Content adapted from Principle 7 and 8 of Intuitive Eating: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness and Respect Your Body. The information presented here is a summary from chapters 12 and 13 of Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
Part of respecting your body is accepting your genetic blueprint. Learn to be realistic about your body size and shape. And remember that bodies change with age. Body acceptance doesn’t mean consuming only junk food or becoming a couch potato. It’s important to fuel your body with foods that nourish you and pay attention to your hunger and fulness cues to eat the amount of food your body needs. It’s also important to move in ways that make your body feel good, for physical and mental health.
Studies have shown that the more you focus on your body, the worse you feel about yourself. Doing the things that a person would do who felt deserving is a way to actually feel deserving. Stop putting aspects of your life on hold until your body reaches your ideal. You don’t have to like every part of your body to respect it. Respecting your body is a critical turning point in becoming an intuitive eater.
How to Respect Your Body
Think of respecting your body in two ways: first, by making it comfortable, and second, by being responsive to its basic needs.
Consider these basic premises of body respect:
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
My body deserves to move comfortably
Respecting your body may include buying clothes that fit. Discard the lie that you don’t deserve new clothes until you lose weight. Buying clothes that fit now will help you feel comfortable and appreciate your here-and-now body more. Respecting your body means quitting the body check game. Stop comparing yourself to other people when you enter a room. Comparing bodies leads to more disconnected eating and more body dissatisfaction. All bodies of varying size deserve dignity and respect.
By incorporating these two intuitive eating principles you can work towards healing your relationship with food and yourself. The dietitians at Medical Weight Loss can help you on that journey. Please reach out if you’d like to schedule an appointment with either of us.
Cara Schwab (Munson) RDN, IBCLC
