Lamar Odom struggles to take first steps; Khloe Kardashian shares weight loss tips

The latest Lamar Odom update brings a mix of good and bad news for the slowly improving former NBA star. The good news is that Odom has apparently taken his first steps on his own–and, to the delighted surprise of the hospital staff, appears to be remembering more of their names.

The two-time NBA champion is making slow, but steady progress at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; a CBS Lamar Odom update states that Odom’s brain function is “slowly improving,” which he demonstrated recently when Odom recognized a staff member who had been a regular in his room. Odom has had trouble remembering names over the past few weeks–including his own.

And, while it remains unlikely that Odom will be out of the hospital and into a specialized rehabilitation center in time for Christmas, he demonstrated cause for further optimism late last week, when he took three steps completely on his own. They were Odom’s first solo walk since his October hospitalization for a drug overdose and seizure; to this point in Odom’s recovery, he had needed a walker to remain ambulatory. The steps, which Odom’s team hadn’t expected, allegedly “shocked” doctors.

At the same time, the current Lamar Odom update has estranged wife Khloe Kardashian continuing to promote her new book and weight loss regimen. Khloe has been on an extended press tour for the past few weeks, in order to push Strong Looks Better Naked. That tour was interrupted–briefly–by a staph infection that Khloe claims to have caught while helping out in Lamar’s hospital room. According to the Lamar Odom update that followed, Khloe was ordered to bed; she later got high on painkillers and took to Twitter to rail against Lamar.

It’s not clear if Khloe has visited with Lamar since the staph infection. One visit Khloe has made, however, is with the editors of New Beauty magazine, who chose the 31-year-old reality television star for the cover of their Winter-Spring 2016 issue.  In the issue, Khloe dishes on how she managed to lose eleven pounds in just six weeks–and corrected a widely held belief about her natural hair color.

Weight-wise, Khloe said “I’m obsessed with cheese and milk, but eliminating them from my diet made the biggest difference. In a month and a half, I lost 11 pounds just from not eating dairy, without doing anything else different, and that totally blew my mind.”

As for her famous light Kardashian locks? The look is natural: “The funny thing,” Khloe explained, “is that everyone thinks I’m naturally dark because all of my siblings are, but I’m naturally dirty blond….I love how I stand out more as a blond—it makes me feel bright and healthy.”

(Photo credits: Lamar Odom update via Instagram, WENN.com)