Valerie Bertinelli: “I love a big slice of pizza. But I love myself more.”

Ladies’ Home Journal has a piece on Valerie Beritnelli’s weight loss… and it goes like this:

Only two years ago, around the time she and rocker Eddie Van Halen divorced, 5-foot-4 Bertinelli weighed 172 pounds. She had a wardrobe heavy on puffy sleeves, elastic waistbands, and what she and her boyfriend, Tom Vitale, called “granny panties.” Now she’s a rock-solid 128 pounds with no plans to return to “dressing in drapes,” as she puts it. “The weight is off for good,” Bertinelli declares, shutting the closet behind her. “My stick-to-it number is 132 pounds. But if I hit 130 on the scale, it’s time to lay off the mozzarella and get my butt out for a serious run.” The highlight, though, is Bertinelli’s scramble to get into bikini shape for the whole country to see.

“There was no hiding behind Spanx for that one,” Bertinelli says of the swimsuit reveal for Jenny Craig last spring. “I was hesitant, but I was working out so friggin’ hard.” Her trainer had her walking up to 20,000 steps a day and she monitored every morsel on her way to a remarkable 123 pounds. Why a bikini? “I thought, ‘Why not show this body off?’” Bertinelli says. “I’m almost 50 and I haven’t felt this good about myself since I was 16.” The image of Bertinelli in a green two-piece that appeared on the cover of People last April was so jaw-dropping that bloggers tried to prove her head was secretly Photoshopped onto the body of a younger model. It was not.

Bertinelli heads downstairs and into a living room replete with stunning views up and down the coast. “There are a lot of ways to eat. If you use food for comfort, that’s not okay,” she says, curling up on an oversize sofa. “I’m Italian and food is love, food is family. But food also makes you a real fatty if you’re not careful.” She’s quick to admit she has no answers — only strategies — for what works for her: Stop eating when you’re full. Eat what you want (within reason) but in small portions. Don’t leave tempting foods lying around. “It’s a constant challenge,” she says. Asked what she has learned by watching the former Jenny Craig spokesperson Kirstie Alley gain back her weight, Bertinelli says, “I understand it. What woman doesn’t? I told her to come work out with me. You need support. Otherwise it’s ‘I’ll start tomorrow, then tomorrow,’ and tomorrow never comes.” “I’ve realized I’m more important than food is. Being thin is about changing the way you think about yourself. It’s about saying you deserve to be healthy. In no way have I perfected this eating thing and I don’t know that I ever will,” she says. “But life is about making progress. It’s not about perfection.”

So what do you guys think?

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