Slim and trim! Valerie Bertinelli kicked off 2023 by cutting alcohol from her diet – but was surprised when weight loss was an accidental by-product.
“So, here’s a nice little side effect of Dry January. These jeans that I’m wearing were so tight a few months ago that I couldn’t comfortably button them,” Bertinelli, 62, said via a TikTok video earlier this week. “Now, they’re so loose it’s time for me to go down a size. Yeah, I like that side effect.”
After the One Day at a Time alum revealed the shocking slim-down, fans quickly took to the comments section to share their own experiences with going alcohol-free.
“I did Sober October AND dry January AND way lesss sugar. Very little weight loss. So crazy! But I’m feeling healthier,” one social media user wrote, to which Bertinelli replied, “Oooh, sober October. I like it. I may also do dry July. .”
The Delaware native has been open about her weight loss journey over the years, often clapping back at trolls who comment on her body. In July 2021, got candid about how detrimental unwanted commentary can be to someone’s self-image.
“Someone … decided to point out that I needed to lose weight. Because see, I don’t have a scale or I don’t have clothes that I’m trying to put on every day and I don’t have mirrors so I don’t see what’s become of me,” she quipped via Instagram at the time. “So I needed that help to let me know that I need to lose weight.”
The Daytime Emmy Award winner — who lost ex-husband Eddie Van Halen following his death in October 2020 — explained that people “are not being helpful” when they share their unwanted opinions.
“Because when you see somebody who has put some weight on, my first thought is, ‘That person is obviously going through some things,’” she added. “But since I haven’t been successful with that my whole entire life — at 61 I’m still dealing with [it]. You think I’m not tired of it, lady? Where is the compassion? Not f–king helpful.”
Bertinelli shared that grief has been a common obstacle when it comes to her weight fluctuation — and that she previously used “food as a way not to feel the sadness or the stress” in her life.
“By eating something away, all it does is make me feel worse about myself,” she penned in an essay for Today in January 2020. “One of my personal mottos is ‘choose happy.’ But sometimes that choice is really challenging.”
These days, the Food Network star is taking a healthier approach, revealing last month that she was trying a no-alcohol month to “cut down on the cravings for my sugar” and to “calm down the cortisol in my body.”
“If you’re doing a dry January, let’s have fun. Let’s do it together,” she said in a TikTok clip at the time. “If not, it’s okay. It don’t matter. You take care of yourself, I’ll take care of me.”