Hello Lakers. We wanna welcome everyone back to campus for the last half of the semester. My name is Keegan, pronouns she/her. 

Hello it's Bella pronouns she/her as well. 

And my name is Emily and my pronouns are she/her. 

Hello Lakers my name is Katie pronouns she/her. 

We hope you all had a safe and fun spring break. Many of us including myself spent so much needed time in the sun during break. I went to Florida. Bella what did you do? 

I just went back home to Chicago, spent time with my dog and my family. My dog is my family. It was very nice all around. 

What did I do? I worked, and I relaxed on my days off. Hung out with my friends. But stayed here.

I feel like spring break was much needed I feel like this semester is crazy busy for everyone. But while I didn't get to enjoy the warmth like some of our peer eds here I also went home which is an hour away, but it was nice to go home see my dog as Bella did. I was sick so I was recovering from that but at least I didn't miss any school, got to relax, I also worked and just spent time with family. And while we are still in the middle of our semester getting ready for exams believe it or not, and the weather is getting slightly warmer give or take hopefully no more snow, I think it's important that we discuss something that might be a little sensitive to some but is a very important topic that I think we should talk about and that is body image. Now as we are coming back from spring break and everyone's posting on Instagram, Snapchat, VSCO, whatever platform it might be I swear there's like a million of them now, I think it's really important to talk about the idea of body image and body positivity and stuff like that because I don't know about you guys but it's really hard seeing everyone posting these happy pictures of themselves seeing what they're wearing what, how tan they might look, how they look like going to the gym stuff like that and it's just really honestly hard on your mental health because you're constantly comparing yourself to what they look like and you're like, I don't know about you guys but I always struggle with judging myself or thinking wow I wish I constantly thinking like wow I wish, I workout everyday or try to be active and somehow it's hard because I'm like I still don't have those abs, they're still I'm not looking like that and it's hard because I know that pictures online and social media can be edited to make you look however you want like you could literally be like twice as tan as you really are like everyone literally just went to spring break after being in pale Michigan like there's no way like I'm gonna be that tan. I was literally in the snow. So I think it's important to remember that even though we might have those intrusive thoughts in our brain and it's hard to get rid of them it's hard for everyone not just me but remember that it doesn't matter ultimately however anyone looks it's purely genetic and honestly you can edit how you look it's not, social media is not completely real it's not the reality and I just think it's a really important thing to remember in general honestly. 

And that's such a fabulous point too because of course we're always on our phones but we can be so inundated by just comparison and all these external messages just existing and going about our day-to-day lives with advertisements everywhere and even if you don't use social media like I've deleted most of mine because it was causing me some mental health problems, even then you can still get advertisements like oh try this diet or try this fad or this trend or this fashion style and it can really be difficult when you are just always comparing, sometimes subconsciously. Full disclosure for myself, I have PCOS that's polycystic ovary syndrome and that's a chronic illness that is currently incurable. Lots of symptoms that come with it and one of them is weight fluctuation and just a lot of symptoms affect my appearance. And that has really been a struggle for me growing up and managing my fitness while also not focusing too much on my appearance because a lot of the times the two got intertwined when that's not always the case. But it can definitely be a real challenge when wellness and your sense of self-esteem can be really wrapped up in just what other people think of you and especially if you don't feel good about yourself. 

Yeah, yeah thank you for sharing that I feel like that's really important for people to hear that you know like people would go through these things and everyone is dealing with their own issues and situations and we're not all the same. I also want to talk a little bit back about spring break and how it's getting warmer out and with that comes you know like wearing different clothes than we might be wearing during the winter. Maybe you're wearing more revealing clothing just so you know cool off when it gets hot um but with that I know I feel this and you probably do too but some you know you may feel pressured to get in shape fast as summer is approaching, especially seeing everything on social media.

That definitely makes sense Emily, and with like getting in shape fast that kind of reminds me back to COVID I don't know we were all in quarantine we didn't have much to do couldn't go outside couldn't go to class couldn't go to school and what could we do we could work out. What did everyone start doing, posting all these different workouts posting everything so fast and posting all their gym pics and it was very inspiring to see that a whole community was working out doing all these different things and while that was inspiring and uplifting and motivating for some it was kind of hard on body images for others and it was more like people were working out and posting these gym pics for body image and growth and almost kind of like hey look at how I look at my body now rather than actually happiness and health which is really what the gym is for. Working out is supposed to be a way for you to stay healthy, making sure you're moving your body and being active. It's not supposed to be a competition, it's not supposed to be something to show off and make sure that you're seeking society's approval in a way. And that's just kind of really toxic in my opinion um you have this pressure from society to maintain a kind of like a gym routine. You're gowing every day are you going at 5:00 AM every morning and lifting for three hours a day we don't all have that time. Are you eating are you eating healthy and making sure you're eating enough protein to make sure you have all that muscle is, do you have the right type of gym clothes, there's so many different aspects that I could just go on about I'm very passionate about it and as someone who does like working out for my own mental health it's really hard for me to see the gym being used as something so toxic and something so um something that really gives people body issues and body image issues because it's really something that's meant for health and for us to maintain a healthy lifestyle and not something used as social media platform. 

