It’s hard to believe that over 10 years ago I headed off to Ann Arbor to begin my freshman year at the University of Michigan!

I’m sure like many people, reflecting back on it, college was for me a mix of fun/positive times and (many!) hard/stressful times.

Thankfully, I was mostly fully recovered from my eating disorder which had started/mostly been a thing in high school. I was doing well mentally and emotionally in regard to food, but was still working on some physical healing (hormones, GI, etc.).

I say “thankfully” because I know from my experience in college (via observing others, talking to friends, etc.) and from talking to clients/students still in college, how hard it can be to grow in having a healthy relationship with food, exercise, and body image during these pivotal years.

It seems to me that most people tend to experience more disorder and dysfunction on these fronts throughout college. There can be so much pressure to exercise a certain a way (queue the endless elliptical usage at the gym…), look a certain way, and eat certain foods and quantities deemed “healthy” or intended to lead to the “ideal body size.”

Given the pressures and challenges of the typical college environment, it can take some intentionality to grow positively in your relationship with food (and exercise + body image) during this time. Note: this intentionality is also true of “regular” life beyond or before college!!

As we (as a culture/society) enter the back-to-school season, I wanted to provide some thoughts and reflections on ways you might consider going about improving your relationship with food/exercise/body image during the school year in particular.

Hopefully you will find the following thoughts especially helpful/relevant if you are a college student, and, for everyone else, also helpful for everyday living in our diet/body size-obsessed culture!

Thoughts on Improving Your Relationship with Food, Exercise, & Body Image While in College (or beyond for that matter!): 

If you are wanting to exercise, consider finding a way of moving your body that you truly enjoy. 

From what I’ve gathered, it seems many people exercise in college primarily for reasons other than enjoyment and/or mental release. These other reasons typically primarily have to do with trying to achieve a certain body size/look. This generally leads to an abundance of women using the cardio equipment, and the men gravitating towards the strength equipment.

I love exercising and am all about staying fit from a strength and endurance and overall health standpoint. HOWEVER, I also am all about encouraging myself and others in finding ways of exercising that you truly enjoy and appreciate in and of themselves. This might, to you, look like going on the elliptical for an hour. But whatever your go-to exercise generally looks like, I would encourage you to truly ask yourself if you find enjoyment in it and would still do it even if it didn’t have any effect on your body shape/size.

Thinking beyond the world of the gym, other ways to think about exercise while in college include: going on walks at nearby parks/trails, meeting up with a friend for a run around campus, joining an IM sports team or activity-based club, trying a local yoga or kickboxing studio, or doing some stretching in your dorm room. Not to mention all the walking that naturally happens to/from classes and other events!! That can often be plenty of exercise alone!

Avoid comparison by “staying in your own lane” when it comes to your food/nutrition needs, tastes, and preferences.

Especially in a college environment, it can be easy to compare what you’re eating to those around you – whether that is other people in the dining hall, your roommates, or what you see on social media.

Something I talk about with clients is the idea of “staying in your own lane” when it comes to your own food/nutrition needs and approaches. What YOU need, what YOU like to eat, and how YOU like to go about food in general is going to be different from those around you. What’s more, when we compare what we are eating to the person next to us, not only is this not helpful at face value, but we don’t have a clue what they’ve eaten earlier that day or are planning to eat later on. Such a natural human inclination but an ultimately pointless endeavor!

(Note: one caveat I might make to the above is that in recovery from an eating disorder / disordered eating, it can at times be helpful to observe the “normal eating patterns” of others for inspiration as to what normal eating might/could look like for someone. However, I recommend doing this with a grain of salt so to speak.)

This was something that I actively worked on during college, particularly my sophomore year. During this time I was working on eating enough throughout the day to get my period back after 6+ years. Most if not all people I encountered were in all likelihood NOT working on this. (Not to mention, everyone has a unique body/metabolism anyway).  It would not have been helpful for me to compare what I was eating to what my roommate was eating. I was eating to support my own unique bodily needs, and that meant whatever amount/types of food were necessary to eventually restore my hormonal health.

Practically some of what that looked like were things like my mom bringing me snacks to have on hand in my dorm room, bringing down almond butter to the dining hall to add to my oatmeal, going out of my way to supplement my meals with different add-ons, and making sure I was eating 3 meals and 3+ snacks each day even when it was more difficult on the weekends with dining hall hours.

How might you stay in your own lane with food, even when surrounded by (potentially thousands) of other people roughly the same age and in the same stage of life?

Find a like-minded community.

It can be helpful to find some sort of community of people / connection to others who are similarly seeking to relate to food and exercise in a positive, healthy way. This could be a friend who shares similar values with you on this, “internet friends” like positive influences on social media/blogs/etc., life-giving podcasts/books/other resources, and even student groups centered on eating disorder recovery and/or positive body image. (Like Project HEAL at the University of Michigan and other campuses).

Get any additional support you might need.

Whether you are recovering from an eating disorder OR looking for support as you heal a disordered relationship with food/exercise/your body, college can be a great time to get professional help in this area. Working with a dietitian and/or therapist who specialize in disordered eating can be an especially helpful outlet for processing all the thoughts/feelings/pressures/dynamics that come up with food and body image while in college.

College is a time of GROWTH –> what might it look like for you, in this stage of life, to have an upward trend towards a truly healthy approach to food, exercise, and overall health?

Seek to be a countercultural, positive influence. 

Given the what the general norm is when it comes to food/exercise/body image in college, there are countless ways to think about being a countercultural, positive influence in this realm of life.

Broad ideas of what this could look like…

• Enjoying a variety of food in the dining hall, desserts included!
• Not intentionally restricting during the day in anticipation of eating more in the evening / over the weekend.
• Exercising for FUN and ENJOYMENT!
• *Gently challenging* the thoughts of others when it comes to unhealthy approaches to food and exercise. (Or, considering to yourself how you might think differently about it.)
• Not obsessively going on the scale at the campus gym. Better yet, maybe take a total hiatus from the scale!
• Exploring different cultural foods, cuisines, and ways of cooking.
• Eating and exercising in a way where the primary focus is NOT body size manipulation.

What would it be like to have more brain and life space freed up if you were less focused on body shape/size? 

How might you as a person be more fully alive and truly living if you chose to pursue a healthier approach to food and your body this semester?