Do you ever hear, “I’m so bad for eating this,” “I’ll have to run this off,” or “I haven’t eaten all day since I was bad this weekend." I know personally, I hear comments like this all the time from the women around me. I hear constant updates on diet plans, exercise regimens, and how eating pizza Thursday night constitutes starvation all weekend. I also know what I hear from others depicts an unhealthy relationship with food and the body.
In college, there is a slightly competitive atmosphere with most things students do. This includes diet, exercise, and treats. To begin, hearing roommates and classmates brag about how little they eat, or how hungry they are, creates a slight pressure to also feel that way. For example, if Beth says she hasn’t eaten anything but salad today, and you had beef and noodles, you feel bad about your choice, even though it made your body and mind feel good. The pressure to eat a certain way and maintain a certain look should not cloud students' minds on top of school and social pressure. However, competitive dieting absolutely exists, especially with women.
Personally, I don’t skip meals because it makes me feel horrible and drained, but when you hear someone say that they are skipping lunch because they’re so busy it creates the feeling of “oh I should be so committed to schoolwork that I forget to eat, or skip meals.” It’s almost as if slightly neglecting yourself is cool, that eating the bare minimum is what it takes to do well in school or maintain a certain look. Of course, exercise adds another caveat to the equation.
Many students commit to working out every single day. However, that takes a great deal of time and dedication, and a certain schedule is not conducive to that lifestyle. Also hearing “I need to workout,” “I feel myself getting fat,” and “I wish I were as skinny as ________,” all gets to be really overwhelming. Hearing negative body talk and constant poor affirmations about the body nags at your personal image and if you didn’t notice a problem before, constantly hearing about how bad someone else feels about themself will most definitely translate onto your body.
Treats are a whole different story. I feel like college women don’t know the word moderation or that it’s okay to eat treats and enjoy foods that aren’t necessarily good for your body. Having milkshake will not ruin a healthy day, or spoil a healthy diet. In college, there is a serious stigma to eating a certain way and having treats sometimes. No one will last on a radical diet, nor should anyone try to, because it will only worsen an already unhealthy relationship with food.
So maybe next time you hear one of your friends use self-deprecating language, call them on it. No one needs to feel bad about eating a brownie or not working out for a week. The pressure to have the perfect body or be the picture of health is not real, often times we just make it up in our heads, and I think it’s high time to stop.
