The Sad Thing Valerie Bertinelli Just Revealed About Her Weight

Valerie Bertinelli has always dreaded the scale. As the two-time Golden Globe winner once said, when she was young, she felt gaining weight made her unlovable. In an interview with USA Today, the author spoke about how she saw people's perception of weight impact her life and those close to her. "I watched my dad not love my mother as much when she gained weight," Bertinelli said. "I had an elementary school teacher point at my belly and say, 'You'd better watch that.' Before that, I wasn't even aware of my body," she explained. "I'm doing my best to get that and scrape it all out of me. But it takes time."

The Food Network host has come far. On a journey toward improving her physical and mental health, Bertinelli wrote in an essay for New Beauty that she wished she was more kind to herself. "We are all born with a good heart and kindness in us. Yet, somehow it gets wiped away by the hardships we go through during our childhood, our lives, and all of the traumas we are forced to work through along the way," she wrote.

But demons of the past continue to haunt Bertinelli, even as she tries to fix things she finds uncomfortable or that do not serve her anymore.

As the "One Day at a Time" star wrote her New Beauty essay, her weight remains the one thing that holds her back. "I'm doing my best to live by the words I've written, to not care what the scale says. I think that's important. I think many, many, many people live with a lie that we were told, that we're unlovable when we gain weight, and it's simply not true," she explained. However, the scale keeps pulling her back regardless. "Yet, even as I say it, I'm like, 'Now, wait a minute....' Maybe, one day, I'll be the perfect weight! Let's wait until then..." she added.

But that has since changed for Bertinelli, who also published her New York Times bestseller, "Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today," in early 2022. "I stopped weighing myself when I finished writing my book, which was a big thing for me, and I haven't gotten on a scale since," she writes. For the author, denial leads to self-regulation. "I've found that especially true as I'm trying to take care of my mental and emotional health, as well as the weight." she writes.

As Bertinelli told People, she spent decades thinking she needed to look a certain way to have people like and accept her, but she's "done judging [her]self" as she works to be "kinder and more accepting" of her own body. "Whatever happens happens," Bertinelli emphasized. "This is what I am. Right now. Today."