Learn to Respect Your Body With These 10 Tips
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Being an anti-diet dietitian doesn’t make me immune to bad body image days. In fact, I’d say that most people aren’t immune to those negative thoughts about their bodies. Experiencing body dissatisfaction at some point in time is almost an inevitable part of living in a society that constantly tells us our bodies are somehow wrong or imperfect.
That being said, we can work to reduce how often these thoughts pop into our minds and how well we’re able to tend to ourselves when they do creep up. One way to approach this is to foster body respect.
In this blog, I’ll share what body respect is, along with 10 tips to help you cultivate respect for your body.
What does it mean to respect your body?
Body respect might mean different things to different people. Google defines respect as, “a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements” or “due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others.”
I’d say that our bodies deserve respect regardless of their abilities or so-called achievements. When it comes to their qualities, respecting our bodies can mean learning to build a more positive relationship with the qualities we don’t always love.
I’d also say that our bodies deserve to have their feelings, wishes, and rights honored.
Body respect is not contingent on whether you lose weight or not, and it is not contingent on how your body looks. Everyone deserves to feel body respect.
And you can work towards body respect without feeling all out body positivity. Body respect is an entry point that feels more approachable for many people compared with body love.
You can play around with a definition that works for you, but I’d say that respecting your body means treating it with kindness, honoring its needs, and admiring all it does for you.
How can you show respect for your body?
Building respect for your body can take time, especially if you have a really tumultuous relationship with your body right now. So be patient with yourself.
The tips below are a great way to start cultivating respect for your body. Practicing them regularly will go a long way to stop body hatred and promote a better relationship with your body!
And please, take what works for you and leave what doesn’t. Every single tip won’t work for or resonate with every single person who reads this, and that’s okay. We’re all different. Experiment with these suggestions and continue incorporating the ones that help you.
1. Recite affirmations
Affirmations are one way we can build our self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-acceptance. It can be SO hard to look yourself in the mirror and say something positive about yourself or your body.
For some people, looking in the mirror is a form of self-degrading body checking. But how powerful would it be if you could stop body checking and instead, look in the mirror and say some nice things to yourself? Over time, it can really improve how you view yourself.
We’ve even had clients share that they repeat positive affirmations to themselves before looking in the mirror, and it really helps with their self-image when they do look in the mirror.
Here are a few affirmations to consider (and here’s a prior article with 50 affirmations for body image):
My body does not need to look like anyone else’s to be beautiful and worthy
I am capable of honoring my body’s needs
I have a mutual trust with my body (or am committed to developing it)
My body is unique and that is normal
I accept my body completely
I deserve to feel confident in my body
2. Be your body’s caretaker
Body caretaking runs parallel to body respect.
If you respect someone, you’ll probably want to take care of them and treat them well. So why can’t the same be true for our bodies?
Check in with your body and what it needs.
Are you grinding too hard and neglecting your body’s need for rest?
Maybe your body needs more food but you’re stuck in a cycle of restriction.
Maybe you could even just use a hug! Yet you disregard your need for human touch, are afraid to ask for this kind of support, or live alone and don’t socialize much. (In that case, why not give yourself a hug?)
Whatever it is that your body needs, can you start to take care of it? It may help to think about how you would take care of a child or a sick loved one.
3. Cultivate connection with your body
Oftentimes, we go about life in a state of disconnection. We are disconnected from our bodies’ needs, signals, and sensations.
However, we are our bodies’ keepers. Only we know precisely what our bodies need in a given moment. Come into that power!
Those with active eating disorders may need the support of a treatment team to meet their body’s nutritional/calorie needs. If you are struggling with an eating disorder, please visit NEDA’s website for support and resources.
After years of dieting, it may feel overwhelming. Having relied on external rules for so long can make you feel disconnected from your body and doubtful that you know what’s best for it.
However, as you get accustomed to properly feeding your body and become more connected to its cues, you can learn to honor them more and more intuitively.
This isn’t just the case with food, but also with movement, rest, and more.
4. Write a letter to your body
You know all the thoughts (positive or negative) about your body that live in your mind? Get them out onto paper!
Write a letter to your body chronicling all you’ve been through together and how you feel about it. Sometimes, seeing all the thoughts out on paper can be eye-opening.
I know it might sound cheesy, but it can be really therapeutic.
5. Move your body joyfully
If you have a history of rigid, weight loss-focused exercise, then you may view movement as a way to punish your body rather than a way to respect it. But that doesn’t have to be the case forever.
Healing your relationship with movement might mean a period of rest and/or a commitment to finding movement that you actually enjoy.
Joyful movement will look a little different for everyone. Some people may love dancing, while others may love lifting weights. The options are really endless.
Regardless of what movement you enjoy, you can show respect for your body by honoring how it’s feeling on any given day.
For example, if you’re used to cranking out miles on the spin bike just to reach the top of the leaderboard, can you stop paying attention to those numbers and go for easier rides when you're feeling low energy or fatigued to begin with?
