Marya Hornbacher Quotes

Mastery over the body - its impulses, its needs, its size - is paramount; to lose control is to risk beauty, and to risk beauty is to risk desirability, and to risk desirability is to risk entitlement to sexuality and love and self-esteem.

Leave the table while you still feel you could eat a little more.

I was fortunate to have had a lively, happy childhood, but somewhere along the way I convinced myself I wasn't wanted anywhere or by anyone if I wasn't thin.

I suggest Substituting Inedible Nurturance, or SIN. Don't replace overeating with virtuous work or exercise; instead, make a list of things you love, from watching TV to hanging out with favorite people.

I didn't appreciate the young woman that I was, or my young beauty, because I was so obsessed with the fact that I felt fat. It's never good to add to anybody else's suffering. It's an important topic to really get the gravity and the importance of - dealing with dignity.

Desires collide; the wish to eat bumping up against the wish to be thin, the desire to indulge conflicting with the injunction to restrain. Small wonder food makes a woman nervous.

Here's how it is: I feel guilty about every single bite of food that goes into my mouth.

Learning to love my inner and outer beauty wasn't an easy road. I still don't always love the reflection I see in the mirror, but I have learned that my outer appearance does not define me.

I was doing a children's book on self-esteem, and I really felt like I wanted to shed the shame I'd been feeling - and maybe make it easier for women my age who had probably felt bad about themselves.

Weight gain can happen at any point in time, and it is something that you are dealing with anyway, and it is OK. It is ridiculous to have this dictate your very being because I have always said that it is not the outside that defines who you are.

Why do we get so angry at ourselves when we eat foods we love? Do you think guys walk around going, 'I just ate a cheeseburger and I'm so mad at myself?'

The truth is, I just don't have the drive to be the prettiest and the thinnest. I can be happy for other people for their beauty.

I've never seen an obese person who has said, 'I am well in my mind.' Happiness stops food being a compensation.

I think the most attractive people are the confident ones, regardless of their literal appearance, so I strive for that. Basically, I think you'll always be the size your body needs to be if you only eat if you are hungry. If you never eat for any other reason, you'll be just the right size for your body.

My mother always called me an ugly weed, so I never was aware of anything until I was older. Plain girls should have someone telling them they are beautiful. Sometimes this works miracles.

It took a long while for me to know that I'm beautiful. I remember going through this phase when I was younger of wanting to pass by mirrors and not look at them. That was so ridiculous. I've learned now that beauty starts from within.

I was always okay with the fact that I was taller and bigger than everybody else growing up. My mom, my dad, and my friends always told me I was beautiful.

When girls feel bad about their looks, 60 percent avoid normal daily activities like raising their hand in class or even going to the doctor. That means that girls do not show up for life when they don't feel good enough or pretty enough. A role model can help girls see beauty as a source of confidence, not anxiety.

No one is more sensitive to the issue of overeating than the creator of Stuart Smalley.

I think about food all the time, so making peace with eating is a daily battle for me. I won't say I've completely figured it out, but I will say that right now, I win that battle more days than I lose it, and I believe that's the key.

Your relationship to food is but a reflection of your relationship to yourself, as is everything in your life.

When I opened my gym, I got rid of the scales! Stepping on a scale empowers an inanimate object - every time you get on it, you turn over the helm of your emotional well being to something that doesn't care about you.

You have to embrace your body, whether it's curvy or whatever you may be. You have to embrace who you are. Beauty comes from the inside not out.

I never looked in the mirror and felt beautiful.

As you get older, it's always a process of self-love, learning how to really do that for yourself instead of trying to find it outside yourself.