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Valerie Bertinelli Doesn’t Weigh Herself ‘as Much’ at 60: ‘Why Do I Have To?’
TV star Valerie Bertinelli knows what she needs to do in order to feel beautiful. The beloved actress and chef revealed she’s doing “the mental and emotional work” to overcome issues with body image and self confidence — “I don’t weigh myself as much anymore,” the 60-year-old candidly revealed in an interview with People on Wednesday, May 13.
“I’ll put on some jeans every once in a while to see how they feel,” she explained. “Why do I have to know what number I am? I know it’s really about the internal work.”
Earlier this year, Valerie launched her new NBC series, Start Today With Valerie, in which fans have the opportunity to follow along on her journey to weight loss and a healthier lifestyle.
The Valerie’s Home Cooking host began the Today series “because I wanted to lose 10 pounds for my 60th birthday,” she told the outlet. “Then it became much more than that. It became, ‘I’d like to lose the weight, but I may never lose the weight.’ How do I love me for who I am right now? Today. At this body. At this age.”
Looking back on her childhood years, Valerie revealed she always struggled with feeling comfortable in her own skin. “I was always trying to be better. Thinner. Nicer. Prettier,” she explained, noting she was still always “gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight — I’d never dealt with any of the emotions.”
The One Day at a Time alum even recalled the moment she was fat-shamed as a little girl. “I remember my fifth-grade teacher patted me on the belly and said, ‘You might want to keep an eye on that,'” she explained. “That was the first time I became really aware of my body.”
Luckily, Valerie learned from the heartbreaking experience. “Now I think, ‘How dare he?'” she stated. “At that age, we’re so full of joy … and then to have someone slap you for nothing. For just standing there. Now I can be angry for that little girl. It feels like so much time wasted. I don’t want anyone else to waste any time.”
Prior to turning the big 6-0 on April 23, the Hot in Cleveland alum exclusively told Closer Weekly she was using her milestone celebration as a way to move on from “a really hard few years.”
“I’ve used food as a way not to feel the sadness or the stress … but by eating something away, all it does is make me feel worse about myself,” she shared with Closer in mid-April. “It’s always about moving forward.”
You got this, Valerie!
