Love Your Body Week encourages life of balance

February 27, 2012

February 27 to March 2 is Love Your Body Week on the campus of Oxford College.  This annual focus on having a balanced and healthful view of the body is sponsored by the Office of Counseling and Career Services.  It is observed in relation to National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, established by the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).  Materials from NEDA and the Eating Disorders Information Network, founded by Dina Zeckhausen, PhD of Atlanta support the observance.  Also supporting the week's activities are the Oxford College Athletic Department and student groups Omega Delta, O Phi, Kappa Phi Nu, Eat to Let Live and the Healthy Eagles.

 "For 51 weeks out of the year, you are told to change your body, improve your body, harden your body, perfect your body, fix your body, shrink your body," says Sandra Schein, PhD, licensed psychologist and direct of career and counseling services.  "For one week you [are] encouraged to love your body, respect your body, listen to your body, and celebrate your body." 

The week's activities include Mirrorless Monday, Take a Stand Tuesday, No-Weigh Wednesday, Thin is not In Thursday and Free Yourself Friday.  Participants examine such ideas as cultural attitudes toward body image and the influence of the Barbie doll.  Other activities will encourage mindful eating, positive body image and commitment to healthful exercise.

Two films will be featured as part of the week's activities.  On Tuesday students can view Real Women Have Curves, a Sundance Film Festival winner, in which a young woman discovers that women in real life take chances, have flaws, embrace life and have bodies different from professional models.  The week will conclude with a showing of Super Skinny Me, a BBC documentary about the experiences of two journalists who experimented with crash diets in order to fit into size double-zero jeans.