There is no dispute: When Oprah acts, the country, no, make that the world, pays attention. Whether you love the Queen of Talk Shows or not, Oprah’s ability to change what we read to the causes we champion is legendary and expansive.

Her latest endeavor is putting herself up to a tremendous dietary challenge: A vegan fast for 21 days. Since going on this fast just last week, she has been blogging about her experience as she swaps bagels for steel cut oatmeal, grilled chicken breast for tempeh salad and fluffy flapjacks for wheat-free crepes. No bread. No red wine. No processed sugars. This is the real deal, folks.

What I like about this cleanse is that it puts the red light on your food cravings. It forces you to think about how powerful our minds and emotions are in choosing the foods we eat. It separates need from desire. We don’t need a $5 coffee drink topped with whip cream and chocolate syrup every afternoon. We may crave it, but we don’t need it. Once we get past those initial hurdles, we’re left with an honest examination of food: how it makes us feel and what purpose it serves. And that is the real purpose of the cleanse: to see if we can deprogram our cravings and learn to eat in a more mindful, conscious and enjoyable way.

I don’t know about you, but I’m very anxious to see the finished product of Oprah’s three-week cleanse. I think she is going to have a lot to say about her experience. And we’ll all listen. Keep up with her 21 day Blog if you’re interested in the details.

Many of us can don our favorite pair of jeans or even our bathing suits and feel pretty confident with how we look. But looking good naked? Yikes! For those of us whose name is not Gisele Bundchen, we feel like turning off the lights, closing the drapes and throwing towels over our bedroom mirrors when we are sans clothing.

But leave it to Oprah Winfrey and famed stylist Carson Kressley, one of the Fab Fives from the television show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” to save us from our naked misery. Friday on Oprah, the show is reaired an episode on how to look good naked.

Kressley does NOT suggest that you starve yourself on a 3-day crash diet or wear the piece of spandex cinched around your waist to make your middle look smaller. Instead, he focuses on the crux of our incalculable fear in being bare: Self-Esteem.

With some very creative and heartfelt ways of communicating with these women, he tries to show us that all the self-berating we inflict upon ourselves, is just that: a harmful dialogue that exists in our heads and in our heads only. In fact, when it comes down to it, more often than not, we see ourselves much heavier than what we really are.

You’ll have to turn into Oprah on Friday to see how he accomplishes this factual and illuminating reality. One of the lines that I love from this show is “You don’t have to be perfect to be pretty.” Isn’t that true? If you have ever dealt with a weight issue or body image problem, watch this episode. It’s 60 minutes of television that has the capacity to really change how you see yourself.

The queen of fitness is adding another jewel to her crown – the Jillian Michaels Meal Plan. You know her best as the hard-as-nails black team trainer on NBC’s Biggest Loser; but more and more people are becoming Jillian fans by following her online fitness and diet program, as well as her many popular books, like “Making the Cut,” and videos like “30 Day Shred.”

Jillian Michaels Meal Plan will launch in June 2008. The program is being powered by the eDiets Deliciously Yours, another quality, popular diet delivery service.

While a lot of specifics aren’t being shared too soon, we do know that Jillian worked closely with the eDiets chefs to create more than 50 meals so that you can enjoy healthy and delicious breakfasts, lunches, dinners and even snacks, seven days a week.

“I couldn’t be more excited and proud of the program that eDiets and I have created,” says Michaels. “They share my passion to provide people with powerful and cost effective solutions for living a happier, healthier life.”

Jillian Michaels Meal Plan will be free of trans-fat and preservatives, be delivered chilled and fresh, and will run about $140 per week. Learn more about it with our Jillian Michaels Meal Plan review, and trust that DietsInReview.com will share more details as we have them.

Choosing a personal trainer is a stressful situation and could end up being a disaster if not properly done. I recommend setting up as many free consultations as possible with different trainers. Be sure to check credentials, personality, and style of training. Clashing personalities is rough on both parties. This will be a personal one-on-one relationship and you need to be comfortable with the trainer and able to understand his or her directions. Choosing the gender of your trainer is one way to narrow your search. Many people find it easier to take guidance and motivation from a trainer of the opposite sex, while others may only feel comfortable with a trainer of their own gender.

8 Benefits of a Personal Trainer:

1. Assess individual abilities and needs
2. Help set realistic goals
3. Personalize workouts to achieve goals more quickly
4. Provide motivation
5. Provide correct technique and instant feedback on how to adjust posture, motion, or exertion to get maximum results and prevent injury
6. Life-long friendship
7. Keep work-outs fun and fresh
8. Able to adjust/modify certain exercises to fit personal needs

Send your fitness questions to Matt!

It’s obvious that the four women who define Sex and the City are fabulous- both in their movie lifestyles and their real-life bodies. We found the ways they maintain those enviable shapes, and it appears, they’re really pretty normal girls. No extreme dieting, no insane workout sessions- just smart choices. See how each of your favorite Sex and the City stars eat and workout before bringing to life Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha. Thankfully, their real life choices are healthier than their movie diet of martinis, cigarettes, olives and sex!

Sarah Jessica Parker, “Carrie”
SJP is probably the most nonchalant about the whole dieting thing. She says she doesn’t have any specific regimen she follows. She sticks to “everyday exercise” and tries to find ways to sneak in exercise. For instance, she rarely takes a cab, choosing to walk instead and she skips elevators to race up by foot. As far as eating- she’s a big food lover and said she always planning her next meal. She has been known to the follow the Zone Diet, which is a healthy balance of protein, carbs and fat.

Kristen Davis, “Charlotte”
She’s not ashamed of her curvy body and chooses to embrace it rather than fight it. Kristen is also known to follow the Zone Diet when she needs to shed a few pounds. She’s also a fan of eastern and Chinese medicine, especially the book Total Renewal, and follows a detox to boost her immune system. She removes wheat, sugar, dairy and alcohol from her diet and sticks to foods like brown rice, eggs, nuts, vegetables and salmon. As for exercise, she likes to walk her dogs, cycling, hiking, yoga and pilates.

Cynthia Nixon, “Miranda”
The red-head of the group is pretty hush about her eating habits. She maintains a healthy diet, as she is a recent breast cancer survivor and current spokeswoman for Susan G. Komen. She’s more apt to share her workout routine- which includes a lot of family time. Together her crew does yoga and gyrotonics, a combination of yoga, ballet, tai chi, swimming and gymnastics.

Kim Cattral, “Samantha”
The older of the Sex and the City women, she also appears to be the most athletic. She says she’s been active her entire life, enjoying sports like skiing, tennis and running. She exercises daily, at least 30 minutes, and if she can’t get to the gym finds ways to get her body moving. When it comes to eating, she likes to follow low-carb diets like the GI Diet and South Beach Diet. The GI Diet relies on the glycemic index, food that easily digest in the body and usually are low in carbs or sugar; South Beach Diet is the low-carb giant.