Yo-yo dieter Kirstie Alley's determined to reclaim that bikini-worthy bod she strutted just two years ago, telling Oprah Winfrey she intends to shed 80 pounds by November - and blaming her newly pudgy shape on a lack of motivation. The 58-year old ex-Cheers actress's highly publicized chronic battle against obesity is far from unique. "About 95 percent of people regain the weight they have lost in less than a year," says psychotherapist Stefanie Barthmare of the Methodist Weight Management Center in Houston. "People who want to lose weight come in with such fierce determination and commitment in the early stages, but they are more committed to losing weight than to a new lifestyle. The motivation to diet only lasts for a limited period."

Alley, a former Jenny Craig spokeswoman whose weight has long fluctuated, told Winfrey, "I just said, I'm going to cut myself some slack. Big mistake." In 2007, she shared a People magazine cover with another former fatty, Valerie Bertinelli, looking gorgeous in a floor-length blue gown.

Oprah-Kirstie Alley's Weight Struggle This time around, Kirstie's proposing a six-month timeline to get herself in shape. "By November, I have to look ripped," she says.

Oprah says she's learned over the years that setting a specific time limit on weight loss can hurt the end result. "I want you to do in in your own time," Oprah tells Kirstie. "Do it in a way that's going to be good for you. I don't want you on national television setting yourself up for November. ... I know what happens when you set that goal for yourself. Then you go home and eat for a month trying to make yourself feel better

Note Oprah's own moment Stedman's note inspired the dream Oprah Winfrey arrived on cable this weekend at long last. And I do mean long. When I interviewed Oprah in her Chicago office a few months ago, she pulled a piece of paper out of her desk drawer. It was a note, scrawled in pencil, that Stedman Graham, her boyfriend, wrote to her when they were on vacation together in April 1992.

Oprah had never shared the note with the media, and she declined to let me share the full content with you. (Yes, I asked). But as we sat there and talked about the origin of OWN, she let me read the letter and scrawl my own notes. So, here is at least part of what Stedman Graham wrote to Oprah that important day nearly 19 years ago:

"How does Oprah position herself in the next decade? OWN. That's right. OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network....This is God's way and Oprah's vision..." Granted, people like you and I don't plot media empires on our vacations. Then again, we are not Oprah. Stedman's idea inspired her, and at the bottom of that piece of paper, she wrote that the goal of OWN "will be to create mindful rather than mindless programming." Then she sat on the idea for 15 years. It took another passionate persuader, Discovery Communication (DISCA) CEO David Zaslav, to come along in the spring of 2007 and offer Oprah the proper incentive to act on her dream.

In "Oprah's Next Act," my recent Fortune cover story, Oprah talks about agreeing to co-create a cable TV network with Zaslav ("I don't want your money," he told her. "I want you.") and then feeling so terrified of her commitment that she practically backed out of the venture. But she didn't. And finally, we have OWN, which isn't as easy to find as The Oprah Winfrey Show, which will stay on broadcast TV until this coming September. (OWN, which replaced Discovery Health across the U.S., is Channel 115 on Time Warner Cable in Manhattan and Channel 219 in Los Angeles.) The first TV network built around one human being, it is the grandest experiment yet in the personalization of media and Oprah's biggest risk in her career.

By: Patricia Sellers

Oprah’s goal for OWN ‘I have a dream of O.J. Simpson confessing to me’ (Paul Beaty/AP) - Oprah Winfrey talks with Paula Zahn at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's Cable Show 2011. Oprah Winfrey wants to interview O.J. Simpson on the Oprah Winfrey Network to help put the network on the ratings map — on the condition that he promises to use the opportunity to say he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

“I have a dream of O.J. Simpson confessing to me,” Winfrey told an enthusiastic crowd of cable industry suits attending the National Cable & Telecommunications Association convention in Chicago, according to news media reports. “And I am going to make that happen, people. I don’t just want the interview. I want the interview on the condition that you are ready, Mr. Simpson,” she added. Oprah’s announcement was by way of demonstrating to the cable guys that she is now committed “full energy, feet first, body immersed” to “the OWN mission,” the reports said. OWN — a joint venture between Oprah and Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications — has struggled to find an audience since its launch in January. Last month, the network’s top programming exec, Christina Norman, exited amid reports about the net’s ratings challenges.

Oprah acknowledged Thursday that the launch has been harder than she expected. That’s partly because she had little energy to focus on the kickoff, she explained, while focusing so much attention on the final season of her long-running syndicated talk show. “I’d probably do it differently,” she said of the simultaneous launch and sign-off. Paula Zahn, who hosts a show on Discovery’s Investigation network — and who interviewed Oprah during her appearance at the convention — wondered why Oprah thought that Simpson would agree to the interview and its terms given that Simpson was found not guilty by a jury in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman. Oprah cited a photo she saw recently of a little Oprah, growing up in poverty in Mississippi. “The fact that that baby girl from a shotgun house in Mississippi can get to the OWN network means that the O.J. Simpson interview is possible,” she responded.

Zahn wondered whether Oprah thought the network could reach its full potential within five years, media outlets reported. Oprah said it would take only three. “I have committed everything I have to this cable venture,” Oprah said without being specific as to what that meant. “I wouldn’t bet against me.”

By: Lisa de Moraes

Celebrity Trends Oprah Hasn't Landed O.J. Simpson Confession-Yet A Harpo rep tells THR online rumors are "not true." Oprah Winfrey hasn't landed that confession from O.J. Simpson -- yet. our editor recommends Oprah Winfrey Determined to Land O.J. Simpson Confession. Oprah's Farewell Spectacular - Live Blog From Chicago!

Despite a National Enquirer report that Simpson confessed from prison to murdering ex wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, a rep for Harpo tells The Hollywood Reporter, "That's not true." PHOTOS: Oprah Through the Years Oprah has said she's determined to get Simpson's confession. He was acquitted or the murders in 1995. STORY: Discovery Communications CEO: Judge Success of Oprah's OWN Over 2-3 Years.

Speaking at NCTA’s annual Cable Show in Chicago last week, she said, "I have a dream of O.J. Simpson confessing to me" as the audience cheered. "And I am going to make that happen people," she promised, admitting it was "not that lofty" of a goal. VIDEO: Memorable Oprah Winfrey Show moments “I don’t just want the interview,” Oprah continued. “I want the interview on the condition that you are ready, Mr. Simpson.”

Her follow-up show, Oprah's Next Chapter, premieres on OWN in January. Simpson was reportedly going to admit to the murders in a book called "If I Did It…." After the book sparked outrage, HarperCollins cancelled the plans and publisher Judith Regan was forced out later that year.

By: Lindsay