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272nd out of 380 books
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561 voters
Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time
Valerie Bertinelli, then: bubbly sitcom star and America's Sweetheart turned tabloid headline and rock star wife. Now: actress, single working mother of teenage rock star, and weight-loss inspiration to millions.We all knew and loved Valerie Bertinelli years ago when she played girl-next-door cutie Barbara Cooper in the hit TV show "One Day at a Time," and then starred in...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
February 25th 2008
by Free Press
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Celebrity biographies can be enjoyable if they reward the reader with bits of insight and honesty about the writers life. We're looking for something that we haven't heard before and stories that make them more human/real. Valerie Bertinelli offers us an incredibly candid story of her life (so far) that runs along the thread of how she handled weight gain. This book was actually loaned to my wife but as a Van Halen fan I scanned it for annedotes on the Rock and Roll lifestyle and ended up readin...more
picked up 2/27. so far very personable! conversational reading! started last night (2/29) and am more than 90 pgs into it already!
update: (3/4) finished! a very easy, interesting, relate-able read! her writing is very conversational and i could hear her voice in my mind as i read. i've also had relationships w/musicians (infamous & not!) & relationships that i lost myself in trying to force them to work, i'm now over weight (for me) for the 1st time since grade school & i've always h...more
update: (3/4) finished! a very easy, interesting, relate-able read! her writing is very conversational and i could hear her voice in my mind as i read. i've also had relationships w/musicians (infamous & not!) & relationships that i lost myself in trying to force them to work, i'm now over weight (for me) for the 1st time since grade school & i've always h...more
There are pros and cons to this one, and I am not sure that the pros outweigh the cons enough to recommend this book. Also, to be fair, I really don't think I read this book for the right reasons. Originally, I was more interested in the rock and roll gossip, and not Valerie Bertinelli's story. Then, over the course of the book, I did become more interested in her journey. Towards the end, I was really rooting for her. I liked the brutal honesty in which she describes her life. I also appreciate...more
To be honest, I didn't know much about Valerie Bertinelli other than she'd married Eddy Valen and stared in One Day at A Time back in the 1975's-84's. But I have to admit I wanted to read her book. I'm about six years older than her, but when her show debuted I was in my heyday 20's and the memories are strong. People used to mistake me for her TV sister, Mackenzie Phillips.
Plus, I have an interest in rock and roll marriages. I mean, how do they handle women throwing themselves at their husbands...more
Plus, I have an interest in rock and roll marriages. I mean, how do they handle women throwing themselves at their husbands...more
Maybe I missed most of this because she is from my mom's generation. I felt like I did at the end of Eat, Pray, Love-- get over yourself already! I appreciate her battle with weight and how she was able to retrospectfully examine her eating habits and attitudes. That is true for a lot of women. But I felt for the rest of the book it was all about how when she did drugs and slept around, it was justified (she admitted it was wrong, but then justified it) but when her ex-husband did it, that was h...more
So as a fan of pretty much anything 80s, I was interested in readin this book. Also frankly, so see if there were any tips she had with healthier eating and lifestyle habits, which I am always open to learning. Valerie speaks openly and honestly about her struggle with weight, dealing with a very drunk and high famous husband (Eddie Van Halen), and trying to balance working with being a good mom. I watched a little of One Day at A Time when I was younger- it really was a bit before my time, but...more
Audiobook Version:
This reads more like a Jenny Craig commercial than a memoir.
Valerie tells all in her new tell all book, without really telling anything. What you will learn from this book: Valerie came from a middle class home with stable and loving parents and siblings. Valerie tried out for a commercial and later landed a role on a sitcom that became a number one hit tv show in the 70's. Valerie is a good girl. Contrary to advice, Valerie weds rock and roll icon Eddie Van Halen. Valerie and...more
This reads more like a Jenny Craig commercial than a memoir.
Valerie tells all in her new tell all book, without really telling anything. What you will learn from this book: Valerie came from a middle class home with stable and loving parents and siblings. Valerie tried out for a commercial and later landed a role on a sitcom that became a number one hit tv show in the 70's. Valerie is a good girl. Contrary to advice, Valerie weds rock and roll icon Eddie Van Halen. Valerie and...more
The full title here is Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time by Valerie Bertinelli. Yes, that's right. I read an autobiography by Valerie Bertinelli, she of One Day at a Time fame, countless made-for-TV movies, and a marriage to a certain Van Halen member. Let's chalk it up to expanding my horizons and stepping outside my usual reading comfort zone.
And actually, it's not a particularly BAD book. Bertinelli tells her life's story (so far), following what I can only assume is the...more
And actually, it's not a particularly BAD book. Bertinelli tells her life's story (so far), following what I can only assume is the...more
I remember as a child watching One Day at a Time and my family sitting around the TV watching the show. Barbara was my favorite character on the show, since she was a huge Elton John fan. Later, I remember hearing the band Van Halen and being blown away. In high school I had a huge crush on Eddie and had my locker covered in pictures of him. When I found out that my favorite actress and favorite musician married, it was like the "best of both worlds".
