Valerie Bertinelli Wants to Get Back into That Tiny Green Bikini for Summer

Valerie Bertinelli

Jesse Grant/WireImage; Stephen Danelian

Three years after she first donned the itsy-bitsy green bikini on a cover of PEOPLE, Valerie Bertinelliis ready to break it out again.

“The green bikini is in my drawer just waiting for me to put it back on,” the Hot in Cleveland star, 52, said at Thursday’s American Heart Association’s Wall Street Run & Heart Walk in New York. “When these 5 lbs. come off, then I will put that back on.”

“It’s like the 5 lbs. that creeps on and then you have to take it back off, creeps on and take it back off,” she said, “and I think that a lot of people go through that before the summer.”

“They want to get a little bit more off because they know they have to put a bathing suit on,” Bertintelli continued, “but what inspires me to take it off, it’s that bikini!”

And the swimsuit is giving her more than just a little motivation to have her body in tip-top shape for the season.

The Jenny Craig ambassador says, “It’s calling my name! It’s saying, ‘Valerie, it’s time.’ ”