It wasn't necessarily in regards to a healthy diet and exercise. What was implied is, if you don't respect yourself in terms of trying to live a healthy lifestyle (I.E. Educating yourself, maintaining personal hygiene, being an overall nice person etc.) then why should others respect you? Of course no one will be perfect in every aspect, just as some people will not be regarded with respect in every aspect. However, the effort is apparent and that is what others will respect.

I do respect myself. It’s just that for me, self-respect isn’t tied up in my health. For me, the things that come first in my life are being good to my family, being smart, working hard and succeeding in my career, standing up for what I think is right. How I look? Whether I get enough exercise? Whether I eat the right foods? These things are not important to me, and have no bearing on whether I respect myself. I value myself for reasons that, frankly, I think are far more worthwhile. My health is important insofar as I need it to do the other things I want to do, but it is a means to achieving the things that are important, not something that in and of itself is important to me. I would hope that people would value and respect me based on everything about me, and not just based on one arbitrary thing: my health.

Honestly, if a person is so single-minded that all they care about is whether I’m healthy, and they’re willing and able to disregard all of the other great things about me because they don’t feel I’ve made sufficient investment in my health, that’s a pretty shallow individual and I’m quite happy not to have their respect.