Top 5 Ways to Boost Body Image in Recovery

Poor body image is a driving factor of nearly all eating disorders. Unfortunately, body image concerns can come from a number of sources, including social media, popular culture, and the words and actions of friends, family, and even strangers.

Since this harmful viewpoint is often so deeply embedded, developing a positive body image can be one of the hardest parts of eating disorder recovery. Changing your attitude and overall perspective toward your body and appearance will be a major focus of therapy, but there are additional tips to help foster a healthy body image during and after recovery.

Focus on What Your Body Can Do

Body image is often deeply ingrained, with some studies showing children as young as three years old having internalized stereotypes about body shape and size, and children as young as five expressing concerns about their own bodies.¹

These ideas are usually based on comparisons. When you constantly judge your body against someone else’s, it can be easy to see what they lack or feel like you’re falling short of some ideal. This is especially true when comparing yourself to models or influencers whose images have likely been filtered or digitally enhanced, making the beauty standards they set unrealistic.

Instead of thinking about what your body isn’t, think about all it is, what it can do, and all it allows you to experience and enjoy life. Your legs can take you on walks or runs and allow you to hike or dance. Your arms can be used to carry, create things, and hug loved ones. Your core helps keep you upright through it all.

Your body helps give you strength, movement, and purpose. This way of thinking helps shift a negative body image, which focuses on lack, toward a positive body image, which focuses on gratitude and abundance.

Ban the “Fat Talk”

In many social circles, body image issues have been normalized, with diet, appearance, and food becoming major topics of conversation. Another way to improve body image is to ban “fat talk” in your home, social circles, and workplace.

“Fat talk” can mean a lot of things, such as:

• Comparing body size or physical appearance to others
• Complaining about “feeling fat”
• Talking about a current diet or the need to go on one
• Saying you “shouldn’t” eat certain foods because they’re “so bad” 

Banning “fat talk” also means a lot of things, including changing the subject if the topic comes up or walking away from those types of conversations.

Let friends and family know you’d prefer not to discuss these topics and ask them to refrain from making those types of comments around you. If you’re having trouble, you can work with your therapist or another member of your treatment team for help. Aside from improving body image, setting this personal boundary can be empowering and boost self-esteem, allowing you to practice self-care and self-respect.

Practice Body Gratitude

Body gratitude involves learning to appreciate everything your body can do for you and all the ways it supports you. With body gratitude, you take those observations further by actively acknowledging and thanking your body for them.

The practice can involve thanking your legs and core for carrying you safely down the stairs, or thanking your arms for carrying your shoulder bag into the office. It can even be thanking your eyes for seeing, your lungs for breathing, and your heart for beating. Once you start noticing the things to be grateful for, you’ll often start seeing them everywhere.

If you’re having trouble getting started, you can begin by using positive affirmations. For example, you can repeat simple phrases to yourself, such as, “You are worthy of love, just as you are.” Telling yourself these words every day will help you believe them. Saying them out loud while looking at yourself in the mirror makes the experience even more powerful.

Practicing gratitude isn’t just an important tool for promoting positive body image. Studies have shown that the practice is connected to overall well-being, a greater sense of satisfaction, and even a reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms.²

Use Art and Creative Expression

Art therapy can be another powerful tool for building body positivity.

What this modality does best is step around the need to explain yourself verbally. When you have body image issues, you will often fall back on the same defense mechanisms and unhealthy coping strategies when speaking with a therapist, which can make verbal therapy a slow process.³

Shifting into the “right brain,” or the more creative side of thinking, allows you to process your emotions more directly and tap into other forms of self-expression, which can help you see and think about yourself differently. When guided by an expert, these shifts in perspective can help you adopt a more positive outlook and greater body satisfaction.³

Even without a mental health professional present, drawing, acting, singing, dancing, sculpting, or other creative expression can be helpful if you’re feeling sad or upset.

Find Other Sources of Self-Worth

One of the saddest aspects of body dissatisfaction is that people often conflate their outward appearance with their self-worth. Unfortunately, this view is promoted, whether consciously or not, in many places, particularly in popular culture and on social media pages dedicated to diet, wellness, or fitness.

Your body shape, weight, and size have nothing to do with your worth as a human. Instead, think of your interests, hobbies, work—the things you love to do and the ways you show up in the world. This is where your true inner beauty shines, and it’s much brighter than anything on the outside.

It can be hard to see this, understand it, or truly believe it, especially at first and especially after years of dealing with damaged body image. But time, persistence, and the right kind of care can help you broaden your definition of self-worth and learn to see how deserving and beautiful you truly are.

Creating a solid foundation of self-love is one of the best ways to stay on the road to recovery.