I have so much to say and to catch up on ahh! I just got out of my midterm and it feels great to be done even though now I have to focus on my anthropology midterm tomorrow.
So something was going on with me yesterday that I think would be really important and useful to put out in the open and talk about here...and maybe even get some feed back :) Yesterday got off to a weird start for me and I was pretty much in a bad mood from the moment I woke up. I ditched my cycling class, had a paper and two midterms hanging over my head, had a sugar attack the night before, and my throat was hurting. I was feeling so unmotivated to do anything and my attitude was that I had no choice but to suffer through the next three days. I did my best to pretend to be optimistic about the way I felt, hoping that it would pass and that if I just planned out my time and gave myself little things during the day to look forward to like snacks and breaks here and there that eventually I would snap out of it. At the time of course it feels like it will never happen and all efforts are futile so why bother? But I am a good pretender and just pretended I was a good student and went to class. Eventually I made it to work and while I was there I actually started to feel better and today I think I figured out why. When I'm at work, I know there's no where else I can be except there and the only things I need to worry about for the next three hours are my little jobs in the library. There's no point in stressing while I'm at work because the clock isn't going to tick any faster no matter what I do. Once I got off work I ran into some friends who were studying for the music history midterm. They convinced me to get coffee with them (and it really took convincing on their part!). Once the caffeine was in my system I started to feel even better and by the time choir rolled around, my mood was night and day from that morning! I was happy, once again, to be someplace where my only concern was the task at hand for the next three hours and nothing else. Plus my energy from the caffeine made a tremendous difference.
I guess what I'm getting at here is that whether or not we choose to realize it, stress is a HUGE factor in our lives that can shade every consequent action we make. In singing, if I sing one note is tense, there's a very good chance the next ones will be too. Getting stressed out about one thing led me to stress out about the next thing and the next thing...When I was forced into situations yesterday where it was useless for me to stress out and I had to focus on other things, I magically felt better! I know now that for me, a part of growing up and becoming a more mature, efficient adult will be mastering the skills of:
- balancing stressors with relaxation,
- always allowing myself the time to do what I need to do without sacrificing what's important to keep me as stress free as possible,
- and recognizing when one stressful thing is causing me to stress about everything else.
It's really hard for me to talk myself down from this kind of stress related bad mood because mostly I don't want to admit that I'm stressed, I don't want to do anything to help because I just don't feel like it will work, and I become overwhelmed and unmotivated. I learned from yesterday that there are things that work:- make a schedule that allows for specific and realistic times to get everything done.
- allow yourself to dedicate a time slot to something completely unrelated to anything stressful where you can focus all your attention on something else.
- be around other people who are in a similar boat i.e. other people who are taking the test, other people with deadlines, people with similar goals.
- and as a last resort, have some caffeine for an energy boost!
Hopefully this is relevant to other people as well and you find the advice I'm giving myself sound. I would love to hear of any other realistic techniques for balancing a hectic lifestyle because I am clearly no guru! They can't all be good days but I'd like to aim for something close.
For Lunch yesterday I made an awesome pita sandwich complete with
- hummus
- tahini
- yellow mustard
- paprika, salt, and pepper
- faux meat: roasted turkey flavor
- chopped yellow onion
- spinach
- sprout mix
- cherry tomatoes
- and pickles
It was so tasty!!
I really have an obsession with blueberries. This yogurt hits the spot for me. It's a good study food!
These veggie chips are insanely good. Another worthwhile Costco purchase. They are made completely out of veggies but they taste like sinful chips!
Medium Fudge Nut roast with a little Soy ahhh. This perked me right up!
I freaking love these dipped Mojo Bars. They're like dessert and are especially good when they come in the middle of a three hour choir rehearsal!!
At home after choir I whipped up a light dinner of- cooked brussel sprouts, 2:30 in microwave with a little water
- 1/2 cup wild rice
- 1 tsp. vegan butter
- chopped yellow onion
- coriander
- cumin
- salt
- pepper
Simple and delicious, got the job done and held me over for a head first study sesh.
