“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”
― Amy Bloom

I spent the last few months asking women from different walks of life to describe their relationships with food and their bodies and to talk about how they look after themselves. Here are some of the responses below.

I personally define body positivity as simply loving and embracing all parts of ourself that we are both proud of or have learn to accept. It is a term that is often defined by societal depictions of ideal body types, but I think it more about our personal reflections of our physical selves. I don’t think it is about being extreme and highlighting bigger or smaller women who love their body regardless of their clothing size. I think it is more about being confident in your skin and being human by accepting your flaws because it makes you who you truly are. I’ve learned to embrace my acne scars, uneven skin tone, and stretch marks because it is all part of me. I also love my long hair, brown skin, and big eyes, which balances the negatives.

I think balance is key to healthy body and it is what makes us radiate beauty from within. To improve my physical well-being, I practice Vinyasa yoga and go running as well. I also try to eat clean and green as a vegetarian. It is about being disciplined by feeding your body goodness 70% of the week and then treating yourself with cocktails, chips, or dessert the other 20-30% of the time. I’m pretty obsessed with peanut butter. One of my favourites treats to make is a smoothie or ice-cream of frozen bananas, peanut butter, and almond milk topped with cacao nibs. It is pretty easy and oh so delicious!

I believe both our bodies and mind create our sense of identity, but that projection should be rooted in being self-aware and owning every bit of ourselves. It is all about balancing our daily lives in order to be truly happy and healthy- Upahar Rana, Co founder of the Half Hippy Life

Body Positivity to me is when you are no longer in a fight with your body but finally on the same side. It’s exhausting hating your body, just like it’s exhausting hating a person. Body positivity is when you are no longer anxious to change, trick, or manipulate your body into looking or behaving a certain way, but rather can finally embrace it for being the rockstar it is. I mean it’s keeping you alive.. What an awesome friend! It truly takes such a load off your shoulders to no longer be frenemies with the vessel that’s carrying you around and just love it for what it is- cellulite, hair, curves and all.

I have really chubby cheeks and was always made fun of my entire life, referred to as a chipmunk. I grew up hating my cheeks and tried every contour trick in the book to make them disappear (mostly resulting in awkward brown lines across my face.) But now finally I’ve embraced the cheeks. They make my face look healthy and youthful.. Plus I can always get into a movie with a child’s ticket. ;)- Sahara Rose, author, nutritionist and founder of Eat Feel Fresh

It’s simple- think of your body in a positive light- minus criticism, disapproval or insults. This is much easier said than done, but the best way to start is to keep your own thoughts and attitude towards your body in check. Not to be confused with a desire to work on your body and be more healthy or fit, body positivity means being at peace and loving every inch of your body, the way it is today, right now- along with understanding the importance of keeping yourself both mentally and physically fit.

I have struggled to love and accept myself the way I am, and this is still an ongoing process. My work includes creating well fitted and comfortable active wear for women of all sizes and encouraging them to feel good about themselves, and this in turn has made me more accepting of my own body, with all its imperfections. Its important to pamper oneself, and one of the ways I do that is by indulging in deliciously scented bath products and oils. No matter how busy my schedule is for the rest of the day, these small luxuries in my daily shower ritual make me feel an extra bit sparkly and happy. A few post shower Yoga stretches make me feel rejuvenated and geared up to focus on the day ahead. My favourite bath gels and creams are scented with cocoa and shea butter, jasmine and mogra, fresh citrus and lime-Shivani Nirula, founder of Eska Yoga Wear

Body positivity for me is about loving yourself, your physical & mental self, of accepting your body and your thoughts both happy thoughts & not so happy ones. We have to be careful about what we eat, what we wear, how we work out, but cannot ignore our most crucial organ, our mind. In a world that is so volatile, we are often enveloped with feelings of anxiety, fear, loneliness, anger…. Accepting those feelings and convincing yourself that you are going to rise above those and be truly happy with yourself is a crucial way of being nice to yourself and your body. I believe you owe yourself to be kind to your body. If you are happy with yourself from within, your body will radiate that happiness to no bounds.

