When:Monday February 27, 2012 – Friday March 2, 2012 from 10:30am – 1:00pm
What: Love Your Body Week
Where: Haley Concourse
Why: I’ll be the first to admit it – sometimes, I do not love my body. I compare myself to others (hello, beautiful celebrities in your Oscar gowns), I complain about my weight, and I criticize parts of my body that are fine just the way they are. Sometimes, I need someone to shake me and say “You are gorgeous and fabulous, stop this nonsense!” And that, my friends, is exactly what Auburn Campus Recreation, Magnolia Creek Treatment Center, and Earth Fare are partnering together to do this week. Each day this week has a specific theme that is trying to open our eyes to how wonderful our bodies are and how we should treat them!
This week is also about raising awareness for eating disorders. As collegiettes, we really need to be aware of how we are treating our bodies. Here are a few statistics from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders:
· 91%of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always”.
· 25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and purging as a weight-management technique.
· In a survey of 185 female students on a college campus, 58% felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83% that dieted for weight loss, 44% were a normal weight.
· The body type portrayed in advertising as the “ideal” is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.
Some, if not all of these statistics, made me cringe! Ladies, we need to love our bodies and feel beautiful in our own skin! So, here are the featured events for this week that we can attend to help us start developing a better body image:
Mirrorless Monday:Monday is all about challenging yourself to not look in a mirror for an entire day! Don’t base your happiness and view of yourself on the reflection in the mirror – focus on how you feel inside and let yourself go a day without putting on makeup or fixing every strand of hair perfectly. There will be handouts and stickers on the Concourse.
Trust Your Body Tuesday:Tuesday is all about learning how to eat normally and healthfully, with free giveaways from Earth Fare! On Tuesday at 6:30pm in Room 2216 in the Student Center, Peach Dumars, the author of “Diary of an Exercise Addict” and National Eating Disorders Association spokesperson, will be speaking and the first eight participants will receive a free copy of “Diary of an Exercise Addict”!
No Weigh Wednesday:We’ve all seen the Special K commercial with the scale that you step on that shows “Fabulous!” “Gorgeous!” “Sassy!” instead of a number, right? Well, this positive affirmation scale will be on the Haley Concourse on Wednesday so we can each step up and receive a compliment!
Treat Yourself Thursday:Everyone knows the number one rule of eating healthy is letting yourself indulge every once in a while (personally, this is a medium popcorn with salt at the movie theater!) Thursday, treat yourself to a piece of cake, a Starbucks pastry, or TiVo a fancy meal from Food Network and take the time to make it!
Fat Talk Free Friday:We all do this, and we all need to make an effort to stop! On Friday, make an effort to center your conversations around something other than weight, food, or your quest for the perfect Spring Break body. If you do chance to talk about your body, think positive! Tell your friends about how great you look in your new jeans, about how your legs carried you through your ten mile run the night before, anything that reminds you of all the wonderful things your body allows you to do!
Collegiettes, I’m serious about this! Take this week to remind yourself that you are one foxy mama (I just love that term), that your body is a temple, and that you need to treat yourself with the love and respect that you deserve! Take this Love Your Body week and turn it into your Love Your Body LIFE!
Statistics Used From:
http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/