Valerie Bertinelli’s Got This! The Actress Gets Painfully Honest About Her Latest Efforts To Ditch Extra Pounds
Like so many of us, Valerie Bertinelli’s weight loss struggle has been a years-long one. Unlike many of us, Bertinelli has had to struggle publicly.
The Food Network personality just announced this week on Today her renewed efforts to lose weight. She deserves an incredible amount of credit for being so open about it. Going public must be one of the hardest experiences for a celebrity who struggles with their weight and that’s why Bertinelli is so beloved. She keeps it real and wants viewers to know: it’s hard for her, too.
Here’s what we know about Bertinelli’s plans to lose the pounds for good this time!
Bertinelli has lost weight quite publicly before
Bertinelli lost weight when she signed up as a Jenny Craig spokesperson. By 2009, after successfully losing 47 pounds in two years, she posed in a string bikini on the cover of People after her transformation.
“I have obsessed about my weight in some sort of way all my life,” she told Oprah Winfrey at that time. “I used to write in my journal what I weighed every day.”
“It’s still, for me, very new. This is the longest I’ve ever kept weight off before. I’m still thinking: ‘Wow, is this really happening? Am I going to be able to do this?'”
And then she gained it back
Unfortunately, a few years after her epic weight loss, Bertinelli, again like so many of us, gained the weight back. Working with Food Network since 2014 couldn’t have been very helpful in maintaining a weight loss of any amount, with all the tasting of gooey, rich, fattening dishes. The TV personality has hosted a number of Food Network shows, including Valerie’s Home Cooking, Family Food Showdown, and Family Restaurant Rivals.
The actress told ABC’s The Talk in 2014 that, while she had gained back most of the weight she had lost on Jenny Craig, she had decided to accept herself as she was and was determined not to feel ashamed.
“Because I broke my foot three months ago and I’ve not been able to work out, the weight starts to creep up,” she told the talk show’s co-hosts. “Then, I started thinking, ‘Why do I feel so much shame?’ Because the cameras are on me? Because the paparazzi can’t wait to get a picture of me looking like I’ve gained a few pounds. It’s like, we have to take the shame out of it.”
Valerie Bertinelli’s teaming up with ‘Today’ to lose the weight for good
This week, Bertinelli announced on Today that she’s finally addressing this issue once and for all. She’s starting a new series on the morning show called “Start TODAY with Valerie.”
She appeared on Monday’s show to explain how her parents’ deaths over the past three years have caused her to forget to care for herself. The One Day At A Time star has finally decided to take care of the pounds, and herself.
In an essay she posted on Today‘s website, Bertinelli laid out her emotions and her ultimate goal.
“When you’re busy taking care of other people you forget to take care of yourself. I’m an ‘everything’s fine’ girl and pretending everything’s okay,” she admitted in her essay. “I’ve been working so hard for so long since I was twelve years old and doing what everybody wants me to do for so long. I just want to know what true joy feels like.”
Her vulnerability and honesty caused her Instagram account to explode with support.
“There’s a reason that I’ve gained weight and it’s emotional. This is just a symptom of how unhappy I’ve let myself feel and become. I’m not going to let any mistakes that I make in 2020 define me as a failure. I will find a different way to look at it.”
She asked for viewers’ to share their tips with her, and promised she would do the same, saying she would be stopping into Today regularly to provide updates and healthy recipes.
“Oh, and by the way, something will go wrong. Things can go wrong and then you can put them right. . . I’m not going to let any mistakes that I make in 2020 define me as a failure – and neither should you.”
