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Respecting our Bodies

Writer's picture: Amber WhittemoreAmber Whittemore

The problem is NOT your body.


The problem is our culture!



The culture that from the beginning teaches us to dislike and change our bodies, and continues to reinforce this notion in just about every environment we step foot in.

It can feel impossible to overcome body-dissatisfaction when our whole culture is continuing to add fuel to the fire. But, we know that as long as we are at war with our bodies, it can be nearly impossible to make peace with ourselves and food.

So, where do we start?

We can begin to embrace body respect by starting to prioritize our overall health and well-being from a holistic perspective, instead of by simply using weight as the gold standard to assess our health. When we can take the spotlight off weight loss, we can instead focus it on other (arguably, more important) aspects of our health: movement, balanced eating, hydration, mental health, stress management, energy levels, etc…!

YES - we can take care of our health and NOT using weight loss as a guide. By doing so, we can start to respect the body we are IN by taking care of it and not reserving our body respect for when we _________ (lose 10 pounds, drop a pant size, etc…)


The basic premises of respecting our body include recognizing our bodies deserve to be fed, treated with dignity, and move comfortably. In order to embody these tenants of body respect, here are 10 common patterns we can STOP today👇


  1. Frequent weigh-ins

  2. Body-checking

  3. Restricting before or after a night/meal out

  4. Crash dieting or exercising for “big events”

  5. Bashing our bodies

  6. Comparing our bodies to someone else

  7. Dismissing that body diversity is a normal thing

  8. Setting unrealistic body standards for self

  9. Withholding from doing nice things or pampering our bodies as they are

  10. Buying clothes that are not comfortable on our bodies as they are

When we can stop the above, are start respecting our bodies through tending to our health in more holistic and balanced ways, we are on the right track to healing our relationship with body image!


What ways are YOU respecting your body today?

Resource: Tribole, E. & Resch, E. (2020). Intuitive Eating, 4th edition. St. Martins Publishing Group.

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