Hey guys! Most of you guys got to see Jackie on Tyra today. She did an amazing job of giving obesity advice to women who were invited to the show. Check out these two videos from Jackie! Click on the links to take you to the videos.

Jackie Guerra on the Dangers of Obesity and Pressured to Gain Weight.

1. I can do the splits on both sides and have been able to do them since I was in kindergarten. I’m extremely flexible as Phoebe on “Friends” once said, “I’m very bendy?”!

2. My mother was a Playboy bunny at the Key Club and my father was the first manager of the first Jack-in-the-Box in Hollywood, CA in the 1970’s.

3. My parents especially my mother was obsessed with the Kennedy’s because he was the first Catholic President (oh yeah, we’re Mexican and Catholic-super original, I know). So when my brother and I were born in the US they named us after the Kennedy’s. The names of the people in my family are Ramon, Rogelio, Pepe, Gogo, Pilar, Rosita, Jackie and John. I’m pretty sure we are the only Mexicans named Jackie and John - Good times!

4. I was put on my first diet, Weight Watchers, when I was 8-years-old. I weighed 110 lbs. For most of my life I was morbidly obese. In 2003 I weighed more than the NFL’s #1 draft pick though I was not allowed into the locker room. In 2004 I figured out that I had spent approximately $250,000.00 on weight loss programs, shakes, diet doctors, pills, nutritionists, gym memberships, trainers, pre-packaged food, shots, etc. only to lose and gain the same 100 lbs 4 times between 1992-2004. At 34 years-old I weighed 320 lbs and so on April 16, 2004 after much research and soul-searching I chose to have gastric-bypass surgery, quit smoking, change my life and get healthy. I’ve lost 170 lbs and am grateful every single day for the healthy, exciting, fun, easy, energetic life that I have today. I have committed my life to making life healthier, happier and more bad-ass for everyone. I want everyone to feel this good about their life and empowered by their choices.

5. I cannot stand it when people mistake their opinion(s) for fact(s).

6. I HATE bullies of any kind; physical, emotional, financial, cyber, homophobes, racists, anti-semites – they’re all gross. I have no problem flipping the bitch switch on any of them, anytime, any place. Hear that Ric Berman and Grover Norquist? How about you suck it?!!!

7. From my family I inherited a strong work ethic, a belief in possibilities, love of people, big dreams, big living, big hair, a big ass and a sense of responsibility for others and desire to be of service. Believe me that is the only thing I will ever inherit from them because I come from a long line of broke-ass, financially uninformed Mexicanos? - but we are a lot of fun at parties!

8. I went to Catholic School for much of my life – and had a great experience. I know that it is vogue to criticize Catholicism – the homophobia and sexism is without defense - but I am fortunate because my teachers were Jesuits who believe that our faith is demonstrated by our service to others.I have always wanted to be of service; I was a Girl Scout, I loved being a Girl Scout. I wanted to be a nun (before I discovered BOYZ) and then I always believed I’d run for office. I wanted to be the first Mexican-American female Senator from California.

9. I began making jewelry as a kid when I was a Girl Scout. I fell in love! My mother, my Tia’s and I would make jewelry together all the time. I love everything about designing and making jewelry. I love to conceive, plan and make pieces that are unique and beautiful and meaningful. I feel honored when someone wears something I’ve made. Making and selling jewelry helped me pay for college and has been a source of income at different times of my life. It is very empowering to create something beautiful with your own hands. I began to teach others how to make jewelry because I don’t think that good quality, beautiful, jewelry or anything for that matter should be only for the wealthy.

10. I pretty much feel that way about everything which is one of the reasons that my first job out of college was as a Community Organizer. I then went on to become a Union Organizer for Unite HERE, Local 11 in Los Angeles. I am privileged to have worked for and alongside Maria Elena Durazo who is one of my personal She-roes. I think that everyone should work as an Organizer at some point in their life because if you can make change and galvanize people to take control of the quality of their own lives, you can do anything. Gracias to the great Organizers who taught me so much!

