Oprah Winfrey had double knee surgery last year

Oprah Winfrey says she has a new appreciation for the human body after having undergone two knee surgeries and subsequent recovery last year.

"I had knee surgery in August and then I had another knee surgery in November," the media mogul revealed Tuesday on the most recent edition of her Oprah Daily website's "The Life You Want” class, which focused on gratitude.

Speaking with Columbia University psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, the 68-year-old Winfrey recalled that upon returning home from the first procedure, "I literally could not lift my leg. I couldn’t lift my heel off of the bed. And I vowed if I was ever able to get up and walk around and move again that I would take advantage of movement, of exercise, and of being able to be fully in my body and to use my body."

She went on to say that, "As I was rehabilitating, I started hiking and hiking, and every day trying to hike more and do more. And my appreciation for every organ and every limb has just expanded exponentially."

Knee replacement surgery for arthritis or injury was first performed in 1968, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, with roughly 600,000 to 754,000 performed in the United States each year.