Definitely and it can really become unhealthy too when you're over using the gym as well like not giving yourself enough rest days because you're so relentless in pursuing this goal of how you want your physique to look when you can lay yourself up and then you have an injury and it's even harder to get back into that movement and it can put you in a in a a worse headspace, so it's really yeah I absolutely agree Katie it's just sad to see that there's so much potential for joyful experiences and movement and making yourself feel better rather than just maintaining expectations of appearances. 

Yeah and I just like want to bring up the fact that on social media like you see a lot of people who are working out all the time and like it might totally work for them they you know might it might be really beneficial for their mental health but you know they might also be someone who is not doing the right things for their body, they might be working out like way too much they might not be eating what they need to be healthy and they might be hurting their body. So I think it's important that you listen to yourself rather than everything that you see on social media. 

I think going off of that like when we talk about like the influencers we have to remember like that's their job is to sell the image and so like you'll see them working out and you'll see them eating all this stuff but like you have to consider on the other end they're also getting paid to do that so they might not, it might not be the best thing for you and it might not be like all that it's cracked up to be. 

I think you mentioned such a great point like these influences are not practicing healthy routines that nor are normal routines even. Like we're all in college we all have studying and so many different parts of our lives that we have to maintain. And with like also going to the gym we all also have to practice maintaining a diet of some sort and while it's important to maintain a healthy diet and make sure we are getting proper nutrients proper fruits and vegetables and protein, I don't think it's healthy for us to be judged by ourselves and our peers for eating ice cream at night or getting fries. It's so unhealthy for us to feel judged for eating something that's good to us because for some of us the only thing that might be getting us through that week is that Ben and Jerry's ice cream at 10 at night after a really hard exam honestly. 

It's like the little foods that fill up your HP in the video game, where instead of HP it's just my happiness points. Absolutely agree.

Yeah, but you make a really good point Katie like don't punish yourself if you're trying to make a better lifestyle and be healthier whether that be you know eating better foods or getting more movement in your life, you don't have to make it a bad experience like you can find different ways to make it fun. Like I know for me I'm really excited I'm planning on getting a little trampoline and like watching some YouTube videos where they're jumping to music and I'm gonna try to do that as my exercise cause I just don't have a lot of time in the day to like go to the gym so maybe right before I go to bed. Yeah well it just like uncommon forms of exercise, you don't have to do exactly what you know influencers are doing even if you're just moving your body is good enough. 

I love that and Emily and I were talking earlier about how we both wanted to start skating again. I had recently learned how to roller skate it was, surprise surprise, the product of pandemic ordinance but now I really look forward to it and it's it's like you know dancing movement and it's a really good workout and I can't wait until the weather is nice enough again to like have that part of my routine.

Definitely. And Keegan knows all about dancing movement.

She’s gonna call me out, yeah I do I do love my Zumba and my lit and fit for the rec center because you know it's really hard sometimes like the motivation to like go to the gym but I'm like oh like I signed up for the class like my friends are gonna be there like it helps hold me accountable for sure. 

But I also like back to kind of like eating healthy we were so used to like having our parents back at home create our own schedules and holding us accountable for making sure we eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, have healthy snacks, pack our lunch so we're not eating you know three tubs of ice cream a day. So I think it's important but I also think a lot of us think that if we skip meals like hey maybe we might lose a couple pounds and I get that freshman 15 or whatever stereotypes there might be, but that's really unhealthy as well because that's really just not true and it's just important to while it is important to eat healthy don't, again, don't judge yourself for eating that guilty pleasure because it might just be what you need for your mental health honestly. 

I think going off the skipping meals too I think a lot of times in our heads we think we have to earn what we eat so like we have to like we have to go do this exercise or like even sometimes people use it as like a homework reward but like you need to eat when you need to eat like if you're hungry you need to eat. And I think one of the things that's really helped me is I pack snacks for in between my classes because there's days where like I leave the house at 11:30 and I don't, but I leave the apartment at 11:30 and I don't get back to like 6 so like those snacks are like dire. My pretzels I need my pretzels. 