Respecting your body means meeting it where it’s at. Movement is a great place to practice this, especially since it’s a space where people often internalize “rise and grind” or “no pain, no gain” mentalities.
6. Practice gratitude for your body
Our bodies are truly amazing. Regardless of your body’s abilities, size, shape, or features, it is really incredible. The fact that we can breathe is amazing in and of itself. (I know it may sound cheesy but bear with me!)
Each of us has a unique body unlike anyone else’s. We have the unique experience of living in our body. We will never have the same body as someone else.
I invite you to muster up whatever gratitude you can for your body. It can be the littlest thing. It doesn’t have to be gratitude for the part of your body you’re most self-conscious about right off the bat.
And this isn’t just some woo woo recommendation. Research demonstrates that gratitude has real benefits, especially on mental health. For example, a 2014 study in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that a gratitude practice reduced depressive symptoms amongst participants.
7. Feed your body adequately
What better way to show your body respect than to meet its most basic needs?
When I say feed your body adequately, I don’t just mean getting in enough calories. I also mean eating the types of foods that satisfy you, including your cultural foods.
Too many people add their cultural foods to their list of forbidden foods–foods they avoid out of fear they’ll ruin their health or cause unwanted body changes.
Here at Your Latina Nutrition, we’re constantly advocating for the value of cultural foods, not just because of their nutritional value (which they do have a lot of!) but also for the way they nourish our souls!
In fact, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans define a healthy dietary pattern as “not a rigid prescription but rather a customizable framework of core elements tailored to personal, cultural, and traditional preferences.” Cultural and personal preferences are key aspects of a “healthy dietary pattern”!
8. Wear clothes that feel good
Shoving your body into clothes that are too tight or that don’t represent you is not respectful towards your body; whereas, purchasing clothes that feel authentic to you and fit well not only shows your here-and-now body respect, it often improves your body image.
I do want to acknowledge that purchasing new clothes whenever your body changes requires a certain level of privilege. And even if you have the resources to do so, it can be draining to clear out your closet and accept that your body has changed.
Allow yourself time to process how you’re feeling, grieve if you need to, and do what you can to find clothes that feel better for you.
If you’re worried about constantly having to spend money on new clothes if your body has not settled into a comfortable weight yet, you may want to try renting clothes or shopping secondhand and selling your old clothes.
9. Be conscious of your media consumption
It’s no secret that the media is full of diet culture messaging.
We’re constantly told that our bodies are somehow wrong, flawed, too big in certain places, too small in others, and the list goes on and on. And then we’re sold on a product or service that promises to “fix” our problems and leave us feeling confident, happy, and healthy.
In reality, we may feel better initially, but oftentimes the results don’t last and we’re left feeling like a failure.
Your media consumption could also be leading you to judge your body in ways you may not think about. For example, if your feed is full of thin, able-bodied, white individuals that don’t look like you, it could definitely harm your body image.
Consciously consuming media could include reducing your time on social media and curating your feed to include more body diversity and less diet culture-related posts.
10. Set boundaries around body comments
Arguably one of the best ways to show yourself and your body respect is to set boundaries. Nedra Glover Tawwab’s book is titled Set Boundaries, Find Peace, after all.
Trust me, I’m the first to admit how hard setting boundaries is. It can be super uncomfortable and scary, especially if you are someone who “hates confrontation.” However, setting boundaries does not have to be a form of confrontation. It is a way of you advocating for your needs and promoting healthier, more satisfying relationships.
You can cultivate body respect by setting boundaries around body comments. Our families or other loved ones may greet us with a comment on how we’ve gained or lost weight or they may have nicknamed us something like “gordita”.
Respecting your body can include demanding the same from others; they can respect you and your body by keeping their comments to themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you treat your body with love and respect?
Body love may feel like a far-fetched goal for some; whereas body respect may feel more realistic. That being said, there are many ways to show your body love and/or respect.
Meeting its most basic needs by feeding it adequately, getting enough sleep, and hydrating is one way. You can also write a letter to your body expressing your feelings about it or start a gratitude practice dedicated to your body.
What does it mean to honor your body?
Put simply, honoring your body means recognizing its needs and meeting them. When you can build a connection with your body, you can understand the ins and outs of what makes it feel good, what signals hunger or fullness, how much sleep it needs, what signals stress in your body, and more.
One example is tailoring your workouts to honor where your body is at on any given day. Some days your body might want an intense workout, and other days it might want something gentle. Either is okay, and by connecting to your body you can understand and honor its needs.
Final Thoughts
Building body respect might take time in our diet culture-ridden society, but there are a bunch of ways to get started, from reciting affirmations to feeding yourself adequately to setting boundaries.
Overall, understanding your body, appreciating it, and treating it with kindness are key to having a better relationship with it. And remember, your body deserves to be treated as well as you would treat anyone else you respect!
For more support, we offer a 3-part masterclass on intuitive eating to help you improve your relationship with food, your body, and movement.
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