every step you take, turn around and look at how far you’ve come.”
She has combined hiking with resistance training and weight-loss drugs as part of her health journey.
“Resistance training is really important as you get older for muscle tone,” she said.
Winfrey, 71 — who writes about her new lifestyle in her new book, “Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It’s Like to Be Free” — sees hiking as something more than just moving her body.
“You get halfway there and you look how far you’ve come,” she said. “That gives you the fuel and the strength to keep yourself going. And that’s a great metaphor for life: Don’t look at how far you have to go, look at how far you’ve come!”
Oprah has been able to take a new perspective on health since starting a weight-loss medication a few years ago, which helped her accept the fact that obesity is a chronic disease, not something you can overcome with willpower.
She told Jenna and Sheinelle that she has a newfound “freedom.”
“I’m not waking up and the first thing that I think about is how much do I weigh? … I’m not thinking about what am I going to eat for breakfast and if I ate something for breakfast, now I can’t eat a lunch or I’m going to skip a meal.”
The constant (food) noise has subsided,” she added. “That is what has been transformational for me.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com