Make Your Cake and Eat It Too
How the Freshman 15 made me reevaluate my relationship with my body
By Lila Price, Contributing Writer
TW: Body image and eating issues
Growing up, I barely thought about my weight or appearance, simply because I was staying consistently fit. I planned workouts and moved my body in a fun and engaging way through sports. What mattered to me most was performing like an athlete and feeling strong and capable. My mom taught my siblings and me that whole foods are always better than processed ones, but at the end of the day, she really didn’t care what we ate. Besides taking the dogs on a hike every morning, my mom did not do any “real” exercise. With my mom as the blueprint, fitness, health and diet became a very organic and intuitive part of my life. Everything was always about balance and how you felt—never how it made you look.
This relatively thoughtless relationship with my body and food changed when I came to college. On a rare occasion that I weighed myself, I noticed I gained about 15 pounds over the course of last semester. My pants stopped fitting, my body looked different, and I began comparing myself to my size 2 girlfriends who I went out with on weekends. I started to hyper-fixate on what I was eating and asked myself if I was working out enough. These questions made me feel miserable and created an obsession with what I really looked like.
As I scrolled the internet searching things like, “how to lose the freshman 15,” I realized I was not alone in this experience–thousands of girls relating to the same circumstances and how it made them feel. According to WebMD, one in four freshmen gain about 5% of their body weight the first semester of college. This weight gain is a result of the major life change that comes with going to college, from changing eating habits to sleep and social routines.. We shouldn’t be mad at ourselves for looking a little bit different when adjusting to college.
At the end of the day, we cannot be happy with ourselves when we restrict ourselves from everything that brings us joy and experiences. A study done by the University of Zurich found that the ability to experience pleasure is just as important to our happiness as the ability to exhibit self-control which explains that it is important for everyone to have balance in their lives. It is completely normal for our weight to fluctuate.
As I adjust to my new physique, I realize I have not changed as much as I thought— I still have the same mind, enjoy the same things and laugh the same way My body is simply what holds all of it together. Now, when I see myself in the mirror, I try not to point out every flaw. Instead, I read books and go on walks and eat yummy food. Why would I feel guilty about doing something that makes me feel good?
We don’t always need to love our bodies. All over social media, women preach that everyone should be in love with how they look and flaunt their bodies for themselves and the world to see. While this is great for women who feel this way, this gold standard for many women and young girls can be an exhausting goal to strive towards. Hoping to feel confident and overjoyed in the way we look 24/7 is not realistic for most people, especially college freshmen. Instead, we should think less about the way our bodies appear and more about how they help us live the rest of our lives, whether that’s walking to class each day or running a marathon.
Sources:
Escalante, A. (2020, September 14). You need both self-control and self-indulgence to be happy. Forbes.
Warner, J. (2009, July 28). Freshman 15: College weight gain is real. WebMD.