And even that planning is just so helpful too because, say you're not even necessarily trying to go about it in a more health conscious way but then you're planning your meals and it's easier and then you're not necessarily eating off schedule late at night and throwing yourself off and it can just really help to do that one extra thing for yourself in the morning like consider that yourself care like I know I really like this food, I know it's gonna brighten my day up a little bit to have it and I know I already have it with me in my bag, and just making sure that make things easier on yourself. And on and that point maybe thinking about how we can make things a little bit easier for others like in considering our behaviors and our language and how we speak to others about our health behaviors. So even just subtle comments like oh this food is so bad or oh like I can't I can't have that food can kind of have an impact on another person that's listening and it could inadvertently shame them, it could inadvertently hurt them and it could be hurting yourself by just repeating those mantras to yourself like labeling foods good and bad can be a really slippery slope. 

And kind of going off of that we when most people think of like comments about body positivity positivity most people think about people that oh they're like oh they need to lose weight but also people that are really thin or maybe like they just need to gain weight that's also really negative. People that are like Oh my goodness you're so skinny like do you even eat or like you have no muscle that's also really negative towards them because you don't know if they have some type of disorder or something or maybe they just are struggling really bad and you don't know what they might be going through so just being really mindful about what you're saying even to yourself around them because even just saying oh I feel so fat or like I ate this so much today like I'm gonna get so fat like comments like that to yourself might affect other people around you and even though you might feel that way it just isn't always appropriate to say those type of things. 

We consume ideas too and just being mindful of those interactions is really important and probable to ourselves and other people that we care about and being part of the change that we want to see in the world where hopefully it's not so scary on social media and in the gym and other places that should be welcoming. And it's totally OK and it’s expected if you are struggling a lot right now maybe what we've talked about is kind of resonated with you and you're looking at how you might be able to reach out. The UCC and the university counseling center has a ton of online resources, in person resources, there are skills groups um dedicated to self-compassion and body image. There are lots of self-help resources the Recreation Center also has some information on body image and programming that they do and yeah I would definitely encourage you to just check out the resources that the school has available and you wouldn't be alone in your struggles. And so now for our peer picks. We had a couple of snack ideas maybe help you in these last few weeks of your semester and also we just wanted to talk about our favorite foods. 

Favorite foods. We were talking about how it's a great way to just connect with people like who doesn't love food. 

We sat here and talked about at least 15 minutes all types of foods that we like. 

So my favorite food is Buffalo wings love em can't always eat that especially when I'm like on the run from classes like I'm not just gonna sit down or anything. So like an easy snack that I know I always get on the days I have class is at the pod store in Kirchhoff they have this protein bar that I don't even know what the brand is but it's like a blue package and it's chocolate peanut butter and I love it like it literally like a candy bar. But that's like been my kick lately like it's just enough to hold me over but yeah so that's an easy snack that I use. 

I don't know I just reminded me I love brand chili I've loved it being like Buffalo wings and ranch but like I like anything around like fries and ranch just, but for my snacks personally I'm really bad at remembering to pack snacks which I really should be better about because I wake up pretty close to when I need to leave so I'm always kind of in a rush which maybe I need to work on. But I love bagels and cream cheese there's something about just a good bagel with cream cheese that just like it's so nice in the morning with coffee but I can have it anytime in the day. Like I've had bagels and cream cheese at like for dinner, but I'm also like I really love like different drinks that's not water like sweet tea from Chick-fil-A, if anyone brings you a gallon of those please that's my favorite thing right now. 

Mine, so I changed mine while we were sitting here because you were talking about ranch and I love chicken tenders. Chicken tenders and ranch, Oh my goodness. And then as a snack like I talked about earlier pretzels are usually my go to I just throw some in a bag and munch on them all day right. 

Can’t go wrong with that. Now for mine I've been thinking about it like since we began recording the podcast. I love cheeseburgers, they've always been my favorite food growing up. Especially bacon cheeseburgers with barbeque sauce that's my favorite. But for a snack when I'm on the go I just like a cheese stick, sharp cheddar specifically, and just a couple nuts like mixed nuts, cashews, peanuts, and walnuts. 

I like pistachios. 

Those are really good. So lots of options, y'all. I don't know about all you listeners but I'm definitely hungry now, and I think we are too. But thank you so much for joining us on this episode. Again we look forward to seeing you next time. Good luck with your semester until then and take care of yourselv