Oprah Winfrey is saying goodbye to burgers inspired by Quantum Wellness book and Canadian motivational speaker Eckhart Tollet

Oprah Winfrey's 21 Day Cleanse Diet: Will It Help Her Shed Her Thyroid-Related Weight?
Talk show diva and hypothyroidism sufferer Oprah Winfrey has embarked on a new "21 Day Cleanse Diet" that she is touting on her show, and at the show's website. Oprah has been struggling with added weight gain since her 2007 diagnosis with hypothyroidism.
Winfrey claims that during the 21-day program, she will not eat any meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, animal products, caffeine, sugar, gluten and alcohol.

Hopefully this will be a good thing for Oprah, but one thing that concerns me is that the diet relies quite a bit on soy for protein. Menu plans up at the Oprah site include tofu, tempeh, Gardenburger soy sausage, soy milk, soy yogurt, and soy products are on the menu nearly every day, sometimes more than once.

Oprah has access to the best doctors, chefs, and medical advice in the world, and yet, in the year since her diagnosis, she appears to have gained -- rather than lost -- weight. Could that be due to the fact that she says she doesn't need medical treatment for her hypothyroidism? Instead, she said that she has loaded up on soy milk, and relied on vacations, relaxation, and empowering herself to speak openly as "treatments" for her underactive thyroid gland?

Maybe this 21 Day Cleanse Diet will be a good thing for Oprah. Or maybe, by loading up on more soy products, she's just making her thyroid problem worse. Time will tell.

Week One: Thursday May 29

 I hit a wall today. Literally had to stand in my closet and bound the walls, the cabinets, the floor for a few minutes and take some deep breaths. I had done two shows, back-to-back with no break…people standing in the hallway afterward, photos, take my picture, now with my sister, now with the whole group, just one more please, please sign this, turn this way, I met you six years ago, remember? And on and on…circuit overload and no soda or bag of chips to turn to. So I just started hitting the wall in my closet. I then sat down and took some conscious breaths in silence to restore my soul. Drank some lemon water and calmly moved into the next meeting. Afterward, I had the most delicious lunch: quinoa salad and pasta with soy chicken. — Oprah

Kathy Freston's Comments: External "fillers"—like soda and chips—leave you feeling empty and wanting more. Yearning, dissatisfied. To really feel substantially filled and nurtured and cared for, it has to come from something that is not outside of us. If you are pushed against a wall or challenged, try to remind yourself that you need not do and be everything.

With summer just around the corner, Oprah Winfrey is saying bye, bye to burgers – hello tofu and tempeh!

The talk show host, 54, is going vegan for a 21-day detox plan. In addition to swearing off animal products, Winfrey and three pals from her production company are also banning caffeine, sugar, gluten and alcohol.

What inspired the massive menu overhaul? The small-screen queen credits Kathy Freston's book Quantum Wellness and online sessions with Canadian motivational speaker Eckhart Tolle. (She's also getting help from chef Tal Ronnen.)

And as the detox progresses, Winfrey will be blogging the diet's ups and downs. (Her Web site will also include meal plans and recipes.)

"This 21-day cleanse gives me a chance to think about [eating] differently and see what my attachments are to certain kinds of foods – and what I'm willing to do to change," she wrote on Sunday (day one). "Don't know if I'm going to feel better or worse, but I'm willing to try to see if my body at least feels differently."

So far, Winfrey isn't missing her meat.

"I had been focused on what I had to give up – sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. 'What's left?' I thought," she wrote on day two. "Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast – strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes."