Valerie Bertinelli is opening up about her struggles with her body image.
During a Thursday appearance on TODAY With Hoda & Jenna, Bertinelli, 62, admitted that she hasn't checked her weight since she finished writing her book, "Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today," which was released in January.
"I'm looking at myself in the monitor and trying not to judge myself too harshly right now because I know that I'm still holding on to this weight because it's protecting me right now," she told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on the show. "Because I'm going through a lot of challenges. A lot of heartbreak. A lot of crazy stuff is going on in my life right now."
Bertinelli noted that it'll be easier for her to lose the weight once she gets "healthier internally and emotionally."
Even though she said she's been treating her body better by drinking less alcohol and eating less sugar and more vegetables, she says her body still looks the same because "it needs protection" against her emotional distress.
Bertinelli said that everything changed for her once her father died in 2016.
“It’s just gotten snowball after snowball. More things happen to me, but I’m not the only one,” she said.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Bertinelli separated from her husband, Tom Vitale, before she filed for divorce from Vitale in May.
She said that those hardships have taught her that she's "emotionally stronger" than she thinks she is and that she deserves better.
One thing she's realized is that she is a hard worker. However, she "rarely" gives herself praise because she sometimes views herself as lazy.
"I've been told so many times how lazy I am," she said. "...But all it was is just the voice inside my head that already told me that. It was just saying, 'Oh, see it's true. You are lazy.' But I do know when people start telling me everything I've done, I'm like, 'Oh, that's why I'm tired.' Because I do work hard and I love my work. I love it. I know I'm not lazy. I just like to rest really hard when I do rest."
In order to focus on her blessings, Bertinelli said that she lists the things that she's grateful for as soon as she wakes up in the morning.
"Yeah, it's hard right now, but when it's the darkest is when you can start to see the light all around you," she said. "And that's when you can see that there is good in everyone's life. And that there is gratitude to be had and gratitude is that staircase that we have to climb to get to joy, no matter how difficult, how challenging, how desperate, we may feel sometimes, there's always something to be grateful for."
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