Eating healthy and maintaining overall wellness is something that can be difficult to achieve, especially during the college years. The revamped club Eat Right Elon hopes to bring together students that share this common goal.
“I want Eat Right Elon to be a place where students can come together to make healthy meals and share common interests,” said Olivia Orr, the new president of the club. “We want to host dinners made in Moseley Kitchen, go on picnics or hiking trips and take trips to local farmers markets.”
Even though she is only a freshman at Elon, Orr was given the position because she showed interest in joining the club earlier in the year. She now has the ability to truly make the club in her own vision.
“When I came to Elon, I originally wanted to start my own healthy baking club, but I was offered the position to be president of Eat Right Elon,” Orr said. “I feel that I can focus on my passion for fitness and achieving an overall healthy lifestyle by becoming president.”
Orr herself is a long time health and fitness fanatic. She was heavily involved in rowing in high school, worked a spinning studio called Flywheel Sports over the summer and is always trying to maintain a well balanced diet. At Elon, she lives a very active lifestyle, working out six times a week by taking spin classes, weight lifting or running.
The club had its first interest meeting Nov. 12, at which club leaders discussed basic information about Eat Right Elon and served healthy homemade treats with no added sugar. Orr really hopes to involve members by allowing them to offer their own suggestions and ideas.
“I decided to join the club because I want to improve myself in terms of my healthy habits,” said freshman Rohan Potthoff, new member of Eat Right Elon.
Although the club is fairly new, Orr and her crew already have events planned for the future. These include a “New Year, New You” campaign, cooking dinners with various organizations on campus, snack prepping and hosting a dinner for the Alamance Girls in Motion, a wellness program for local fourth and fifth graders where girls learn about physical fitness and setting goals from their Elon University mentors.
The club’s latest activity was a Healthy Holidays Baking Event Dec. 3 in Moseley Kitchen. Members made five different cookies to snack on while studying for the upcoming finals.
Although these cookies are not 100 percent “good for you” foods, they are filled with swaps that are better than the traditional alternative, which makes for a guilt-free treat. Ingredients like white flour, eggs, and sugar were replaced with whole-wheat flour, bananas, stevia, and dark chocolate to cut calories, fat, and sugar content.
For more information about Eat Right Elon and future meetings and events, contact Orr at oorr@elon.edu or eatrightelon@gmail.com.