What is the Body Matters Project?

It is a Hokie Wellness program that promotes a positive body image and overall physical and emotional wellness at Virginia Tech. It is for EVERYONE on campus. Body Matters Week is March 25-30!

Why does this matter?

Negative self-image and negative emotions towards oneself effect everyone. Let's break down the statistics from the National Association of Anorexia-Nervosa and Associated Disorders so that we can see how big of a problem this is.

- Eating disorders affect EVERYONE

- Every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a result of an eating disorder

- In a study following active duty military personnel over time, 5.5% of women and 4% of men had an eating disorder at the beginning of the study, and within just a few years of continued service, 3.3% more women and 2.6% more men developed an eating disorder

- In a large national study of college students, 3.5% sexual minority women and 2.1% of sexual minority men reported having an eating disorder.

-This is provided by the Cook Counseling Website. It is estimated that one in 20 college-age women have an eating disorder. Both disorders have serious medical consequences.

My story

When I came to Tech, I knew that I had a problem. I would wake up every morning knowing that I hated the way that I looked. In high school, I got sick and gained a lot of weight. From the outside, no one knew what I was going through. I started restricted what I ate. I began to research everything that I possibly could about food and I started only focusing on the number on the scale.

That was the most important thing in my life. If I could control the number on the scale, I could control how other people saw me. I started restricting my water intake because that would affect that scale. I wore a sweatshirt and soccer pants every single day in order to cover up everything that I hated about myself. I used to be a leader. People looked up to me. People loved me. Yet, it did not matter because the scale did not love me.

Everybody said that I looked very athletic and healthy, but, after watching my mom cry and cry because she knew that I could not even look myself in the mirror anymore, I decided that I needed to step up and get help.

I went to the HEART program at Virginia Tech. This is a program, which is completely covered by your tuition, that allows you to have the help of a nutritionist, personal trainer, nurse, and also a counselor at Cook Counseling. I was in the program for my entire freshman year and I can honestly say that I have never felt better. The people that worked with me became my family when I was too scared to look my parents in the face and tell them what was going on. Even the people that were closest to me still do not really understand what I went through during all this time. They became the people that were also there for me.

As a result of this support, I did get better. I started to be able to look myself in the face. I stopped focusing on the scale and I do not even step on it anymore. I realized that, if other people did not like how I looked, then they could just leave me alone. I lost weight and starting building muscle.

I'm not going to lie and say that everything magically got better, but I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw that I could go out with my friends and still maintain my weight. I saw that I did not want to die because I would miss out on so much of my life.

I would miss my loved ones and I would never be able to find my inner strength.

This is why this cause is so important. You never really know who is struggling. You never know the true impact of your words towards other people. Everyone should be able to at least look themselves in the mirror and find one trait that they love about themselves.