New Year's resolutions are always a list of recycled intents: to get more sleep, to do better in school and to party less (or more). But the most important one is always the same: to lose weight.
This is not surprising when, according to the Centers for Disease Control, over one-third of American adults are obese and even more are overweight. Something definitely needs to be done. Yet diet advertisements and magazines reach the wrong audiences. Instead of the post-Christmas-binge sofa dwellers, they target the already-determined gym rats who are always searching for more motivation.
Disordered eating — not full-blown eating disorders — is any abnormal eating pattern, ranging from extreme to more subtle. According to the California Department of Public Health, such behavior includes a collection of interrelated eating habits and weight management practices, as well as eating rituals, body beliefs and physiological imbalances — basically, any weird attitudes about food or weight. So, yes, that includes most types of dieting.
Since my time at Brown, I haven't encountered a single girl who doesn't fit that description. Dieting seems to have transformed into more than a health measure. It's a cultural practice.
When it comes to food, the general consensus is that less is always better. During finals time, Health Services posts flyers that scream, "Feeling stressed? Have a snack!" That really makes me wonder: Are we actually that busy? As Brown students, we take pride in the infamous saying that we do so much that we barely have time to eat or sleep. I don't buy it. How long does it take to scarf down a spicy with?
Students who don't obsess about food seem to get their fix at the gym. Maybe we're not all a bunch of overachieving gym-lovers, but sometimes it seems that way. During finals time, the busiest part of the year, the machines are most crowded between 10 p.m. and midnight. It seems there is no excuse for missing a workout when the gyms are open that late.
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders found that 91 percent of women surveyed reported dieting to manage weight, and of those, over half were below or of healthy weight. A quarter of college-aged women have engaged in binge eating and purging as a weight-management technique.
In high school, I was a competitive distance runner, so I have seen my share of dysfunction. Eating disorders were prevalent for obvious reasons. Top athletes are competitive and compulsive, practice repetitive routines while maintaining unrealistically high self-expectations and share a tendency for depression. "Black Swan," anyone?
My time at Brown has left me with an odd case of déjà vu. Ivy League students tend to share the same traits as top-tier athletes in their drive to be perfect.
But who can blame us?
Consider weekend parties where girls dress in tight shirts and some guys go without. Can you blame them for spending countless hours in the gym when Brown advocates events like Sex Power God? And we aren't only body-conscious on the weekends — it's all the time.
It's Wednesday nights at the Whiskey Republic. It's Mondays and Tuesdays filled with new updates on "Brown Bares" — a forum where students can comment on their peers' anonymously posted nude photos. It's even during finals. After all, who wants to look fat during the Naked Donut Run?
Maybe this year we should make new New Year's resolutions: more sleep is good, better grades are nice, but how about we lay off the heavy gym sessions a little and go for a walk instead? How about we make sure to eat three times a day? How about, instead of trying to lose weight, we try to be healthier, both in body and in mind. That means working out moderately, eating good food and not dieting.
After all, we are Brown students. We shouldn't be too busy to eat. We should be too busy to worry so much about what we eat.
Cara Dorris '15 can be reached at cara_dorris@brown.edu.
