During the week of Feb. 22 to Feb. 28, Ole Miss Sports Nutrition and Panhellenic will be working together to promote National Eating Disorders Awareness week. This year, NEDA (National Eating Disorder Association) is focusing on early intervention and recognizing signs of people affected by disordered eating in order to increase the likelihood of full recovery. NEDA's theme is "I Had No Idea." For example, "I had no idea my quest for health was making me sick" or "I had no idea bullying or comments about a person's weight or look can trigger disordered eating." Students should be aware that the little things they say to each other (or themselves) can affect their body image. For this reason, we have chosen Ole Miss' theme for this week to be "love everyBODY."
A few events will occur this week that, hopefully, Greek members will participate in.
Monday, Feb. 23. Confidential screenings @ Grill 1810 from 11 a..m. to 1p.m.
Sorority night @ 5 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 24. Student Dietetic Association is putting up an info booth outside of the Union and will have a beautiful post-it project where people write positive things on post-its and put on a giant board.
Wednesday, Feb. 25. Confidential screenings @ Grill 1810 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Sorority night @ 5 p.m.
Love Your Body Yoga at Campus Rec from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (facing away from the mirrors).
Friday, Feb. 27. Confidential screenings @ Grill 1810 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Various services will be offered to help educate chapters. Student groups can have:
Discounted presentations about wellness and healthy eating on campus given by a Registered Dietitian (RD).
An RD will provide a free education session to officers and leaders of the chapter to provide them with information on recognizing and preventing eating disorders.
Assistance in setting up free screenings for members.
Ole Miss Sports Nutrition and Panhellenic would love to help any chapter with any event or project they set up to promote health, body image, and prevention of eating disorders.
Sororities and fraternities are encouraged to help us raise awareness and positive body talk within their chapters and the campus as a whole. We should put up sheets in our houses to express positive things about sisters or Greek life, in general.
We can encourage this by:
Banning "fat talk" in the house for the week.
Using hashtags like #PiPhiLovesEveryBODY.
Leaving notes for sisters on mirrors or walls of the sorority house saying things like "you are beautiful."
Doing special things for your big or little.
Having sisterhood events to promote positive body image or overall health and wellness, instead of dieting.
Doing nice things for other sororities or fraternities.
NEDA's colors are green and blue so the Ole Miss Sports Nutritionists and Panhellenic encourage us to use these colors to light houses!
If you are concerned for your own health, or a friend’s health, check out http://mybodyscreening.org for a free and confidential eating disorder screening. Those that take the test, and are concerned about the results, can receive a list of resources, including the UM Nutrition Clinic, Counseling Center, NEDA website, and more.
(source: Hillary Ake, RD)
