Whitworth Workout Buddies Find Inspiration in Each Other
By Kelly Bastron

Personal Essay

The Scotford Fitness Center was full of boys in tight T-shirts, muscles straining against the weights they lifted. The rhythm of Black Eyed Peas matched students' strides on the treadmills. The runners' legs were toned and tan.

Decked out in our new running shorts, trendy tank tops and slightly worn Adidas tennis shoes, my friends Kendra Switzer, Kristin Hann, Shawna Sheppard and I straddled four stationary bikes lined up side by side. I flipped throughthe latest Cosmopolitan magazine, looking for the article on makeup tips for catching a man.Images of slimfigures and flawless faces screamed at me from every direction, telling me my body is never good enough, my thighs are too loose, my arms jiggle a little too much and my tummy isn't as flat as it should be. Yet Inever felt I had to measure up to Cosmo's standards. Looking at the women around me, I realized I had my own models for the person I wanted to be.

After an extensive conversation at the beginning of my freshman year at Whitworth detailing our struggles with body image, the four of us realized we all wrestle similar obstacles in exercise and nutrition. Wedecided to spend time developing a healthy lifestyle together. We put pictures of thin models on our walls, made calendars to check off as we made it through a week, working out every day, and counted calories at meals.

We learned from each other during the daily hour we spent trying to distract ourselves from the pain and sweat. Yet in the midst of sit ups, bicep curls, and water bottles, I learned to love myself because those friends loved me.

Rather than giving in to the battle with my physical appearance and hating myself, I talked through pressures with my friends. We discussed the threat of the freshman 15 looming over our heads and the Cosmo standard of beauty, which falls further out of reach as the movie stars and models grow thinner and thinner. We searched for healthy choices at the cafeteria together and found methods of exercise best for our body types and abilities.

We realized comfort food is enticing, the bed looks better than the gym after a day of classes, and late night candy fests are a way of college life. Yet together we overcame these temptations with movie parties minus the junk food, deep conversations over low-fat lattes and juicy gossip between stair-stepping and power walking.

Maintaining the balance of health and nutrition is a struggle, especially when you are experiencing independence and utter self-responsibility for the first time, but we talked as best friends should and supported one another through each meal, each workout and each hard day.

Eventually I realized that those afternoons of exercise were no longer about staying thin as the models I saw on the pages of my magazine, but instead I had forged friendships based on encouragement and collaboration. As my workout buddies, those women became my role models for unconditional acceptance and internal beauty.