When Others Judge Your Body

Healing your negative body image is an important part of your journey towards WholeBody Trust™. And, contrary to popular belief, this piece doesn’t have to wait until the last leg of your journey. This is a common misconception by many.

“I’ve made peace with food, now I have to work on my body image.” is something I hear often. And, to be totally honest, that’s what I initially thought as well. But as I myself dove into learning how to heal my own body image and learned how to guide others, it became more apparent that healing your relationship with food and your body go hand-in-hand.

Your negative body image didn’t happen overnight. And while I’m not going to go into detail here about how to heal your body image, I will say that there are a lot of facets to how your body image developed (more on this in my Body Image Healing Course, free to you when you join Intuitive Eating Mastery Circle).

Let me tell you about Amanda (name changed to protect the privacy of my client). Amanda came to me for help after many decades of yo-yo dieting. She was fed up with losing and gaining weight, ultimately ending up weighing more than when she started her dieting career. She knew dieting wasn’t the answer, but she was still afraid to give it up.

Amanda took a leap of faith and we began working on intuitive eating, a self-care framework for eating and nourishing the body that includes 10 principles. As we worked through my 5 step process and the intuitive eating principles, one theme kept coming up – her negative body image.

Amanda spend so much time over the years hating on her body, that she was having a difficult time accepting that she may not lose weight. She worked hard on really appreciating and respecting her body for all it does for her daily to keep her alive, and this helped her tremendously. But there was one thing that was still a big issue, and this was her perception that others are judging her for being in a larger body.

Can you relate to this? You are starting to feel okay with where your body has landed on this journey, but you still worry what others will think of you?

Truth be told, we don’t know if others are thinking or saying anything about your body. We cannot control other people’s thoughts but what we CAN control are our own, and how we care for our body.

Amanda worked hard on taking the best care of her body as she could, and that included nourishing it regularly, engaging in gentle movement and exercises that felt good in her body, getting enough sleep each night and managing her stress levels. She bought some new stylish clothes that fit comfortably and she started getting out more with friends, laughing, and living her life without a focus on her body.

And you know what she found?

Amanda realized that she has so many blessings in her life with good health, wonderful family and amazing friends. She no longer wanted to waste hours upon hours worrying if others were judging her body. Once she made this commitment to herself, her confidence started to increase, and she no longer cared what others might think or say about her body.

We live in a culture where we are surrounded daily with messages that we need to shrink our bodies and while I hope that this will change in the very near future, the fact remains that we need to be okay with who we are no matter what others think.

Now, this might mean taking some steps to change your habits and behaviors and that’s okay! You deserve to take the time and make the investment in yourself so you can live your best healthy life.

And as far as other people judging you/your body? As you work towards healing your negative body image and cultivating a positive body image using self compassion and mindfulness strategies (among others), you will come to feel better in your body and love all of yourself without regard to anyone else. And, this will show as you carry yourself through the world.

If I can support you in any way to come to this place of peace with food and your body, please reach out to me here or email me at Bonnie@DietFreeRadiantMe.com. It’s my mission in life to help women (and men) such as you!