Transitioning to college can take its toll on nearly everyone involved. It's different, and different is scary. You're thrusted into an environment where you have to share a small 11' by 18' room with a stranger for 9 months. Community bathrooms are sparingly found on every floor, and wearing shoes to take a shower becomes the norm. Your parents have to say goodbye to their little baby as they start their next step in life. Your siblings lose a best friend to bicker about your parent with, and your best friends lose their sibling-from-another-word-to-describe-a-caregiver-that-rhymes-with-sibling to bicker about your sisters with. There's so many new experiences to discover, fearful adventures yet to be explored, however there's one thing that I continually find incoming students the most afraid of: the Freshman 15.
"Top Ten Tips To Avoid The Freshman 15"
"How To Prevent Weight Gain In College"
"Best Ways To Stay Fit In College"
Article titles like these seem to plague our social media feeds during the summer months. Rather seeing articles on packing tips and blogs on how entering college is scary but fun, we are surrounded by the fear of something that is arbitrary, something that is a number and shouldn't be anything else.
The Freshman 15 is infamous amongst High School Seniors and Incoming College Freshmen, but unfortunately, many people outside of these groups are knowledgeable on the subject. I was 11 years old when I first heard the words "freshman 15" uttered. My older sister, who was then 15 years old, was reading an article in Seventeen Magazine and I thought it was about entering college at the tender age of 15. Perfect for my sister to be reading about it! When I questioned my sister on if she knew anyone smart enough to do the freshman 15, a friend replied with "smart people know how to avoid it."
That sunk with me, after learning what it meant. I know her friend didn't mean it as a weight phobic thing looking back, but for someone to so easily say "smart people know how to avoid weight gain"... That hits hard on the society we live in. It's essentially saying weight gain is bad. It's wrong and dirty and that only those who are thin are intelligent. Yes, I am looking at this topic with a stronger lens than others, but I am looking at this through a lens that saw weight gain, weight loss, and body image galore whilst trying to balance a life and an eating disorder (and guess what: you can't live with an eating disorder).
I don't know why so much value has been placed on a number, or why a person feels as though their worth is dependent on the digits that appear on the scale. Of course, there is a fine line between healthy and unhealthy, but the fact that women and men alike are fearful of gaining .2 pounds, is disappointing (but not surprising) to know. I've been there, I am not judging those who have felt that way, but I am judging the weight loss commercials and calorie count included menus that basically tell average size people they could afford to lose a few pounds. Obesity is an epidemic, but so are eating disorders.
Often, eating disorders can become full blown between the ages of 18 and 21 - the age group college students fall in. Some studies say that 40%, an astonishing 40%, of college females, have eating disorders to some degree. 91% of females are on a diet in college, to combat stress, a lack of control and insecurity, but also the belief that they're unattractive. Believe it or not, restrictive eating disorders are not caused by the media's attention on dieting and size, but they are often triggered and perpetuated by the emphasis. The freshman 15 is just another one of these things.
The myth that you're going to gain fifteen pounds in your first year of college does become a reality for some, but a lot of things happen to some people that don't happen to all. Some people get straight A's, others don't know what to major in. A few people may find themselves sick every other weekend, whereas a group of students seem invincible to the plague. I know people who are attached to the hip of their mom and plan to call every week, and I know people who aren't and can't wait to get out of the house. Although some of this is good, and some bad, college is a train where you start off at one stop and land yourself in one miles away. A train that doesn't stop. A train that is stressful, and in moments of stress, you need to take care of your body.
I want to tell you that you will be okay. If you gain weight, what is wrong with that? You're 15 pounds heavier? Oh well, my cats are 15 pounds heavier than when they were kittens, and they're still amazing. People won't find you attractive? Screw those people who determine your beauty based on a number. You're afraid of letting yourself go? Honestly, you need the food to keep your mind agile in college. Brain food, although often considered things like fish and nuts, can truly be any type of food, because you need all nutrients to keep your body, the thing your brain controls, well and healthy. Of all the stressful things to come with the new step in life, don't let the fear of weight gain be the thing that brings you down the most. Throw out the scale, eat the food you need, and listen to your body. Time spent calorie counting, can be spent studying and living your life, and personally the former doesn't sound quite as fun. Live for yourself, not to maintain a weight you "feel" good at.
To those who worry about weight gain: Do you know what you can also gain when you... Well, gain? You can gain happiness, freedom from the slave that diet culture has made you, power to choose what you want to eat. When you gain weight, especially after years of fearing that very thing, you gain a sense of higher self-worth and respect for yourself: you gain the right to be in charge. You gain yourself.
For those still left unsure: one of the quickest ways to lose weight, is to get rid of the weight your size insecurity bares on you.
