Spring Break Diet Propaganda
You’re all familiar with the term “spring break bod.” You’ve heard your friends, the girls walking behind you on campus, the girls sitting next to you in starbucks, the girls in your sorority, the girls in your chem lecture, they are all talking about getting in shape for spring break. Maybe you’ve even caught yourself in one of these conversations recently? Okay, so you want to get healthy, get in shape, get fit, but what does that mean? What is the “spring break bod?”
Here’s the basic get fit list: lose weight, lift your butt, slim your waist, tone your abs, trim your thighs. But that’s all right? It can’t be that hard. Everyone is doing it.
Let’s get real, the spring break diet propaganda is harmful. It can manifest itself as a minor blow to someone’s confidence, the start of a dangerous weight loss binge, or as a trigger for someone who has struggled with an eating disorder in the past, or is still fighting that battle.
But this is college, eating disorders are so 2014, right? Wrong.
Eating Disorders are often thought of as a “high school issue,” but in a study entitled Eating Disorders On The College Campus, research from the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) suggests that 5.9% of teenagers enter into their freshmen year of college with untreated eating disorders. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) the average age of onset for eating disorders typically begins after high school. With the onset age for anorexia being 19, bulimia at 20, and binge eating at 25, the pressure to lose weight appears to only get worse during college.
So maybe you aren’t at risk for an eating disorder, that doesn’t mean it is safe for you to dive headfirst into a diet, a daily workout plan, calorie counting, measuring, weighing, measuring, weighing, negative self talk, more weighing, more measuring. Basic things like jogging regularly or food monitoring can go from routine fitness maintenance to compulsive, harmful habits very quickly if you are not in the right state of mind to begin with at the start of your fitness journey.
The journey of pursuing a physically healthier version of yourself can be a slippery slope, that can go from healthy change to dangerously obsessive very easily. Major calorie restrictions combined with obsessive workout regimens are not safe, and will ultimately cause more harm than positive change. Improper training and dieting can easily lead to depression, lack of motivation, and increased exhaustion. This will not only make it even harder to obtain your fitness goals, it will affect your school work, your social life, and your mental health.
A successful fitness journey is not something you can cram into 2 weeks, or even a month. I’m not saying you can’t see improvement in this time, I’m saying a truly successful fitness journey is one that produces healthy, long term habits which then produce results. When starting a fitness journey your goals should focus on a day to day routine of wins and losses, with one long term goal. You should not give yourself deadlines like “I need to lose 10 pounds in 3 weeks” “I need to drop 3 sizes this month” “I’m going to buy an XS bikini and I need to fit into it by the end of the month.” Those goals are not only going to prove to be ineffective in long term motivation, they will only cause you feelings of stress, guilt, and disappointment. Instead, your long term goal should be to produce the HEALTHIEST version of yourself. You should only focus on improving from your previous workout or your previous meal. ONLY map your progress in a positive light, you may have done 15 less crunches today but yesterday you ran .5 miles more than the first time you got on the treadmill. You may have given into a cookie and a starbucks drink this afternoon but this morning you ate a healthy breakfast before you went to class.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself. If you feel motivated to change your unhealthy eating habits and begin working out regularly, more power to you! The first thing to remember when working towards any physical goal is that your mental health needs to come first. Be patient with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Keep yourself motivated to continue improving but never push yourself to go farther than you can handle. The second thing to remember is that your ultimate motivation should be enacting a positive change for YOURSELF for the LONG TERM, not for a spring break trip, for a crush, or to compete with your friends for the best body. An extremely important thing to understand is that the cure for a negative body image is not to lose weight. It relies on your self perception, which exists only in your mind and in your heart.
If you are 100% set on working on your physical self image, and you have taken the proper steps to begin your fitness journey in a positive state of mind, here are some tips on how to workout and eat in a healthy, and non-compulsive way.
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Start everyday by making a cup of hot honey and lemon water, make it the first thing you put in your body. End your night the same way. This can assist in improving digestion, boosting your metabolism.
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Small dietary changes are key. Any massive change to your diet can potentially send your body into shock, which can ultimately lead to your body putting on more weight as a sort of survival/coping mechanism.
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Before you try to force yourself into just eating less of everything, start by just cutting out candy, junk foods and sugary drinks like soda. Keep the rest of your diet consistent and notice that these small changes will make a big difference.
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Avoid snacks like crackers, popcorn, and pretzels. Your body can’t pull any nutritional value from these kinds of foods.
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Begin to add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins to your meals to substitute the things you are taking out.
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Understand that the trick is not to eat less calories, the trick is to be consuming calories that provide some form of nutritional value to your body. These kinds of foods are processed much easier and more effectively. While you may be taking in more calories eating a plate of asparagus and chicken than if you just ate a bowl of popcorn, your body can pull nutrients out of these foods and put them to work, while non nutritional foods just sit there.
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When you begin your workouts, make sure to start at a comfortable base level and then build up from there over time. You should not start off your workout week running, doing abs, and lifting weights all on your first day.
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Alternate your workouts to target different areas of your body. Running 2 miles everyday is not going to give you quicker results, plan out your workout days based on different parts of your body that you’re aiming to improve. If you do a killer cardio workout one day, work on muscle tone the next day to give your body a chance to recover from the previous workout.
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Drink water. Every Time you finish off your water bottle fill it back up and do it again. Water is a key component in maintaining your energy for basic daily activities like walking to class and working on homework. If you begin increasing your physical activity and making dietary changes your body will need water even more to help your body compensate for these changes. Drinking water will benefit your energy levels, help you avoid super sore muscles, keep your skin clear and moisturized from all the sweat you’re losing, I could honestly go on forever. Drink water.
No matter what your goals are for the long term, for this semester, or for spring break. Whether they are fitness based or not. Please stay safe, stay aware, listen to your body, and be gentle on yourself. Remember that no matter how much weight loss propaganda you come in contact with, you don’t need to lose weight to be valued and loved, or have a great time at the beach.
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