I'm not talking about a healthy 5-10 pounds because now you watch what you eat a little more, go to the gym or have a running partner, I'm talking about the girls who starve themselves. There is one girl in particular I go to school with who was a healthy weight in high school, but when she got to college she started losing a ton of weight, and it has gotten to the point where she looks sick. She isn't the only girl I've seen around campus who looks like she's going to break in half either. It isn't just a couple girls either, up to one third of college girls will have some sort of eating disorder while in school.
I'm not going to go off on some tangent about hollywood or the modeling industry and how they objectify women. I think generally, this is a peer or personal issue for girls. These girls are pretty, involved and have lots of friends, but for whatever reason, they are rapidly and unhealthfully losing lots of weight. Take Lindsay Lohan for example, when she seems to be healthy, working, and in a generally good place in life, her weight is normal, healthy and attractive, but when she seems to be in a bad place, like now, in the wake of her breakup and lack of work, she looks way too skinny and all-around unhealthy.
Models and Hollywood definitely have some effect, but I feel like in the college setting the causes have more to do with what's around you. On campus, you focus and follow your peers more so than a public figure, not to mention the major pressures and stresses of school itself. I personally think a girl with a little more weight on her is so much prettier than a super skinny girl, look at all these girls? What do you think? Nothing wrong with being really thin?
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I think girls should be their healthy natural weight, obviously in college even that can be hard, but by senior year i feel like most people find their right body weight, it just takes us a while to adjust.
ReplyDeleteLol I definitely gained the freshman 10...not 15 though...my freshman year. I'm super lazy when it comes to working out...but that's my fault.
ReplyDeleteFor a while when I came to college I thought I needed to lose weight to fit in, then I realized if I worked out occasionally I could eat whatever I wanted and still stay at an acceptable weight. After I began this plan, I became an all around happier person! I love chocolate cake and hate to run but its an effort I exert to be able to consume what I want! YUM!
ReplyDeleteI feel like I'm a mix of all three of you! I think the weight thing is so hard for girls. It's important to figure out that it's just about making yourself happy!
ReplyDeleteI used to be able to eat whatever I wanted, only gained like 3 lbs freshman year, decided that meant omg I need to lose like 5-10 lbs...went from a healthy 125 to 107 over the course of a year then gained it all back that summer. Now I'm still eating healthy and working out but never want to get as obsessed or as skinny as I was then. I look back at some pics and I have the body of a 13 year old and my face was kinda sunken in. So not sexy!
ReplyDeleteI do think that the unhealthy body type originates in the media. People have to get the idea that being super skinny is ideal from somewhere! However, I definitely agree that girls compare themselves to their peers as well. I used to constantly weight myself, think about weight, talk about weight, read magazine stories about weight, etc. ETC. Recently, I started to try and stop my obsessive dieting mentality (good food v. bad food, dream weight, perfect size,etc...). I still have to stop myself sometimes from reading stupid magazine articles about weight and compulsively counting calories, but I am getting better. Ironically, I never gained weight until I started dieting and obsessing about food. I really think that the major focus on dieting/weight in the media makes people both underweight and overweight. It just creates an unhealthy relationship with food overall.
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