Monthly Archives: March 2012

March 19, 2012 · 8:32 pm

Is It Just Me?

What I’m learning about Meatless Monday is that I’m hungry practically all day long. I’ve quit exercising on Mondays because I’m so hungry that I can’t imagine burning any  more calories. So far the one exception was last week when I ate out all my meals, and probably consumed extra calories because of eating restaurant meals. It was kind of challenging to eat meatless while also eating out. At home I will make a menu, plan ahead, and be mindful about what I’m eating so I don’t really even think about meat. However, when you are looking at a menu filled with tasty descriptions of meat dishes, it is quite challenging to stick to your guns. Throw in a waiter/bartender who is trying to convince you to order his favorite meat dish on the menu, and even the strongest would waiver.  And let’s be real, while I’m committed to meatless Mondays for the remainder of the year, I do enjoy meat. But I made it through with flying vegetarian colors.

Fast forward to today and here I am having eaten a two helpings of oven roasted veggies (potatoes, broccoli, and onions) and two helpings of Knorr pasta/sauce along with probably 1/2 oz of sharp cheddar cheese for dinner and I’m still hungry. I was hungry most of the day. I ate an English muffin, half a grapefruit, a banana, 1 oz pretzels, 1 container Greek yogurt, 1/2 piece of naan with 1/2 a container of tomato sambji, and a side salad of mixed greens, broccoli, olives, sunflower seeds, and a laughing cow wedge. Oh and a mini snack Twix. How is that not sufficient? How do I eat enough good foods so that I’m not hungry? I don’t want to regret my meatless adventure. I also don’t want to eat eggs for dinner every Monday night. What am I missing?

Are all vegetarians just used to being hungry? If I ate vegetarian for a full week, would I quit being hungry by the end of the week? Maybe I need to get on Pintrest or the meatless Monday website to find more recipes with protein or perhaps I should plan my menus differently. I know I am a little challenged because tofu, mushrooms, and eggplant are all out for me and those seem to be vegetarian staples. I guess it’s good that I have plenty of Monday meals to figure it all out. If you’ve got vegetarian advice for me, I’d love it if you would leave a comment for me on the blog so I can come back and find it later when I need a reminder of what I should be doing. This vegetarian stuff is a little harder than I thought it would be, honestly. But I’m not a quitter!

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March 15, 2012 · 9:55 pm

Layover Reframe

The first text from Southwest Airlines came this morning at 8:24 PHX time. My flight home to Austin was delayed about half an hour. Throughout the morning, I got alternating texts; my flight was on time or it was delayed. They couldn’t quite make up their minds. I got on my flight from PHX to HOU without too much concern for how it would play out, assuming the 30 minutes wouldn’t make too much difference. When the plane touched down, along with everyone else, I pulled out my phone and turned it on. Suddenly it’s blowing up with texts from Southwest that my flight is delayed until well after 10. As I sit here typing, the latest is a departure of 11:10. Ack. I’m tired, irritated, and I just want to be at home. While texting with a friend of mine, she asked for my high and low from the conference previously mentioned and I listed the current layover delay as a low. Her reframe:

“It’s the universe’s way of getting you to slow down and reflect one last time before jumping feet first back into reality.”

Sounds better to me than being all pissed off about it, right? And given that I may have just talked about the importance of reflecting, here goes, y’all.

These Student Affairs conferences always leave me pondering my life, identity, choices, direction, and purpose. It’s a bucketload of items to consider, mull over, and ultimately act upon. A snippet from one of the conversations I had with a Dean of Students has stuck with me because it was about implementing and acting on your priorities. She said, “if it’s really important to you, you will find a way to make it happen.” Now isn’t that just simple, profound truth? Speak it, my new friend. While it is certainly applicable to the topic we were discussing, this nugget gave me the insight into many moments throughout the duration of the NASPA conference. I’ve been ruminating on whether or not to get my PhD for years. YEARS. There are times when I feel quite compelled to start the process, or I feel like I ought to have it, or it would be a mistake to not have it. But more often than not, I am not moved to pursue it. But if it was important to me, I would make it happen. It’s just not quite the right fit for me and my life, at least right now. It was actually a great relief to be able to tell people this time around that I’m just not ready to commit to it, and I’m okay with that. Cause y’all, “when are you going for your PhD?” is a common question at these conferences and you have to be ready to deal with it.

Generally speaking, though, I think this is advice worth printing out and putting on my bulletin board – sort of the modern day version of embroidering a little pillow or something, yes? If a work project is important to me, I will make it happen. If a personal life choice is important to me, I will make it happen. If a goal is important to me, I will make it happen. Bam. Git’r done. Otherwise, life keeps moving and things don’t get accomplished. Sometimes, perhaps, what is important to you might not be important to other people, but friend, those other people are not living your life. They don’t look at you every day in the mirror. You do. So if it’s important to you, get busy doing and figuring out how to make it happen. You got this!

What are you going to get busy doing because it’s important to you? Anything that you felt you should do because it was important to other people that you can take off your plate because it’s not actually a priority for you? I give you permission for that. It’s your plate and your life.

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March 13, 2012 · 8:56 pm

Silence is Sometimes Golden

I’m a pretty big extravert. Huge, really. One of my top five Strengths is Woo. My mother likes to say that if I’m in a room with strangers for too long that pretty soon I’ll have a social calendar organized, new friends made, and folks connected to each other. I’m good at making friends. My grandfather had this gift as well so it’s reasonable to assume that I come by it honestly. 🙂 I might not talk to total strangers as willingly as he seemed to, but give me 40 years and maybe I will then. More often than not my energy comes from being around people and having a good time.

Sometimes, however, peace for me is not being around people. There can be too much of a good thing. I’m at this Student Affairs conference and one of my goals for the conference this year was to be more relationship focused, rather than being so tunnel-vision minded about attending sessions. It’s been going well for me, but it comes at a price. There has been little time for reflection, processing, and being silent. Currently I’m in my room with no music, no talking, no noise except the keyboard and it is blissful. In 8 minutes I will walk over to a reception where I will kick my extravert into gear one more time and get back to the business of relationship building. I love relationships, and I’m not knockin’ ’em. But sometimes, the silence is peaceful – even for an extravert.

I’ve taken so much information in over the last 2.5 days – either from educational sessions, long talks with people, or snippets of introductions with other folks. The silence gives me a chance to mull it over and reflect. Too much dissonance with noise, networking, group work, introductions, and so forth has left me just a smidge unsettled. So in this moment, I am thankful for the silence. It allows me to regroup and prepare myself for round 46. It also reminds me that in my regular life that I need to make a space for silence and reflection. My regular life may not be as noisy as a conference with 4,500 of my closest Student Affairs buddies. However, there is no less need for processing and reflecting on what I’m learning, where I’m wanting to go, and how I want to get there.

I wrote a blog post recently for my Student Affairs colleagues on balance and there is much discussion on whether balance even exists. Y’all, I believe it does – it just exists differently for each of us. And you can’t have noise all the time, nor can you have silence all the time because then you start to take the one you have all the time for granted. Make a place in your life for both, I think it’s good for you. And in my case, a little extra silence brings me peace – so maybe it will for you too.

And I’m off to make new friends! Ready or not, here I come!

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