11. I accidentally stumbled into show business on my way to becoming the “Mexican Oprah”…lemme explain! While working for the Union I was assigned to a knarly boycott against a major, multi-national hotel chain. One night after a particularly brutal day on the picket line I took a group of workers for a drink at the first bar we found near the hotel where we were picketing. It happened to be Rage, a Gay bar in West Hollywood, CA – which was perfect for me because I was the prettiest girl there! There were about 400 well-dressed guys in the club and I thought, “wow I’ll bet that if they knew about the worker’s struggle, they’d support them”. I realized that they had an “open-mic” so I signed up. I followed a drag queen who sang Gloria Estefan’s “Conga” through her nose and 2 hot shirtless, tap dancing guys. I got onstage and just talked about my day on the picket line. Being onstage, hearing the laughter and feeling the energy of the crowd was so seductive and intoxicating but MOST importantly, after 10 minutes onstage I got more signatures on my boycott petition than I had been able to get the entire month on the picket line. I discovered my life! At that moment I realized, this is how I will be of service. This is how I can make a difference. I will get on every stage I can and every time someone hands me a microphone or points a camera at me I will talk about the people and issues that are important to me. I had been so influenced and inspired by Oprah that I had actually scheduled my college courses around her schedule. So I decided that night that what I really wanted was to do for my generation and my community what Oprah had done for hers. I went to work the next day and told my boss that I was going to do stand-up comedy and would work really hard so that someday I would host a talkshow and be the “Mexican Oprah” and that I would become so successful that eventually people would refer to her as the “Black Jackie”! It’s my dream.

12. I am the first Latina to star in a network sitcom. The show was called “First Time Out” which ran during the 1995-1996 season on the (then) WB Network. I don’t say it was a big hit but if you looked at the Nielsen ratings backward, we were the #2 show?! I learned a lot doing that sitcom and am very proud of the fact that I was able to get 7 women and Latino first-time writers into the WGA all of whom have gone on to have wonderful writing careers.

13. Yes I really did play the drums in the movie, “Selena” – although before the movie the only drumstick I’d ever picked up was on Thanksgiving! I had the time of my life making the movie in Texas and made lifelong friends during the filming. One of my proudest moments was about 5 years ago when Tommy Lee (drummer from Motley Crue) came up to me at a shoe store on Melrose and told me that he saw “Selena” and thinks that I am a “Kick-Ass-Drummer-Chick”. I was flattered but quite distracted by the fact that I had recently seen his, ummm…”home video”?. But if you ever need a drummer to play Cumbia or Disco, I’m your “Kick-Ass-Drummer-Chick”.

14. After appearing on an episode of “Celebrity Hobbies” on HGTV where I made jewelry I was offered the opportunity to host “Jewelry Making” on the DIY Network – which I loved! Do what you love and…!

15. I was a plus-sized model for about 5 minutes. You will NEVER hear me make jokes about models because though modeling is not hard work like picking tomatoes in the hot sun for minimum wage or cleaning 16 rooms a day in a fancy hotel is but con todo respeto, it is not easy.

16. I did a movie with the diminutive Woody Allen called “Picking Up the Pieces” which is one of the most bizarre films ever made (and by bizarre I mean, brutal). At the time we filmed the movie I weighed about 310 lbs and my character always wore crazy platform shoes so Woody came up to my chest and in every scene we are in together all you see is that my boob is bigger than his head. It’s very distracting which given the blockbuster success of the film is probably a good thing.

17. Total brag…I earned every single badge as a Girl Scout. I have an Emmy (okay so it’s a local Emmy but it’s still an Emmy? and I call it my starter Emmy), an Imagen Award, a Telly Award, a Young Hispanic Achiever Award (from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis), I was named by the L.A. Times, Latina Magazine and Hispanic Magazine as one to watch and one of the 40 Latinas under 40 Who Will Change the World but what I am most proud of is the fact that I hold the record for most new voters registered by an individual in the great state of Califas (California)!

18. I am fiercely committed to the fact that LGBT rights and worker’s rights are HUMAN RIGHTS and that NO HUMAN BEING IS ILLEGAL! Some may be undocumented but can we please stop criminalizing human beings by labeling them, “illegal”? Muy ugly and very un-American. I believe that election day should be a national holiday As the daughter of immigrants who left everything they knew; their familia, their country, their language, their customs to come to this great country I am honestly offended when people can’t be bothered to be informed about issues and get out and vote! And pass the DREAM ACT, now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

19. I have more than a mild obsession with shoes and handbags. Recently I was window-shopping on 57th Street in NYC with a friend of mine. We stopped into the YSL store to “look”. I tried on about 7 pair of shoes and probably held 4 or 5 bags and walked around the store. I was having so much fun and seriously felt swoony over the beautiful craftsmanship of the shoes and handbags. As my friend dragged me out of the store after over an hour of “looking” she said, “You have a chemical reaction to great handbags and shoes the way a crackhead has to crack”. I cannot argue.

20. After losing 170 lbs I have had 3 surgeries to remove a total of 10 feet of excess skin and I got some new boobs – which I looooove and highly recommend?. I wore a bikini last summer on south beach in Miami!

