Taking a Look at Your Healthy Habits: Are They as Healthy as You Think they Are?
A balanced diet and regular exercise are two keys to a healthy lifestyle, both mentally and physically. However, like all good things, an excess of focus on either a healthy diet or regular exercise can have consequences. When a piece of chocolate becomes something to fear, and skipping a workout produces extreme guilt, it might be time to take a step back and reevaluate your “healthy” lifestyle.
Many people begin exercising when they feel that they need to make a change in their life. Whether their new interest in exercise is related to weight management or stress relief, exercise is pretty much universally applauded, by friends, family, and strangers alike. And once you commit to starting, it’s pretty easy to get hooked. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals that act as antidepressants, boosting your mood and making you feel more energized (dailyburn.com). This, coupled with the sense of accomplishment that we feel after pushing ourselves through a particularly difficult workout, is part of what makes exercise so addictive. But compulsively over-exercising can become a problem, especially when your focus shifts from exercising so that you feel good to exercising so that you don’t feel bad. However, encouragement from loved ones, seeing positive changes in yourself, and genuinely enjoying the feeling of exercise can make it difficult to see that we’re falling into unhealthy patterns.
Compulsive over-exercising can also be a symptom of bulimia nervosa, or, more specifically, exercise bulimia. Exercise bulimia is characterized by a desire to lose weight, feelings of extreme guilt or frustration at having missed a workout, and hyper-awareness of how many calories you burn while working out, among other things (healthline.com). The generally positive outlook regarding exercise can make the symptoms of exercise bulimia easy to overlook.
Similarly, eating well-balanced meals is encouraged, now more than ever with social media platforms like Instagram being used to promote health and wellness. The decision to make a change in your diet, like cutting out processed sugar or dairy, is often motivated by a desire to be healthier and feel better, and in many cases these goals remain the same and our relationship with food doesn’t become a problem. But when you can only eat “clean” or “safe” foods, this formerly healthy lifestyle change takes a dramatic turn for the worse. Orthorexia nervosa is defined by the National Eating Disorders Association (or NEDA) as a “fixation on righteous eating”, causing those who suffer from it to become “fixated on food quality and purity” (nationaleatingdisorders.org). While it is not recognized in the DSM-5 as an official diagnosis, someone who struggles with orthorexia likely has a disordered relationship with food and underlying motivations that can make returning to a more typical relationship with food difficult without treatment from a nutritionist or other health professional.
High-stress environments or situations, such as transitioning into college, can make unhealthy habits easy to fall into. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by the Multi-Service Eating Disorder Association, 20% of college students reported having struggled or are currently struggling with disordered eating (waldencenter.org).
So what should you do if you think you or a loved one might struggle with an unhealthy relationship with food or exercise? The good news is that there are resources available to students both on and off campus. The Center for Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, is located on campus. While CAPS counsellors can’t generally provide their services for an extended period of time, seeing a counsellor and expressing your concerns is the first step toward making positive changes in your diet and exercise habits.
