Eulogizing the freshman 15

In high school, Friday was a special day for me. Not because I was pumped up to play in that night's basketball game. Not because I was excited for the weekend. And certainly not because that was the day teachers returned tests and papers. Fridays were sacred because while driving to school in the morning I would stop at McDonald's to order two sausage McMuffins with egg and a hash brown.

Now maybe I sound easy to please, but I could swear those delectable breakfast sandwiches contained a dash of nicotine. Needless to say, I relished the ritual.

Cut to present day: I'm sitting at dinner in the Forbes dining hall, and there's some weird stuff on my tray. A mishmash of green and bumpy, round and smelly, white and squishy items occupies the entirety of my plate. Broccoli, chick peas, tofu — how did all of these alien creatures land in front of me?

While it's hard for me to believe, I actually put them there. So the real question is what in the world happened between the good old days when I would happily let McDonald's grease drip down my chin and now, when I'm suspicious of the dining hall's chicken tenders and won't even acknowledge Chubba's meat loaf?

If anything, shouldn't my cravings for all things deep-fried have only grown stronger? After all, people would always tell me that at college the gastronomic pitfalls would be plentiful. Between the all-you-can-eat meal plan, the beer, the munchies and the late-night study breaks, the famous freshman 15 could be a modest estimate — and arrive as early as Thanksgiving break.

I attribute my current affliction — which might be diagnosed as healthy eating — largely to the culture of Princeton. The mindset of students here really is work hard, play hard — and look good doing it.

"Everyone here is a perfectionist, so of course they want their bodies to be perfect too," said Margaret Arbuthnot '07.

This obsession with body image does not apply just to girls. "At mealtime, I overhear guys saying, 'I really shouldn't be having this ice-cream,'" said Sarah Halprin '08.

Students' dedication to their figures is not evident only in the dining halls. A stroll through the Stephens Fitness Center provides an audible fitness feast. The swooshing of elliptical trainers, the whining of treadmills and the clanging of dumbbells are all signs of a student body hard at work toning their tummies and buffing up their biceps. According to Matt Brzycki, coordinator of the fitness center, nearly 900 people — the vast majority of whom are students — use the facility every day during the school year.

And this effort goes on day and night. "I'll go the gym as late as 10 o'clock at night and still have to wait for machines," said Parker Sutton '07. "And the weight room in the late afternoon is a madhouse: You're basically fighting for benches and weights."

At least on the surface, it would appear that all those reps and all that lettuce is paying off. "You look around, and everyone you see is fit and skinny," said Beth Ann Ingrassia '07. Princeton's lean student body is put into perspective when experts tell us that the pervasiveness of adolescent obesity is at an all-time high.

But how much emphasis on body image is too much?

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"There's definitely a pressure here to attain a certain kind of body type," said Alyssa Smilowitz '08. "If everyone else is thin and in good shape, you don't want to be the person who's not."

At its best, Princeton's remarkably trim student body can offer a healthy incentive to engage in good habits — like pushing my precious McDonalds out of my life.

However, there's always the very real fear that those habits will evolve into compulsions. University Health Services declined to release results from a recent survey it conducted on eating disorders at Princeton. However, a 2001 study by the University suggested that up to 25 percent of female undergraduates may have an eating disorder. Even for those students without a diagnosed disorder, the emotional toll of struggling to stay in shape can be extremely taxing.

All of this begs the question: Our figures may be svelte, but are we really healthier? P.G. Sitttenfeld is a sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio. He can be reached at pg@princeton.edu.