I was born to a Jewish mother and a Hindu father, being genetically blessed, I have a beautiful curvaceous and voluptuous body, and I am proud of every inch of it. I have followed a good health regimen for the past 20 years, I start my day with a bowl of fruit, followed by at least 4-5 light meals every day, I am mainly vegetarian, when I do eat meat its either poultry or sea food, I strictly do not consume tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco & drugs. To relax my mind in the evenings, I spend an hour by myself either reading, listening to music or going for a long walk, it helps cleanse my mind. I drink water in abundance, it helps my skin stay supple and my hair grow better. Before I go to bed, I spend a few minutes cleansing my face & neck with a good cleanser, and lather my body with a good lotion, I recently splurged on Bath & Body Works while on holiday for my body care. I was introduced to the mystical world of yoga two years ago, since then I practice yoga 3-4 times a week, I believe for curvaceous women, yoga works best, it keeps your curves intact and helps tone your body naturally. On weekends, I allow my body to be pampered with a leisurely massage, and to relax my mind I spend time with my plants at home. I love to travel, it is no surprise that I spend most of money on holidays, I treat myself to at least two big holidays in a year, mainly to the West, luckily the weather in Western Continents allows growth of lusciously juicy fresh produce. Experiencing local cultures and food is immensely pleasurable to me.

I believe what I find beautiful in myself is my ability to love. When I welcome an individual in my life, I love them as my own, I love fiercely, no inhibitions, no qualms and no boundaries. I don’t believe in loving with measures or being cautious with it, you either love with all your heart or don’t love at all. I believe you have to grow each day, to learn, to achieve, to love, to make yourself happy- Sonia Deshmukh, Luxury Marketeer & Consultant

Body positivity is something that took me a while to cultivate in myself and I am proud of the fact that having worked towards it, I’m in a better place in my life. Body positivity, to me, comes from a healthy body and a healthier mind. Growing up as a chubby child, I was always very conscious of how I looked. I would dress in baggy clothes to cover up the curvy bits and stay at home to avoid being looked at.

A few years later, I was introduced to the concept of working out. I would run for hours on the treadmill in the hope that I would become thin. Even though I was moving in a new direction, it wasn’t the right one. I had gone from one extreme to another. It was not until, years later, when I was introduced to the concept of yoga, did I rearrange my priorities. I realised that being thin wasn’t the goal (especially now that my knees had given up on me thanks to the hours spent running on an empty stomach). The waif like body of a model wasn’t something I wanted to aim for anymore. Yoga taught me the meaning of being fit, mentally and physically. I learnt to accept my pear shaped body and I learnt to focus on making myself healthy from inside. Weight loss was no longer a concern for me. It was all about feeding well and working out to achieve a higher fitness level. Additionally, I learnt to control my mind and to spend my newly found energy on loving myself.

Even though I’m not a 100 percent there, I am a lot less self critical. I know I’m not perfect and nor do I aim to be. I love myself for who I am and I want to spend the rest of my life focusing on being the happiest version of myself- Urvashi Kumar, Founder of The Right Shade of Red

In today’s day and age we are constantly bombarded by what the ideal female body should look like and I believe that women have the ability to empower each other. By supporting each other through the body positivity movement we can enforce the idea of these flawless airbrushed bikini bodies isn’t real. Our ideal, collectively, should now be to eat clean and keep our bodies healthy and happy!

I start my day with hot water, lemon and honey. My body works hard for me so to treat it right once in a while I do a juice cleanse and practice ashtanga yoga. A monthly spa day and dancing for hours on end to favourite music keeps my body and mind rejuvenated and active.

