Fat Talk Free Week!

Starting October 18th, many collages across the country will be participating in Fat Talk Free Week.
This event will make people aware of the mention of weight and the comments that make people question their body image. Even a comment such as “Omigosh, you look so good ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ have you lost weight?├óΓé¼┬¥ can have a psychological effect.
For this campaign the message is, “friends don’t let friends fat-talk.” The goal is to help girls understand that the ideal thinness that is supported by pop culture and the media should be rejected and a healthier more realistic lifestyle should be adopted.
This is the third annual Fat-Talk Free Week. The program was started at Trinity University in San Antonio. A professor of psychology thought of the idea and began to implement it at the school. One of the exercises is to take off your clothes, stand in front of a mirror and only say things you like about yourself. Apparently this can be very hard for many women.
According to Eric Stice, a psychologist at the Oregon Research Institute explained that as humans, we often connect our beliefs and our actions. By helping women speak and act against the thin ideal creates an uncomfortable psychological state which in turn leads to a change in beliefs.
After two two-hour sessions of the reflections program a Rutgers University sorority decided to remove all of the scales in their house. This shows that making healthy images for yourself can create healthy behavior.
Another participant from Vanderbilt University said that her and her roommate are working together to ban the “fat talk.” If she says that she NEEDS to go for a run, her roommate will correct her and say , “no, you WANT to go on a run.”
We think that this is a great program since there are so many girls (and boys too) that suffer from eating disorders.
Let’s work to ban fat-talk!!