Losing It - and Gaining My Life Back, One Pound at a Time

By: Valerie Bertinelli

Narrated by: Valerie Bertinelli

Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Losing It is Valerie Bertinelli's frank, motivational look inside the life of one of TV's most adored actresses. It tells the inspiring story of her young stardom as the girl next door - cutie Barbara Cooper on the hit show One Day at a Time - her complicated family life, her struggles to maintain a healthy self-esteem while coping with celebrity, her tumultuous 20-year marriage to rock star Eddie Van Halen, her struggle with depression, and her life-long battle with weight. With courage and candor, humor and emotion, she shares her fears, insecurities, and triumphs, including how she took control of her own life and gained happiness.

Valerie takes listeners behind the scenes in her acting career and marriage. She discusses the stresses and concerns of being a rock star's wife and the joys of motherhood; the challenges of divorce and becoming a single parent; and the fears she had to address so that she could start dating again, trust a new relationship, allow intimacy, and let herself feel loved again. Through it all are surprising, sometimes shocking anecdotes about the other celebrities she has known, as well as stories of her loyal family and the friends who stood by her.

©2008 Tuxedo Ltd. (P)2008 Simon and Schuster Inc.

Interesting Story; Easy Listening

Enjoyed learning about Valerie’s story. Her narration is pleasant to hear. It would be nice to be entertained without the inference of one’s political stance. It ruins the vibe. The purpose of being entertained is to escape the nonsense.

Valarie

If you could sum up Losing It - and Gaining My Life Back, One Pound at a Time in three words, what would they be?

Her Determination

What did you like best about this story?

Learning More about Valarie

Which character – as performed by Valerie Bertinelli – was your favorite?

One Day at a time
No clue what her name was I was to busy looking at her JEANS

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no you get in and out if the story easily.

Any additional comments?

I have been adoring Valorie forever,She always appeared to be such a real person and after listening to this book she is.Again she is taken, she though not ever talking with her I will never meet the love of my life I am sure,I thinkMy understanding of her challenges now,getting to understand her a little better I give her tremendous credit for her accomplishments and determination thru all your struggles.GOOD LUCK

Engaging

Losing It, mainly deals with Valerie's struggles with her weight and negative self perceptions.

There are other personal aspects such as her relationship with Eddie and her sitcom life.

Valerie gives a great read of her book; really drawing you in with a warm and friendly voice. By the time I had finished listening, I felt as though I was hearing a friend speak about her life.

It goes by quick and even quicker if you're drawn in, like I was.

The only fault I have is that this is abridged.So, I'll be borrowing the book from the library to see what I missed.

loved it

I truly loved listening to her story and struggle with weight loss. good for her!!!

Really inspirational

This a really great and interesting book. Love that Valerie read it herself. I enjoyed it very much.

A GREAT memoir!

As someone that wanted to read Valerie Bertinelli’s book to you know...learn more about her...I don’t understand the review that read the whole book and hated it? Did you think you’d be getting something different? I LOVED IT! I love that it was HER story but I felt it was so relatable with relationship struggles, personal reflection, and triumph to face emotions rather than stuffing them-whether with for or drugs (in Ed’s case)! Absolutely adored this book! Thanks for sharing parts of your life with us Valerie!

A very heartfelt read

I LOVED this book. Once I started it, I couldn't stop !
I can relate on so many levels with a lot of Valerie's issues. I always had something that would take the joy out of my life, whether it be a person or situation. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, I decided that everything was going to be different. I love hard and pray harder now. I am so much more appreciative of things and I find joy in the small things.
I love that Valerie was able to form a friendship with Ed. That was so wonderful for her and Wolfe, and especially the way it helped her to heal !!!
I am off to read her next book now !!

1st of 3!

I downloaded all 3 of Valerie’s book and this one has me drawn in from the first word spoken! Loved that she dug deep into insecurities that I can definitely relate to! Loved this book!

Interesting listen but abridged

Valerie’s self deprecating humor, as well as her ability to call herself out for the behaviors towards Ed and others, which her insecurities had driven, was impressive. It speaks to the with she’s put into improving herself and understanding the root of those insecurities. As someone who’s done it, and thereby lost 40 pounds, I can say it’s no easy feat.

Maybe celebrities get used to their lives on display but still, I can only imagine the strength it must have taken Valerie to call herself out and be so honest in a book. Money is incentive but it takes more than a lucrative book contract to be thus transparent about her weight struggles. Well done, Valerie.

Some reviewers mentioned disappointment because they felt the book was not mainly about Valerie’s weight loss. I disagree. I thought that the book did a great job tracking Valerie’s life long weight struggles, highlighting periods in her life where her eating demons were apparent. It walked you through Valerie’s mindset and journey to get to honesty with herself about her weight. The book was well written and delivered the message Valerie intended.

Why I deducted a star:
At the end, it was mentioned that the book was an ABRIDGED version of the audiobook version, which was a let down. I had thought that by purchasing the audiobook, I was buying a the complete book, versus the cliffs notes. Oh, well.

The girl next door

Great autobiography, insights into being an actress and wife of a rock star, and about how weight often reflects inner issues. I disagree with the negative reviews that a) thought this wasn't about weight loss or b) had nothing to say. I would have liked more about her journey with Jenny Craig, but overall it was helpful to hear about sorting it out. Her narration was great and unflinching and added to the sense that even if she was the wife of Eddie Van Halen, the nice girl next door charm that she perfected on "One Day at Time" is really true. The only downside is that this abridged and some of the details are lost.