The jury is still out for me regarding Valerie Bertinelli’s weight loss transformation. With her bikini photo from the cover of People Magazine buzzing all around the internet, you’d have to be totally disconnected not to hear Valerie’s transformation. Having undergone a very similar transformation myself, I struggle with whether or not her message is a good one.

On the one hand, she has discussed a final fitness push for her Jenny Craig bikini add. I applaud this effort and her support of traditional good old workouts with plenty of push-ups, sit-ups, etc. But, on the other hand, she is just one big Photoshop-enhanced billboard for Jenny Craig. I’m not saying that she does not look great, but she is just helping to perpetuate the myth that you can make yourself perfect.

I read an article by Sal Marinello of HealthandFitnessAdvice.com on the subject. He writes:

Rather than empower women, this story is another way to make them slaves to the diet industry and the proponents of the weight-centric, appearance-centric approach to health and fitness. Rather than be healthy and happy with what they can do, women are given yet another message that they should care about the scale and their appearance rather than their health.

I could not agree more. In fact, I wrote an article a while back on this very subject. Women should focus on what they can do and not what they look like. Focus on strength gained, flexibility improved, stamina increased, instead of whether or not they can fit size 2 jeans.

I am sure that Valerie has good intentions, but I liked her better when she was accepting her cellulite and muffin top and focusing on just being happy.

Popularity: 15% [?]