UMD Project HEAL and RecWell co-sponsor Fat Talk Free Week

The Active Terp Outreach Team wrote chalk messages outside the Eppley Recreation Center, encouraging passersby to embrace positive body image.

After attending a fitness expo with signs on the doors that said “this gym is a fat talk free zone,” Alicia McElhaney made it her mission to bring that kind of atmosphere to this university. 

This week, Project HEAL cosponsored Fat Talk Free Week with the University Recreation and Wellness.

“A lot of people, especially in college, deal with negative thoughts about their body,” said McElhaney, co-president of Project HEAL. “They think they need to go the gym to workout and burn a certain amount of calories, to lose weight or look a certain way, and we are trying to spread the message that this is not the case and you can go to the gym to feel healthy, to feel positive about yourself.”

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Part of the mission of Project HEAL — which stands for Help to Eat, Accept and Live — is to help people to accept their body the way that it is, said McElhaney, a senior journalism major.

The purpose of the Fat Talk Free Week is to reduce use of the word “fat” and other negative terms about one’s health or physical appearance, said Spencer Wyatt, a senior kinesiology and psychology major and a member of Active Terps, an outreach team of RecWell student employees that focuses on healthy living.

The campaign consists of social media messages, chalking outside of Eppley Recreation Center and tabling by Project HEAL and the Active Terp Outreach Team at the ERC and Ritchie Coliseum, said Kate Maloney, communications coordinator at RecWell.  

“We are hoping to foster a more body-positive environment and approach to fitness and wellness and to not using hateful descriptions for your body,” Maloney said.

Project HEAL approached RecWell, because they “were on board with the message,” Maloney said.

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“It sends a very inclusive message that people work out for a variety of reasons, and it is not always around losing weight or getting your body to be a certain ideal or look a certain way,” Maloney said.

This week, Active Terps “is focused on the people who don’t come to the gym, so our whole goal is to take the people that aren’t working out on a regular basis or think that they aren’t welcomed and get them engaged,” Wyatt said.

There are people who speak negatively about their bodies but are not motivated to work out, because they are afraid of being judged, said Diana Curtis, an Active Terps member.

“All body types are welcomed and invited to work out at the gym, and it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you are starting from, the goal is just to be healthy,” the junior bioengineering major said.

McElhaney hopes to redefine the reasons students work out. 

“We are trying to remind students that before or after they work out, there are other benefits to exercise [besides appearance] and that they should be the focus of their workout,” McElhaney said.

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story misidentified University Recreation and Wellness as “the University Recreation & Wellness Center.” It also incorrectly stated that Active Terps chalked and tabled outside of RecWell. RecWell refers to a department, not a building, and the Active Terp Outreach Team chalked and tabled outside of the ERC. The story has been updated to reflect this correction.