Valerie Bertinelli Shares Her Journey with Health and Weight Loss: "It Is Not About the Number on the Scale"

Most folks have probably dealt with negative body image at one time or another, which is why we always appreciate it when a celebrity gets candid about their relationship to food and self-esteem. Whether it's Jonah Hill sharing his experience with therapy or Lizzo encouraging body positivity, hearing someone with a big platform be honest about their health journey can make all of us feel a little less alone.

Valerie Bertinelli definitely warmed some hearts this week when she took to Instagram to share an update about how she's prioritizing her mental and emotional health over her weight these days—and fans are thanking her for her honesty.

"This is the little girl I want to take care of right now," Bertinelli wrote on Instagram, alongside some adorable childhood photos. "The perpetual people pleaser. So please don't come to me for diet advice. I have failed more times than I have succeeded. Releasing weight is a nice side effect for sure, but this journey has to be, for me, much more than that this time. I'm doing my best to take care of my heart and my head and recover from verbal and emotional abuse that I finally realize I did not deserve."

Bertinelli has shared about her weight loss tips in the past—especially when she was a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig, the weight loss and nutrition company. But now she's focusing her energy on her emotional and mental health, which also means reconfiguring her ideas about food and what it means to eat healthy. In an earlier post, she shared that she's trying to care "not so much about calories, but about what are in those calories," and making sure she's getting the nutrients she needs to feel good each day. The keyword, Bertinelli says, is "feel"—she's trusting her body rather than a scale.

"I feel lighter even though I'm pretty much around the same weight I was when I started Jenny Craig 16 years ago! So it is not about the number on the scale," Bertinelli wrote. "My heart is lighter. My head is lighter. I want to feel my feelings, even though they can be scary sometimes, and I do my best to get to the other side of them. What I don't want to do is numb or avoid my feelings with food and alcohol any longer."

For folks who really struggle with negative feelings about their bodies, consulting with a therapist can be a helpful way to unpack those issues. Bertinelli says she's been using a combination of therapy, journaling and meditation, among other outlets. Addressing her mental health has allowed Bertinelli to care about herself more, she says, which means caring for her body in a different, healthier way.

The actress has gotten vulnerable about her relationship to health and wellness in the past. In 2022, she sat down with us to talk about her book Enough Already and revealed that aiming for weight loss had never been a healthy choice for her. "Even being at my lowest weight never made me happy," Bertinelli told EatingWell. "I decided enough with the scale. Enough with the weight. Instead, I'm going to eat whatever I want today anyway and do my best to be more conscious of what I'm putting into my body."

If you want to mimic Bertinelli's looser, less regimented relationship to food, you might consider intuitive eating. Proponents of intuitive eating encourage shaking off the restrictive attitude of a traditional diet and using more gentle nutrition. Once you learn to stop feeling guilty about what you eat, then you can begin to reincorporate nutritional goals, like aiming for heart-healthy amounts of sodium or trying to get in some more fiber.

Even if you don't think intuitive eating is for you, trying to find an eating pattern that allows you to enjoy food wholeheartedly is important. If you're struggling to develop a healthy relationship to food, consider reaching out to a therapist for help—Psychology Today's search tool can help find therapists in your area, including those who specifically treat folks with eating disorders or body-image issues.