Students manage healthy diet, exercise to look good for spring break
After quitting gymnastics and losing what she called "that perfect athlete body," Kaylee Wood told herself she needed to stop eating to make herself thinner.
That was two weeks before spring break, which the Macomb sophomore said she believed to be the perfect time to stop eating.
She began to go five days at a time without eating and after noticing her quick weight loss, she kept starving herself after spring break ended. She soon began to purge the few meals she did eat.
It was the beginning of what would be the biggest challenges of her life: fighting bulimia and anorexia.
"I stopped when I started realizing how skinny I was and how unhealthy I was and started to realize that I needed to change my ways," Wood said. "I would mentally tell myself I didn't want to eat anything because I was fine."
Wood said she’s noticed it’s common for students take unhealthy routes in attempts to lose weight before spring break and summer.
“When they think they don't have the perfect spring break bodies, they stop eating. I’ve seen multiple ways, from binge workouts to not eating,” she said. “It’s sad. I wish it wasn’t like that, but it is. Accepting yourself is more important than accepting what others think of you.”
When people start thinking about what to wear in warmer weather, they begin caring more about how their bodies will look with less clothing, said human environmental studies faculty Michelle Estradé.
This is normal to an extent, but media and advertising exploits this to sell their products, whether it's pills, a fad diet or a magazine with tips on how to achieve the perfect body.
"We're told what we should look like, and more importantly what we should want to look like, in order to create a desire or perceived need for those products," Estradé said. "The problem is companies will tell us anything in order to make money, and that plays a big role in why we have such elusive ideals about body image."
Body image is culturally-defined and driven by the media and product advertising, she said. Each culture has a different standard for the "perfect body" and what fits that standard may not necessarily be a healthy body.
"I really wish people would stop obsessing over 'am I ideal?' and start focusing on 'am I healthy?' Being healthy isn't something we should just want to do when we're going to put on a bathing suit," Estradé said. "Good health is so much more valuable than that, and it takes longer to achieve than a week or two of intense exercise and restrictive dieting."
Illinois sophomore Reed Kolany said students attempting to lose weight right before spring break or summer seems useless because they keep their routine after break.
“If I keep a healthy mindsets all year round, I have no reason to change my habits for spring break,” Kolany said. “I try to think about the future and how my decisions now will affect the future. A healthy body is a healthy mind.”
Kolany schedules times to work out each week and tries to watch what he eats in the residence hall cafeterias.
He works out around four times a week, including riding his bike about 20 to 30 miles at a time.
“I also go to the local YMCA when I don't ride my bike. When I work over break, I choose to ride my bike to work instead of driving,” Kolany said.
Virginia junior Sarah Shalewitz tries to eat healthy, but she often finds she doesn't have the time or money to eat healthily. She sometimes ends up eating fast food or Ramen noodles. She said it’s hard to eat healthy while attending college, but she tries.
Shalewitz said she hasn’t felt any pressure to get fit before spring or summer break. Instead, she sets goals on how to get healthier, like running a faster mile or lifting a certain amount.
“Even if it’s as simple as playing a pickup game of basketball without needing a break, set a physical goal,” she said. “Focus on healthy and the weight loss will come if that’s what you’re aiming for. You’ll feel better and you won’t be watching the scale because you’ll be boasting about your new mile time.”
Estradé advises students to set positive goals rather than restrictive ones. A healthy goal for sustainable weight loss is about a pound per week.
Instead of saying "no more sugary drinks", students should say "I'm going to drink water more often," she said.
"As soon as you say something is off limits or that you're cutting it out completely, that's what you want it the most," Estradé said. "My advice is be reasonable. Please just pause for a moment and think logically."
She said there are two questions students should ask themselves when considering dieting: is it adequate in terms of the calories and nutrients my body needs, and is it sustainable.
If the diet doesn't seem like it's one that they can stick with, students have to ask themselves what will happen once the diet is over, she said.
"If it's not a sustainable way of living, then you're likely to end up going back to your old habits and gaining weight back," Estradé said. "It's what we call yo-yo dieting or weight cycling, and it's not good for your physical or mental health."
