We read about health in magazines and newspapers, we see diabetes advertisements, we watch shows like “the big loser” on TV—health and fitness is everywhere. As collegiate women, it is so important for us to eat right and exercise at least every other day. Such a healthy regimen will give us energy to ace our exams, and help us look great and feel confident enough to approach that cutie at the bar. However, there is a difference between wanting to be “skinny” versus wanting to be “healthy”.
Here’s a story from a friend that I met during my first year at UNCG:
“As a freshman in college, I was extremely insecure about my weight. I would run a mile every day in under 7 minutes (if not, I would push myself harder the next day) and then I would spend another 35 or 40 minutes on the elliptical, and then 20 minutes of abs followed. One day, about a month and a half into school, I had just finished my mile in 6:52, and I headed into the weight room to work on my legs. I came off of the machine, and then fell to the floor. My right foot hurt more than anything I have ever felt, shooting pains up my calf to my knee. I tried as best as I could to walk back to my dorm. I even took my shoes off to see if it might help—it didn’t. I stayed in bed for the rest of the day, seeing as I couldn’t even stand up it hurt so badly. At around 9, I still couldn’t walk, so my roommate and my best friend carried me down the elevator and up the stairs to the road, where they put me in my friend’s car and drove me to the hospital. This was my first experience with a stress fracture (key word “first”).
“I was told to stay on crutches for the month, but of course I didn’t follow those instructions. I wanted to be skinny and their was no way I was going to get skinny sitting on my a** at home. So I continued to work out. I would swim, bike, go to classes, and about a month after my incident, I took up running again. I seemed to be fully healed.
“Little did I know, second semester would be worse for my health. I needed to fulfill a science requirement so I decided to take a nutrition class. One of our assignments was to keep a three-day log of our exercise activity and diet. We would have to enter everything we ate, and log all of our exercise. Since my feet were healed, I decided to take up long distance (well, kind of long…). I would run three miles every day, aiming for less than 27 minutes (a nine minute mile). I thought this nutrition assignment would be a perfect opportunity to get my weight and fitness back on track. But it opened the doors for an unhealthy obsession.
“I set my weight loss goal for 125 by the end of the semester, and I cut my calories down to 900 per day. That should be the first sign of an unhealthy approach, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. For these three days, my diet looked like this:
Breakfast:
A bowl of Kashi Strawberry Fields Cereal
1 cup of skim milk
1 small banana
Lunch:
1 cup of Light ‘n’ Fit yogurt
2 tbsp granola
1 cup of raw broccoli
Snack:
An apple
Dinner:
A salad and a piece of bread with soy peanut butter
OR
Tuna salad and steamed broccoli and carrots
“Not bad for three days right? Wrong. The program only allowed you to have three days of logging, so I made account, after account, after account, until I could find a program that would let me do it for as long as I wanted to. Then, I found prevention.com. It was all downhill from there. The diet and exercise log became a lifestyle. I used this diet religiously, day after day, and I went to the gym every single day. I would go to bed at ten o’clock every night so I wouldn’t overeat, and I had to eat breakfast at the same time every morning. I stopped partying with my friends because of the calories from drinking, and I avoided all dinner dates and staff parties. On the weekends, I would wake up at 9:30 and be at the gym as soon as it opened at 10. This went on for the entire semester.
“At the end of the semester, I looked sick. I had bags under my eyes, and my skin was pale. The only muscle on my body was in my legs, from running. My boyfriend and my family worried about me. My friends thought I was anorexic, and would comment on the food I ate. Being home, I couldn’t eat the same thing every day, so to make up for it, I started to run more. I would run every day, 4 or 5 miles depending on my energy levels. I started to feel guilty when I would eat or drink certain things. For example, one night I caved to a mug of cereal and a glass of orange juice (the real stuff, not the low-calorie stuff). I cried. And that is when I knew I needed to see a therapist.
“Since last summer, I have suffered from another stress fracture, two sprained ankles, and plantar fascitis in both feet. I also have since been affected by both anxiety and depression… and my feet still hurt from time to time when I run. However, I can finally live my life as a healthy individual. My anxiety is next to gone, my depression has disappeared, and my obsession is finally over. I no longer experience the need to be as skinny as the girls in magazines or on TV. I am comfortable with myself, and that is what we all need to be—comfortable in our own skin.”
According to ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders), 91% of college women have attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% diet “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, only 44% were of normal weight.
These facts support the accusation that college women are extremely and sometimes excessively concerned about their body image. If you want to lose weight, do so in a healthy way. Using techniques such as fasting, purging, taking adderall or exercising in excess is not the way to go. You need a well balanced diet and a reasonable amount of exercise.
These are the diet recommendations for women from 19-30 years old.
Grains: 6 oz
Fruits: 2 cups
Meats and Beans: 5 ½ oz
Vegetables: 2 ½ cups
Milk: 6 oz
Along with these recommendations, it is recommended that a person participate in at least 30 minutes of moderate activity. However, in some cases it might be necessary to exercise for an hour a day to prevent weight gain. For those who want to maintain their weight loss, they might need to exercise for an hour and a half each day. Exercising and eating healthfully will not only keep you in shape, but it will also reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases.
So join up at the gym! Lerner Health and Wellness Center has plenty of machines for use, a track to run on, basketball and squash courts, free weights and weight machines. You can buy a fitness pass or pay $6 per drop-in pass for classes like Pilates, Spinning, Kick and Sculpt, Boot Camp and plenty of others! There is also a nutrition service in the gym for those of you who want to start a diet regimen or simply check to make sure you’re on the right track. Their nutritionists are professional too, so they know exactly how to help you in any case!
It’s important that you worry about being fit and healthy to a certain extent, but when it becomes an obsession, it can ruin your life. So remember this the next time you decide to skip a meal or spend three hours on the treadmill (it happens). All it takes is a reasonable amount of exercise and a healthy diet (healthy does not necessarily mean restrictive), you need not go crazy, because crazy will hurt you in the long run.
Keep checking the Her Campus GWU site as well, because we will be writing some more articles about nutrition and fitness. We’ll help you choose healthy alternatives at some of the hottest lunch spots on campus, and we’ll give you some recommendations for your grocery list for the next time you hit Trader Joes or Safeway!
Sources:
http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/
http://www.mypyramid.gov/
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at GWU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.