Valerie Bertinelli Shares 5 Tips for Loving Yourself and Embracing Inner Calm
Through her teen years on One Day at a Time to a beloved stint on Hot in Cleveland to her current Food Network shows, Valerie’s Home Cooking and Kids Baking Championship, Valerie Bertinelli shines with a relatable girl next door charm that makes it feel like she could be your best friend. But as she shares in her new book, Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, being a friend to herself hasn’t always been easy. “I was always looking for that magic number on a scale to make me feel better,” she shares with FIRST. “But it never did.”
Recently, Valerie came to a new understanding about self-love that changed it all. “When love is your starting place, you find a calm inside yourself. And when you share that with others, life changes for the better!” Here are Valerie Bertinelli’s top five tips to help you de-stress and love you just as you are!
Eating the rainbow helps curb cravings.
“I believe in getting all your vitamins from food, and I try to eat as many colors of food as I can,” Valerie shares. “I put beets in my salad the other day, and I try to get really dark green veggies like kale or arugula. I also love crunchy snacks like apples and radishes. I like to sprinkle radishes with Morton Nature’s Seasons (Buy from Walmart, $2.88). It’s got a little bit of celery salt in it, which gives it something extra. That’s my rule: Eat colorful foods and foods high in fiber.”
Sesame body oil is a radiance booster.
“My absolute favorite buy from the drugstore is sesame body oil,” Valerie says. “I put that on after a shower every single day — it smells great and it makes my skin look and feel wonderful!”
Walking like this increases energy.
“I have to go out and walk or else my dog will kill me,” Valerie laughs. “To stay motivated, I listen to a lot of books on Audible while I walk. I just finished Circe by Madeline Miller and Harlem Shuff le by Colson Whitehead, which were wonderful, and started Cloud Cuckoo Land. I like a wide range of books. I even did the audio version for my book so people will feel like they are sitting with me having a cup of tea or a glass of wine as they listen.” Not a book-on-tape fan? Studies show that listening to anything, whether it be music or a podcast, while you exercise boosts your performance by 15 percent.
Time with furry friends is a spirit lifter.
“One of my favorite stress busters is petting my animals,” Valerie says with a smile. “Luna, my rescue dog, is a great stress reliever because she likes to go outside and play, and being out in real weather feels good. But when I can’t get outside, doing a crossword puzzle helps take my mind off things. I get The New York Times and LA Times every morning and save all the crossword puzzles for last. My favorite is the LA Times Sunday crossword. It’s fun and bigger and I don’t beat myself up if I can’t finish it.”
Light morning stretches are balm for the bones.
“I stretch every morning,” Valerie shares. “I’m trying to do the sun salutation — a series of simple yoga stretches — when I wake up because it hits every part of the body. I find that the older I get, the easier it is for me to kind of get stiff, so I try to get my body moving as much as possible. People often think, ‘Oh, you need to run or jog. You need to ride a bike.’ But I’ve learned it can be gentle, you just need to stretch! Stretching is super important.” It’s true! Studies show that just five minutes of stretching increases blood flow by 36 percent and can reduce stress hormones by 23 percent.
A version of this article originally appeared in our print magazine, First for Women.