Valerie's writing in this book is like she i...more
Valerie's writing in this book is like she i...more
I enjoy reading about the lives of actors told from their voice. One of my vices. There is really no literary value by reading these type of books. I like to read about celebrities lives, especially those that were in shows back when I was a kid. I always have a picture in my mind about what this person is really like. The books put it in perspective and confirm whether I had the right picture or not. With Valerie, I was close but not right on. I always viewed her as a girl who seemed to have he...more
In this memoir, Valerie Bertinelli describes her life as a Hollywood actress as well as her 20-year marriage to Eddie, the guitarist for the band Van Halen. At one point, it seemed like she was living a charmed life but the truth was that she was miserable. During their marriage, she fought with her husband about his drinking and the extramarital affairs he was having and their fighting both wore them out. In the end she felt like she couldn’t compete for attention with his rock-n-roll lifestyle...more
Not as completely focused on her weight cycling as the title suggests, which is a good thing in my view, as that part of it is obvious and repetitive (various anecdotes documenting that (a) if you eat a lot and fail to make time for exercise when you're stressed and unhappy, you gain weight; (b) if you crash diet and binge on exercise when trying to fit in certain clothes or get a specific acting job, you rarely maintain it; (c) if you adopt a sustainable exercise program and eat healthy/moderat...more
I'm not sure it's fair to judge someone's perspective of their own life. It is exactly what it is...their story to tell. I found it interesting that she spends the entire book relating her life to her issues with food and weight but skimmed over her drug use as if it were no big deal, as if "easy come...easy go".
It took me a very long time to read this book. Not because I didn't enjoy it. I enjoyed reading while I was reading but once I put it down it didn't call for me to pick it back up. I wa...more
It took me a very long time to read this book. Not because I didn't enjoy it. I enjoyed reading while I was reading but once I put it down it didn't call for me to pick it back up. I wa...more
Valerie Bertinelli seems to be the kind of person I would like and hang out with. Her weight loss story had as much to do with food as it did the things in her life that kept her eating...and eating and eating. I read this book in less than 24 hours, I passed this on to my MIL and she will be done with done with it in less time than that! Great, fun read.
Listening to this on audio was such a blast! Valerie reads it herself and it REALLY is like one of the reviews i read - like sitting and having a drink with your girlfriend, dishing the dirt. She dishes some dirt, she struggles with self-esteem and weight, her career ebbs and flows. Stars.....they're just like us!
Absolutely dull.
I dont read celeb bios for the dirt on fleeting sexual encounters--not that there is much of that here--or the name dropping.
I read them to find out what it was like to work on a hit TV show for a decade. What it was like to be a child with a highly lucrative and intense job and what it is like now that those days are in the rearview.
This vapid volume glosses over those details, and instead gives a seemingly endless litany of Bertinelli's poundage and pant size at every major...more
I dont read celeb bios for the dirt on fleeting sexual encounters--not that there is much of that here--or the name dropping.
I read them to find out what it was like to work on a hit TV show for a decade. What it was like to be a child with a highly lucrative and intense job and what it is like now that those days are in the rearview.
This vapid volume glosses over those details, and instead gives a seemingly endless litany of Bertinelli's poundage and pant size at every major...more
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I enjoyed reading Valerie Bertinelli's frank depictions of her childhood and adult life as she chroniciles the beginning of her stardom up to the few years after her divorce from Eddie Van Halen. I was surprised at some of the things she chose to reveal, but maybe that's what she felt she needed to do (cleansing). I know I was wanting more of the experiences she was having - the gamut of emotions at the start of her Jenny Craig program. The book title attests to gaining her life back one pound a...more
Proof, were it needed, that I will read just about anything. And in the world of celebrity autobiographies, will not only read anything but will enjoy it as well!
I have always loved Valerie Bertinelli,(I never missed an episode of "One Day at a Time")and she comes across in her book pretty much the way she always has on TV. Written with real warmth and honesty (tons about her difficult marriage to Eddie Van Halen and really written from a place of kindness), I found her struggles with compulsive...more
I have always loved Valerie Bertinelli,(I never missed an episode of "One Day at a Time")and she comes across in her book pretty much the way she always has on TV. Written with real warmth and honesty (tons about her difficult marriage to Eddie Van Halen and really written from a place of kindness), I found her struggles with compulsive...more
I wanted to like this book, I really did. I always was a fan of Valerie Bertinelli so I was sure I would like her book. Honestly it is one of the worst books I have ever read.
