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One morning in high school, the boy I'd been dreaming of asked me to have lunch with him. Be still my beating heart! My outfit was OK (check). It wasn't a terribly bad hair day (check).
But lunch loomed as a horror show from my side of the bench, because of ... my lunch.
Mom had packed leftover chicken parts.
Wings and thighs, the parts I loved, stayed in the bag. I just didn't eat. There's no way to gnaw on bones attractively, and the meat had a slight aroma. (Usually an aroma I liked, probably a hint of onion and chicken fat.) But why not a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich on this holy day?
(Note to later self: As a mother whose children started packing their own lunches in fourth grade, I also have to wonder, why was it still my mother's - and most mothers' -- job to make lunches for high schoolers?)
A run to the cafeteria wasn't an option. It was steam-table awful. Today's school cafeterias may offer better quality food, or at least more variety, but teenagers are even more self-consciousness about what they eat.
They feel pressure to be perfect. Their bodies never measure up, requiring constant vigilance. Listen to a table of young women at lunch. It's not just that one special someone who might notice grease on your hands. It's everyone! I was worried about the messiness of what I was eating. Now, we worry about gaining weight, and whether we've exercised enough to deserve this food, the bad thing we ate last night.
Along with the increased awareness of body image, who isn't guilty of inwardly clucking at someone eating, say, a bucket of buttered popcorn at the movies or a non-svelte person having fries with her hamburger?
It's even more intense in school, where you're surrounded by people who are mostly your age and everybody's growing and changing, figuring who they are. The natural tendency is to compare your progress with theirs. Too often, that progress means not just how you look but also how much you weigh.
That's why I was gratified to get email from a friend who works at College of the Canyons, near Los Angeles:
"Next week October 18-22, 2010 is national Fat Talk Free Week. SNAC (Student Nutrition and Wellness Advocates at CofC) will host a series of activities to raise awareness about eating disorder and body image issues, and to shift the campus culture away from negative body talk, unhealthy dieting, and superficial, unrealistic beauty ideals in the media."
This community college, in a state where all public schools have to be very judicious with shamefully stingy funding, employs Sheri Barke, MPH, RD, CSSD, as its Sports & Wellness Dietitian. Her office offers free individual nutrition counseling, events like Fat Talk Free Week, and projects like mapping out a fitness walk on campus.
www.canyons.edu/health/nutritioncoach: To help you fit fitness into your busy life, SNAC has mapped out a 1-mile walk around campus with 4 fitness stations along the course for strength and conditioning.
Go, College of the Canyons!