Later that night Amanda came over and brought study candy! Trust me this picture is merely a representation of what I had. A few peachy tasting things and more of the watermelons and blackberries, soo good! Amanda is a saint and brought so much to the table for the study sesh I don't know what I would have done without her! She is a certified smart-woman :)
The study sesh went pretty late and I fixed everyone some tea. I also had another bag of Veggie straws and hummus...
It all payed off in the end and I feel surprisingly good about the midterm.
I would love to hear any comments about stress or anything at all!!
I used the rest of the raspberry yogurt from my purple oats to make a little smoothie taster. It was
It was so tasty!!
I really have an obsession with blueberries. This yogurt hits the spot for me. It's a good study food!
These veggie chips are insanely good. Another worthwhile Costco purchase. They are made completely out of veggies but they taste like sinful chips!
Medium Fudge Nut roast with a little Soy ahhh. This perked me right up!
I freaking love these dipped Mojo Bars. They're like dessert and are especially good when they come in the middle of a three hour choir rehearsal!!
At home after choir I whipped up a light dinner of
Later that night Amanda came over and brought study candy! Trust me this picture is merely a representation of what I had. A few peachy tasting things and more of the watermelons and blackberries, soo good! Amanda is a saint and brought so much to the table for the study sesh I don't know what I would have done without her! She is a certified smart-woman :)
The study sesh went pretty late and I fixed everyone some tea. I also had another bag of Veggie straws and hummus...
It all payed off in the end and I feel surprisingly good about the midterm.
You only get to take two everyday :( I would eat at least ten if it were up to me.
Sorry I couldn't get a very clear shot but I thought it may be of interest what exactly is in these suckers. I got them at Costco also.
Here's to better planning! The idea here is to be slightly over packed in order to avoid another starvation incident like yesterday. On the menu from left to right we have a cup or two of left over creamy hearty veggie soup, a Fuji, all the fixings for a delicious pita sandwich: cherry tomatoes, slices of fake meat, sprouts, hummus avocado, roasted butternut squash, and mustard. Half a pita bread, a Naked Superfood juice, slices of mango, and for dessert a Clif Mojo Bar Dipped Chocolate Peanut flavor.
This little tangerine had been rolling around in my bag for some time now so I decided a little snack in Anthropology would be good. It was all dried out and not very tasty though so I only ate about three slices of it before deciding to toss it. Sad.
Instead I ate this raspberry fruit strip which was also living in my purse waiting for a moment just like this one.
Yesterday was such a rainy, gray day and today was totally gorgeous! The weather here is seriously bipolar. This is a shot of the music building a.k.a. my home away from home away from home. I was on my way towards work after anthro when I took this shot and met a man who was also taking photos. He had a much better camera than me and clearly knew more about photography. He showed me the shots he'd just been taking of a puddle next to the bike path and in the reflection you could see bikers riding by! It was pretty cool and he suggested that when I update I go with Sony. My little camera has just about given all it's got. It just about has a seizure when it focuses and all the buttons are kind of messed up.
I took a lunch break around 2 while at work and I sat and had lunch in Storke Plaza. You can see the sign in the upper left of the art museum on campus and that ledge in the foreground is actually a big pond with coy fish in it.
This is a little bit of Storke Tower on the right. What a sky!
I have to admit, I built a pretty tasty looking pita!
Love this juice. It's such a treat now that I'm not much of a juice drinker anymore. I try to only drink juice I make myself.
I had just a few tastes of the soup and saved the rest for later, before choir. Turns out this soup is good cold too.
Mango mango.
Alright, dessert time. Actually I was really full but I was so curious as to what this thing looked like I thought I would just take a taste.
It was really good. Less chocolaty than I expected but still, works as dessert for me. I took about three bites and saved the rest. I'm thinking I'll finish it off after dinner as a little treat!
I've never tried this brand of salsa before. Drew's is generally pretty good but this was mostly a college budget inspired purchase.
Spinach, wild rice and pinto beans, roasted butternut squash, sprouts, creamed spinach, roasted brussel sprouts, hummus, salsa, salt and pepper. The salsa was pretty good! I'm into roasted salsas and this one could have stood to be a little roastier tasting but it was still chunky and tasty. I was totally feeling the butternut squash today in my pita so it needed to make a reappearance. 
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