It reads like a high school diary. Bertinelli spends most of the book name dropping and blaming everyone she can for her feelings and her overeating. Her experience with the Jenny Craig program is saved for the very end and is incredibly vague. She went on the program and with seemingly no big hurdles or stumbling blocks l...more
It reads like a high school diary. Bertinelli spends most of the book name dropping and blaming everyone she can for her feelings and her overeating. Her experience with the Jenny Craig program is saved for the very end and is incredibly vague. She went on the program and with seemingly no big hurdles or stumbling blocks l...more
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I've been watching the new sitcom "Hot in Cleveland" that Bertinelli is in, and thoroughly enjoying it, so when I needed a new audiobook for the car, and saw this on the shelf, I grabbed it.
It was quite interesting, and she is very open about her life and where she feels she has come to by the age she is at when she wrote it. Having her as the reader made it much more authentic as well.
She talks about getting into acting and how the opportunities that came her way shaped her as did the strong p...more
It was quite interesting, and she is very open about her life and where she feels she has come to by the age she is at when she wrote it. Having her as the reader made it much more authentic as well.
She talks about getting into acting and how the opportunities that came her way shaped her as did the strong p...more
LOVED. THIS. BOOK. I went to her booksigning and waited on line for 2 hours- it was that good. I read it in two days. It's just so down-to-earth and honest. She comes off as a real person and very likable. She tells it all- nothing vague.
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This was a really great book. Chapters are named after Van Halen songs which was pretty funny since it pretty much titled what Valerie was going through at that point in time. She is really down to earth and funny.
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Being the same age as VB and growing up with One Day at a Time, it was fun to read similarities as a child and teenager; growing up in LA, being an Elton John fan, etc... but after awhile I found her to be kind of self-absorbed -- and I realize this is an autobiography, but I was hoping for somebody other than "the Hollywood type" and I was disappointed that even Valerie Bertinelli is "a Hollywood type". That being said, it was interesting reading about her marriage to Eddie Van Halen - sad, but...more
I don't know why I was surprised that a book about weight loss would be so much about weight, but my overall impression after reading this book was that it would have been a much better book if the weight loss part was left out. It seemed to be a standard celebrity biography with "at this point, I weighed 132" and "now I wasn't working out at all and gained 15 pounds" thrown in at the appropriate time. Yeah, we've all gained and lost weight, worked out and fallen off the wagon, but hopefully tha...more
I read this book for the same reason I read US Weekly and Star magazine.
I am a voyeur into the lives of the rich and famous, especially those frequenting the Oprah show. If she finds it worthy to read, I likely read it too.
I mean, who doesn't want to know what its like to be married to Eddie Van Halen or how it feels when you are approached to be the Jenny Craig spokeswoman?
Needless to say, this didn't blow my socks off in terms of the writing. But it was nice, run of the mill celebrity memoir....more
I am a voyeur into the lives of the rich and famous, especially those frequenting the Oprah show. If she finds it worthy to read, I likely read it too.
I mean, who doesn't want to know what its like to be married to Eddie Van Halen or how it feels when you are approached to be the Jenny Craig spokeswoman?
Needless to say, this didn't blow my socks off in terms of the writing. But it was nice, run of the mill celebrity memoir....more
I actually didn't get very far before I quit reading. I wanted to learn about her weight loss journey, but instead found this book to be a tell-all about her sexual partners. Bummer.
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Okay, I love Valerie Bertinelli on One Day at a Time, and when she married Eddie VanHalen I kind of scratched my head and thought , "WHAT???" I confess that I don't really worry too much about celebrity weight loss, I really wanted to read her book to know more about her life after sitcoms. She weaves all that together with her rocker husband's lifestyle and in the end finds out she over-eats like the rest of us.
I did like the book, I just wasn't gushing about it when it was finished. Congratul...more
I did like the book, I just wasn't gushing about it when it was finished. Congratul...more
I really really enjoyed this book. I respect her courage and determination to sacrifice her happiness for her son and even though the two of them did a horrible job at working on their marriage, they did one thing right by raising their son well. Her ability to take hold of her weight issues over all those years is an inspiration for all women who have struggled with their weight like I have. My husband who is a HUGE Eddie fan will not read this book because he does not want to hear about how ho...more
This book went fast. I was a big fan of "One Day at A Time" when I was a kid so it was really interesting to hear the behind the scenes scoop on Valerie's life as an actress on the show. Wow! Things were a lot different than I had imagined. I was also a Van Halen fan and so to get to hear what their lives were like was like getting to be a fly on the wall at something I'd always wondered about. She is so cool and honest and not full of herself. You can't help but like her and respect her after r...more
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| Loved This Book!!! | 1 | 34 | Apr 29, 2008 05:42pm |
Valerie Anne Bertinelli is an American film and television actress best known for her role as Bonnie Franklin's smart, nice, and lovable daughter, Barbara Jean Cooper, on the long-running television series One Day at a Time.
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“When you're busy blocking out difficult emotions and feelings, you're not going to feel the good stuff, either. ”
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Aug 03, 2008 02:31pm