Valerie Bertinelli's New Book

Valerie Bertinelli has a book that just came out called "Losing It: And Gaining my Life Back One Pound at a Time" and I think I am going to go buy it today. I got a coupon from Barnes and Noble today to get it for only fifteen bucks, so I think I should go get it. Not just because I have a coupon, but because it directly applies to my life also. Yesterday I was folding clothes and happened to turn on the TV and see Oprah's interview of Valerie. First of all, she looks amazing. I remember when I first saw the Jenny Craig commercial of her where she was so big, and I thought, wow, is that really her? Now, though, she looks amazing! And how old is she? Right around 40 I would guess, but she doesn't look a day older than 30 in my opinion.

Her interview was pretty interesting yesterday. I had no idea she had such an amazing sense of humor! She talked about her relationship with Steven Spielberg back when she was 19 and about how she met Van Halen and their life together. She talked about having a moment when she was watching a recent made-for-tv movie that she did for Hallmark and she barely recognized herself. She said she was thinking "Who is that ugly, old, fat woman?" and she knew she had to lose weight. Then she talked about how with every pound she lost, she also let go of some personal and emotional baggage that she had been carrying around. I think I need to do that too.

She has baggage, she says, about her marriage to Eddie because they both cheated on each other and had a lot of rough times. I don't have any cheating baggage (at least I dont know that he cheated on me), but I do have baggage of other kinds, and it isn't fair to G if I keep holding onto it. Holding onto the past is really just another way that we find an excuse to not move on and make the most of our future. If we hold onto it, we can always say "well, I wouldn't feel that way except that in the past, such and such happened to me and I never really got over it." We play the sympathy card with ourselves and with others in order to avoid certain things. If we let go of all the bad things that happened to us, we sort of lose our crutch, so to speak. We can't fall back on that trusty excuse anymore. Of course, our past makes us who we are, to a certain extent. We should accept that, embrace it, and move on so that we can create positive memories and experiences from now on.

In her interview with Oprah, Valerie said something that I realy took to heart. She said that she had been focusing on the negative in life for so long that she finally thought it was time to give the good thoughts a try. She changed her outlook on life and on her own body and self, pictured how she wanted to look and what she wanted to be like, and then she took steps to become that. Oprah held up her book and showed her the cover, then asked "Is this who you pictured?" Valerie's eyes teared up and she had an AHA! moment about her own success and she said, "Yes, yes it is."