University Memorial Center dining hall food April 10, 2024 (Naomi Morrison/CU Independent
Your Homie Naomi: Welcome to The BuffaLow Down! It’s my pleasure to present this column to the CUI – here’s to many conversations on the intricacies of life! I’m delighted to be of service to y’all in solving the burning questions or personal dilemmas you have in your lives while attending The University of Colorado at Boulder. I also want to remind you though that, however wise I may be, I am not a professionally-trained provider. That said, if you are dealing with mental health struggles, you can dial 988 which will reach the National Mental Health Emergency Hotline or you can click this link that has resources that may help.
Submissions for the advice column are accepted at The BuffaLow Down! All submissions are anonymous and we encourage you to spill anything that’s on your mind.
Person Possessing a Body: With so much focus on concepts like the freshman 15, how do I stay confident and have a positive body image in college?
Your Homie Naomi: Diet culture here at Boulder is a strong topic that I’ve been wanting to address, so thank you for your question. The emphasis on health at CU Boulder is strongly felt by its students, being that it is a college town in the state of Colorado which is known for its physical health status. Furthermore, Boulder specifically has been coined by newspapers such as ABC News and USA Today as “America’s thinnest city,” being that it has the lowest rates of obesity in the country with the runners-up also being Colorado cities, specifically Denver and Fort Collins. However, in silent testimony besides the praise directed at Colorado for its physical health, the state has concurrently been ranked 45th for adult mental health in Mental Health America’s 2023 report. Boulder has also been pegged with a rate of eating disorders that’s almost triple the national average. That’s one statistic that Boulder can’t afford to sugar-coat, especially with its two-cent-per-ounce sugar tax. So, yes, diet culture is alive and well at CU Boulder, and this question you’ve posed is an important question coming into your first years of college here.
First of all, I want to declare that the “Freshman-15,” which is a belief that college students gain 15 pounds during their freshman year, is a total myth. It’s unclear to me where the “Freshman-15” fable came from, but I remember it being a very relevant topic of discussion during my senior year of high school and my first year of college. I can recall retorts from C4C diners about their strategies for avoiding gaining the chilling “Freshman-15.” Although it may seem like a small thing, this is how dysfunctional thoughts about eating and exercise begin. Everyone remembers at least one remark they heard from another that spurred a lifelong insecurity for them. Eating disorders, especially anorexia, have the highest mortality rate of all the mental illnesses described in the DSM-5. They are also extremely contagious, so it’s important to stay positive when discussing others and your own body. In general, as a rule of thumb, it’s better to avoid discussing bodies at all. I understand this may be tricky because, in some ways, venting about your insecurities can be cathartic. However, I don’t recommend doing so unless you’re in a setting where you’ve confirmed that others are comfortable hearing about the insecurities you have surrounding your body.
My advice for staying sane in this body-image-consumed city is remembering that at the ages of 18 to 23 our bodies are still at a very crucial stage of change and development, and also that they are engineered to know what’s best for us. To you, or to anyone who’s noticing changes in their bodies during this time, I encourage you to listen to what it wants and ignore any narratives that gaining 15 pounds is a negative outcome. It’s preachy and cliché, but confidence comes from love and trust in yourself, not from looking any certain way or weighing any particular weight. Weigh the way you weigh! (Although I might also recommend no longer weighing yourself because I see no productive outcome coming from it.)
Now that I’ve once again made loving yourself seem much simpler than it is, I encourage the person reading this to pass this message along. Those of us who recognize what a dysfunctional thought about one’s body sounds like, I encourage you all to share your cognitions and how they help you to fuel your body and treat it with care as your vessel in this beautiful life we’ve all been awarded. Health conscious doesn’t mean exclusively physical health conscious. It’s a balance of both physical and mental. Whether or not you gain 15 pounds your first year here has nothing to do with your health, so eat when you’re hungry! Focus on exercising those healthy thoughts about food. Consider what eating and having energy does for your body, and a positive body image will follow.
Love (yourself),
Your Homie Naomi
Contact CU Independent staff writer Naomi Morrison at namo6410@colorado.edu