21. Although I am a Mexican-American Valley Girl from Los Angeles (OMG, que bueno?!), the truth is that at my core I am a Mexican Hillbilly. My familia is straight up country from Durango, Mexico. My aunt married into Arkansas hillbillies. So we’ve got the “mija’s” and the “yee-ha’s”. Truth be told I love country music in English and in Spanish. My biggest fantasy (besides #11) is to be a Mariachi singer. Ahua! OMG…I would die?!!!

22. The first time I laid eyes on Bill he was doing stand-up comedy at the Improv. When he walked onstage I turned to my friend seated next to me and said, “I’m going to marry him”. She laughed and told me I was crazy. She was kind of right because at the time I was 23-years-old and engaged to someone else and so was Bill. We were good friends for a couple of years. My fiancé and I ended our relationship but Bill got married. One afternoon in August, 1994 he came to my house to tell me that he and his wife decided to end their 10-month marriage. He never left and we’ve been together ever since. True story! I never knew that I could love as deeply and passionately as I do until I met Puerto-Rican-Hunk, Bill. Not so crazy, huh?!

23. I want to skydive, own a Harley and make out with George Clooney or at least grab his ass but my husband is a MAJOR c*ck-blocker!

24. I admire people who have their own style and a dash of rebelliousness. I always say I like my peeps sassy, classy and a lil’ bad-assy?!

25. I desperately miss my mother every single day.

Hola!  Just wanted to let you know that I am in NYC.  Today I taped another episode of TYRA which will air sometime in early January-I’ll keep you posted.  I want to thank everyone who has sent me so many heartfelt and supportive emails.  I am working hard to make life healthier, happier and more exciting for everyone! And I promise that in the next few days I will post some of the pics from my week in Houston at the Latin Grammy’s celebrations, parties, backstage lounges, rehearsals, etc.,!   Let’s keep in touch and keep working together to do some great things.  Please read my latest blog post and tell me what you think.  Mucho love to all, JACKIE

LIVE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! Same pants, different life:)!

Thank you to everyone who has written such nice comments about me on the TYRA Show website.  I TRULY appreciate your enthusiasm and support.  I know that like me you understand how important it is for people like TYRA and others who have a daily platform to help and influence public opinion to celebrate our uniqueness as people and honor the choices that we make to best live the life we dream of.  Unfortunately we still live in a world where Paris Hilton is a big draw.  As much as I and others make the case that there is silent majority out there of thinking and motivated people who just need a little inspiration, a little motivation an occasional chuckle and maybe even a challenge to do better and be the incredible person we are each capable of being, shows are driven by interest/ratings and right now Paris Hilton’s appearance about nothing; “thanks but no thanks on that interview to nowhere:)!” currently has about 60 more comments than mine does about life after massive weight loss.

Now let me put this into context because this is not about me.  This is an issue much larger.  This is about all of us.  Paris Hilton was born into a famous and wealthy family.  That’s why she is on television and continues to dominate the covers of magazines.  Okay, that’s one kind of entertainment.  But then there is the kind of entertainment made popular by people like Phil Donahue and Oprah.  That’s the kind of television show that Tyra aspires to be.  And I think she can.  But she needs our support.  She needs to know that if she does more shows with me about the kind of issues that we are all concerned about - making sure we all have the opportunity to have a better quality of life - she needs to know that it will be successful and THE ONLY WAY that her studio/network (syndicator) knows that that is true is by the number of comments that are posted about the show.  

Please help TYRA, you and me to be healthier, happier and more productive by supporting shows like the one I appeared on.  Take a minute to leave a comment at

 http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/2008/10/jackie_guerras_personal_weight.php#comments

Gracias!

Mucho love,

JACKIE

GOOD NEWS!  For any of you who may have missed Jackie’s appearance on the Tyra Banks Show on Friday, October 10, 2008.  And we know EVERYONE in California missed it because the show was pre-empted by the National League Championship Series playoffs with the Dodgers (sorry Dodger fans).   Luckily the episode will is set to air again on Friday, October 24, 2008.  Check to see when it’s on in your area. Remember when you check, you’re checking for the repeat episode which is denoted by an *.  In Los Angeles it is on at noon on channel 11.  Find out when it’s on in your town:http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/whenitson/whenitson.php

Hey guys! When it comes to living a great life before and after weight loss, Jackie Guerra is definitely the expert. Her advice is so real and down-to-earth because she’s lived through it all herself. Click on the image below to stream the video.

Don’t forget to catch Jackie on the Tyra Banks show today!

Hola! I hope you’ll tune into The Tyra Banks Show As many of you know I have been a guest on Tyra’s show many times but this is my first time as an “expert” instead of simply being interviewed. Check it out and let me know what you think!