When you hear “respect your body” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Before you continue on reading, here are a couple of key points about body respect and intuitive eating:
- If you are dissatisfied with your body this is going to hinder any progress you try to make with your relationship with food
- You don’t have to love your body to respect it
- Shift focus to body appreciation and respect
- It’s hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and critical about your body size of shape
Okay, so now what? Here are 5 ways you can show your body respect:
- Caring for Your Body: Taking care of your body’s needs with nourishment, rest, and selfcare.
- Gratitude: Noticing and being grateful for all that your body can do. This amplifies the positives about your body.
- Positive Regard: Holding yourself in a positive regard – which is not based on your body or appearance, rather it’s your humanity, values, and character strengths.
- Acceptance: Doesn’t mean that you like or love your body. It’s like accepting your shoe size or the weather – it just is.
- Protecting Self/Rejecting Diet Culture Ideals: Avoiding the narrowly defined cultural ideals as the only definition of beauty. This rejection protects your relationship with your body.
But why “body respect”, why not “body love”?
Respecting your body means treating it with dignity, while holding the intention of meeting its basic needs and you don’t have to love your body to respect it!
Think of respecting your body in two ways:
- Making it comfortable
- Being responsive to basic needs
We also like to use this analogy:
How do you take care of your pet? Or how would you take care of your pet? You would feed them, walk them, and be kind to them right? So all the belly scratches and treats!
You deserve that same care and respect.
I also want you to write down these important reminders and come back to them:
- My body deserves to be fed
- My body deserves to be treated with dignity
- My body deserves to be dressed comfortably and in a style I like
- My body deserves to be touched affectionately with my consent and with respect
- My body deserves to move comfortably, to the extent it is possible
Some other ways to reinforce body respect are to:
- Get rid of body assessment tools:
This can be your scale or holding on to a smaller piece of clothing and trying it on daily.
- Quit the body checking game:
Health doesn’t have a look.
- Stop body bashing:
Build a positive relationship with your body.
- Respect body diversity:
There is not one size fits all, body diversity is a real thing.
Remember that your relationship with your body is the longest relationship you will ever be in. The tools of Intuitive Eating are internal cues, not outside forces telling you what, when, and how much to eat.
If you enjoyed this blog post make sure you check out our post “Intuitive Eating Principle #7: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness” here!
Want to learn more about intuitive eating?
Click here to check out all the current Find Food Freedom® happenings! Click here to join our monthly Find Food Freedom® membership program!
