How Ree Drummond Lost Nearly 40 Pounds

If you watch the Food Network or the Cooking Channel, then you're well aware of who Ree Drummond is. For the uninitiated, the queen of pioneer cooking came into prominence on the reality food TV scene with her hit Food Network show "The Pioneer Woman" in 2011, according to the Los Angeles Times. Drummond grew up in Oklahoma, but as soon as she graduated high school, she headed to California. "There was just something about Los Angeles. It was the biggest city I could think of to go. I couldn't wait to get there," she told the Los Angeles Times. Though she eventually went back home, L.A. gave her a ton of new, delicious food to try. 

What started off as a blog to share her life on the ranch, homeschooling tips, and the occasional recipe became a food and TV empire spanning 10 years on air and several cookbooks. Her cooking was famously accessible to viewers. "Somewhere along the way cooking became something that was fancy, and it just left behind all those people who aren't comfortable in the kitchen," Drummond said. On the show, Drummond cooks up her favorite recipes for all sorts of occasions, all with the backdrop of her family's expansive cattle ranch in rural Oklahoma. The show was even marketed to viewers as "the next best thing to actually sitting on a stool in Ree's kitchen." 

Now, instead of cooking calories up, the pioneer woman is cutting them. Read on to find out what she said!