{"id":5082,"date":"2014-01-03T12:01:39","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T17:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/?p=5082"},"modified":"2014-01-07T21:14:07","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T02:14:07","slug":"why-self-acceptance-is-the-most-delicious-dish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/2014\/01\/why-self-acceptance-is-the-most-delicious-dish.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Self-Acceptance Is the Most Delicious Dish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Self-Love<\/a><\/p>\n

Today is Day 3 of my 31 Days of Self-Love posts to celebrate Self-Love Month<\/a><\/strong> with suggestions for jump-starting your own self-love and joining The Self-Love Movement<\/strong><\/a>\u2122.<\/em><\/p>\n

When you don\u2019t accep\"Jenna<\/a>t yourself, it\u2019s hard to love yourself. Seeing yourself through the eyes of self-love helps you accept yourself as you are. Body imag is often a big factor making self-acceptance elusive. That\u2019s why I\u2019m happy to have Jenna Hollenstein<\/strong><\/a>, MS, RDN, CDN, as my guest today. She\u2019s a dietitian who doesn\u2019t believe in diets and has a Bachelors in nutrition from Penn State, a Masters in nutrition from Tufts, and is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. At her private practice, Eat to Love<\/strong><\/a>, Jenna works with clients to love themselves through listening to and accepting their bodies, practicing mindfulness, and embracing imperfection. Here are her suggestions:<\/p>\n

Nothing Tastes as Good as Self-Acceptance Feels<\/strong>
\nBy Jenna Hollenstein<\/strong><\/a>, MS, RDN, CDN<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have all heard expressions like “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels,” “You can never be too rich, too beautiful, or too thin,” and “A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.”). They serve as mantras, reminders to be vigilant when our bodies and\/or minds are yearning to be fed or filled or otherwise placated. They are admonitions that by keeping ourselves in line, we can move infinitesimally closer to some ideal. Or they instill in us the fear that we will lose control, that we must white-knuckle it to keep the body we have now and not allow ourselves to drift from that place of control.<\/p>\n

I am highly in favor of mantras and being aware of what drives hunger. Questioning whether it is physical or emotional in nature, and consciously acting rather than reacting. But these sayings reveal something darker about our relationships with food, weight, and our bodies. They reveal our struggle, our desire to conquer desire, our allegiance to self-improvement, competition, and comparison. An ongoing battle with the self, the body, and the mind.<\/p>\n

A few things that I know well:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Food tastes best when you are (moderately) hungry<\/strong>: Denying yourself food when you are hungry, or eating when you are not hungry, won\u2019t be as satisfying as feeding your body when it wants to be fed\u2026and you deserve to feel satisfied! If it\u2019s something else you are hungry for, notice that and, if possible, give that to yourself.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The morality of food and weight is a useless fabrication<\/strong>: Viewing foods as good and bad, battering yourself with shoulds (I should eat this, not that\u2026I should not be hungry now), and vilifying your body have become shared delusions with zero benefits.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It is possible to stop struggling<\/strong>: By looking at your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about food, hunger, and weight, you can begin to unravel the seemingly solid story that fuels this struggle. And you can begin to trust yourself and your body\u2019s innate knowledge.<\/p>\n

Keeping these three things in mind, it is possible to move closer to a self-acceptance that tastes better than anything out there.
\n**************<\/p>\n

Join The Self-Love Movement\u2122!<\/strong><\/a> Take the 31 Days of Self-Love Commitment<\/strong><\/a>—\u201cI commit to do my best to do something loving for myself, however big or small, for the next 31 days<\/strong>.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways<\/a><\/strong> for free at http:\/\/howdoiloveme.com<\/a><\/strong>. Read my 2013 31 Days of Self-Love Posts HERE<\/strong><\/a>. Join the Self-Love Movement\u2122<\/strong><\/a>! on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Day 3 of my 31 Days of Self-Love posts to celebrate Self-Love Month with suggestions for jump-starting your own self-love and joining The Self-Love Movement\u2122. When you don\u2019t accept yourself, it\u2019s hard to love yourself. Seeing yourself through the eyes of self-love helps you accept yourself as you are. Body imag is often…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[606,836,109,837,27],"class_list":["post-5082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-positive-mental-attitude","category-self-love-acceptance","tag-body-image","tag-jenna-hollenstein","tag-losing-weight","tag-nutrition","tag-self-love"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Self-Acceptance Is the Most Delicious Dish - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Self-Acceptance Is the Most Delicious Dish - Lessons from a Recovering Doormat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today is Day 3 of my 31 Days of Self-Love posts to celebrate Self-Love Month with suggestions for jump-starting your own self-love and joining The Self-Love Movement\u2122. 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Let Me Count the Ways, a She's appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, Howard Stern, and Good Morning America and has been quoted in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Marie Claire, and Men\u00b9s Health. After being a consummate People Pleaser who felt unworthy of getting her own needs met for many years, Daylle found a path of self-love that enabled her to build her self-esteem and reinvent herself into a dual career. She learned to get taken seriously without being overtly assertive when she became one of the first women to start an independent record label (on a dare!) and learned to play ball nicely and successfully in an industry dominated by men. To help independent musicians empower themselves, Daylle writes music business books for Billboard\/Random House, including the very popular Start & Run Your Own Record Labe and I Don't Need a Record Deal! Daylle's books have been translated into over 10 languages and are popular around the world. She speaks for colleges, organizations and corporations. Through her company, Project Self-Empowerment, Daylle creates programs and materials to help people empower themselves. One goal is to raise the money to self-publish her book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways and give it away for free in colleges and through organizations, to give thanks for all her blessings. Daylle uses her writing and speaking to help others find the kind of contentment and empowerment that she has.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/author\/dschwartz"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5082"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}