A unique feature of my body is the peppering of freckles on my feet. Other people might want to cover them up but I take pride in their constellation like patterns- Tara Grewal, Marketing and PR Head for Kings XI Punjab

Body positivity for me has a lot to do with one’s mind. It doesn’t have to do as much with how well one fits into the stereotypical notion of looking good, being a certain size or following a certain fitness routine. Feeling positive can be attributed largely to one feeling centered, experiencing mental calmness, having a high self esteem/ confidence and being your truest self. I say this because I personally remember feeling my peak in these areas when I was my ‘fattest’ self a few years back. So for me the mental implications of your being are the biggest deciding factors of one experiencing their highest body positivity. The recipe to attain these is different for everyone, and changes at different stages in life.

l behave and carry myself in the truest form of myself, and unapologetically. I find this to be a huge source of one’s mental peace and satisfaction. The farther away your truest self is from the way you behave, the higher the dissonance and stress levels within you. So be it fat, thin, attractive, fit, un-fit, happy, sad – being yourself is the first answer to experiencing any kind of positivity. Accept the skin you are in and love yourself, girls- Misha Kohli, Co Founder of Learnosophy

What you eventually feel is just a reflection of what you feed- to your mind, body and soul.

As part of being positive to my mind, I feed it nourishing thoughts. We have the most conversation with ourselves through the day, and it’s easy to be harsh. It’s really important, no matter what, to take care your inner chatter. Meditation really helps me with this. If I can’t meditate on a specific day, it’s become second nature to focus on the present moment, and thus block out any negative chatter that could arise. I’ve noticed once you’re tuned into the wonder of any given moment, it’s hard to have anything but gratitude in your heart.

Being body positive to my physical self is possibly the easiest part. A food regime that’s based on my longer term health and fitness goals, along with Iyengar yoga, and some circuit training and tennis keep me feeling physically fit.
Also, a part of each day is spent on a construction site. My hands bear the biggest brunt from this, so this summer I indulged myself and bought a beautiful hand scrub and moisturises from Aesop’s in London. My hands thank me every moment I wear this amazing moisturiser. I also use soothing body scrubs with coconut and lotions with Shea butter to keep my skin healthy and nourished- Diksha Kaur, Co Founder Infinity Homes

I think we can all relate to not feeling so positive about our bodies at some point in our lives. And if we know what not to do, we can focus on the things that we should be doing instead. With a glass of wine in hand, I was excited to write something inspiring about how I love my body, despite its flaws. But then I glanced over at the mirror and got distracted by the bridge in my nose, my dark circles, my bunny teeth, and you get it, the list goes on. In those moments, I didn’t feel alone. We’re all experts at finding our flaws. Let’s accept that. Let’s accept that we can find our flaws faster than we can write something inspiring about not finding our flaws.

I know I’m supposed to say that I love my imperfections as much as I love my, well, perfections, but the reality is that I’m not perfect at accepting my imperfections (that got confusing really fast). I’m not as body positive as I’d like to be. And I think the first step in becoming body positive is realizing that you’re not there yet. With that, I’m going to pretend that I’m looking through my husband’s eyes (still call him my boyfriend and can’t believe we got married already), who apparently claims that he doesn’t even see my nose bridge or dark circles or bunny teeth (even in the mornings without ANY makeup). I think we’re all blessed to have at least one such person in our lives who doesn’t see the flaws that we see in ourselves. So the next time you’re in front of a mirror, try looking at yourself through their eyes (actually just try squinting your eyes) – it helps with accepting your flaws. Now there’s a start- Richa Pandey, Go Pro

“If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies how different our ideals of beauty would be”We put way too much pressure on ourselves to subscribe to societal notions on what is beautiful. This is all unnecessary, if you ask me. Tall, short, petite, voluptuous – we are all unique and beautiful. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Love yourself, make mistakes, be silly, be thankful, be honest and stay happy!

Treat your body with respect, nurture it, feed it good food and allow it to rest and recuperate so it can serve you well for a long time to come- Anuradha Mathur, founder of The Travelling Words