Chaz Bono on Weight Loss: 'I Really Like What I See in the Mirror'

"I just have a lot more confidence, and that feels really cool," the former DWTS" contestant tells PEOPLE

Photo: Courtesy CBS Television Distribution

Chaz Bono is a changed man.

The LGBT activist showed off a much different side at Tuesday night’s Dancing with the Stars‘s 300th anniversary celebration, compared to when he competed on the show in 2011.

“I’m feeling really good,” the once-timid son of Cher told PEOPLE at the Boulevard 3-held event in Hollywood. “I’d love to do Dancing all over again. I’d do it much better now than I did it then.”

Bono, 44, owes much of his new positive outlook to his 65-lb. weight loss journey, which began in November.

“Physically, my body feels just so much better,” he said. “I’m in a lot less discomfort when I exercise and am doing physical stuff. All of my numbers are all normal now, which is great – my blood pressure, my cholesterol. I just have a lot more confidence, and that feels really cool. I really like what I see in the mirror.”

Although he says the weight loss is “slowing down now and getting harder,” he also says, “To me, it was never really about a number. It was just about getting healthy and feeling and looking better. So I’m just kind of letting my body dictate. I’ve been eating the same way now for months and months and that hasn’t changed. I’m going to have to eat this way for the rest of my life.”

In February, Bono told PEOPLE that the plan is challenging because there are still things he misses eating. Now, he says those are feelings of the past.

“[I have no cravings] at all anymore,” he says. “I really feel very satisfied and comfortable with the way I eat now, which is amazing and for me, kind of a miracle. I never thought I’d be that kind of a person.”

Since splitting from fiancée, Jennifer Elia, at the end of 2011 and losing weight, Bono is looking for love.

“I’m dating, but I’m just dating around,” he says. “I haven’t met the right one yet, so I’m looking.”