This story is NOT about a famous actress writing her memoirs.
It’s about how we all need to learn to love ourselves at this stage of life, even if it means letting go of some of the stubborn goals we’ve been clinging to for decades.
No – ESPECIALLY if it means letting go of some of those habits.
Valerie Bertinelli, now 61, became a household name in the 1970s on TV’s “One Day at a Time.” She was one of those “America’s sweetheart” personalities – cute, perky, and seemed to lead a charmed life. She even got to marry a huge rock star, Eddie van Halen.
But for decades, Bertinelli fought self-esteem and body issues, always trying to lose weight and fit into a beauty standard forced upon her by her occupation and her own insecurities.
“In the past, I have shared my efforts to lose weight and encouraged many of you to do the same,” she writes in her latest book, “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am.”
“I set certain goals, believing that I would be happier once I lost those ten, twenty, or thirty pounds.”
She finally realized she couldn’t find happiness on the bathroom scale. She adjusted her expectations, her self-perceptions, and behaviors, moving toward the healthy happiness she had sought.
Yes, living healthy means appropriate thoughts about ourselves – but it also means taking appropriate actions with food and exercise.
But, as this familiar face shows us, it doesn’t mean obsessing about our weight.
Let us get you living right, one day at a time!
Holly Kouvo is a personal trainer, functional aging specialist, senior fitness specialist, brain health trainer, writer, and speaker.