How to Start Healing Your Body Image and Feel Better Around Food

Heal your body image and relationship with food

Your relationship with your body has been moulded over time by messages from family, culture, media, life transitions, and your own inner beliefs. Whether you realise it or not, these influences can affect not only how you feel about your body but also how you eat, how you care for yourself, and how you show up in the world.

That’s why understanding your body image story is such a powerful step toward food freedom.

The Impact of Body Image Dissatisfaction

Body image concerns aren’t limited to one age group or body size. They are widespread and experienced across all life stages.

📊 What the research shows:

  • Over 34% of UK adults report feeling anxious because of their body image, and 35% report feeling depressed.

  • Alarmingly, 13% have experienced suicidal thoughts related to body dissatisfaction (Mental Health Foundation, 2019).

  • Around 70% of adolescent girls say they are unhappy with their body.

  • Up to 91% of women across age groups report dissatisfaction with their body size or shape.

  • A 2025 University of Alabama study found that exposure to idealised body images on social media significantly increases anxiety, depression, and disordered eating in women of all ages.

💬 And it’s not just younger people. As women reach perimenopause and beyond, many describe feeling invisible or judged for their aging body, adding another layer of emotional strain.

If any of this feels familiar, know that you’re not alone and there is a way forward.

First Begin to Identify What Has Influenced Your Body Image

Understanding how your body image developed will help you make sense of unhelpful, deeply help beliefs. Take some time to reflect or journal on the following influences:

🧠 Cultural Messages

  • What messages did you absorb from childhood TV, magazines, or social media?

  • How were larger bodies portrayed vs. thinner ones?

  • Who was celebrated for their appearance and who was mocked or criticised?

🏠 Family & Social Environment

  • What did your parents or caregivers say about weight, food, or appearance?

  • Did you feel pressure to look a certain way from peers, partners, or authority figures?

  • Were you ever teased, praised, or criticised based on your body?

📈 Physical & Life Transitions

  • How did puberty, pregnancy, menopause, or illness impact how you felt about your body?

  • Have these transitions changed how you relate to food or movement?

💬 Inner Beliefs

  • Were you a perfectionist? Did you fear rejection or seek approval?

  • Did your self-worth feel tied to appearance or achievement?

Moving Forward

To transform your relationship with food, it’s essential to look beneath the surface and question the long-held body beliefs that may be driving your eating behaviours, self-doubt, and low sense of worth.

Healing doesn’t mean loving every part of your body, all the time. It means recognising the impact of harmful messages, rewriting your inner narrative, and choosing a kinder, more accepting way forward.

Want to Go Deeper?

This is something I explore in much more detail in my best-selling book: The Binge Freedom Method which lays out the exact framework I use with clients to address the root causes of their food and body challenges .

If you’re looking for a place to start your journey to a balanced , mindful relationship with food, download my Free Breaking the Cycle Starter Kit. This is  your gateway to transforming your eating patterns and building a mindful, balanced, and joyful relationship with food and includes practical tools and insights to help you begin today.




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Physical Hunger vs. Head Hunger: What’s the Difference?

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How Mindful Eating Can Transform Your Relationship with Food