Travel Day

Today I traveled to Indy for two big conferences for work. Hoping to blog over the next couple of days, but if not, I will resume upon my return. I know I will learn from some smart friends and colleagues over the next 4 days, and I will be mentally and physically exhausted. I will also love every minute of it!

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Networks

I’m working on a presentation for my conference this week. It’s on building mentoring networks. Rather than the one-to-one hierarchical expert/apprentice model, I argue that building a network based on shared interests, mutual benefit, and through a series of relationships and alliances, we can change what we think of when we hear the term. mentoring. In another post, I’ll discuss the fabulous mentoring I’ve been lucky to be on the receiving end of, but now that I’m in a position to do some of this mentoring for others, I am also wanting to reflect on the best ways to do it.

And then I came across this quote, and it reminded how important communities are to change.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committeed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Paths & Thoughts

pathI came across both of these today in my fb feed; both ring so true in my own life that I just had to share. My path in life has always been filled and continues to be filled with ALL of the right people. I am so blessed and grateful!

Thoughts of loveliness, I love that phrasing and yes drowning the non-lovely thoughts is always a must.

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One Body

I have been working on the following post for a good while. It’s a pretty hard one because it links lots of experiences related to my body and how I’ve (mis) treated it. I went to the doctor earlier this week for a check-up. I love knowing my blood pressure and it was perfect 124/70 and this is with no medication. It’s always interesting to see a new nurse’s face b/c you can tell they are expecting high blood pressure based on my weight. (The regular nurses know me so that’s not a problem.) High blood pressure along with diabetes runs in my family, so I am pretty particular in keeping track of these numbers.

So writing up my thoughts to share in this post has proven difficult, but if just one person connects with what I am saying, that will be enough. Plus writing it helps me learn from it as well. I have always, at least since a very young age, had a conflicted and complicated relationship with my body. I had a pretty good relationship with my mind and heart (in that I often struggled to make decisions by one lionscarsor another, which could get me in trouble) but my body was a whole other thing. I never quite felt right in my own skin in my scarsbody. Part of the reason for this is a pretty significant experience/accident that resulted in really deep 3rd degree brush burns on my leg and stomach. This incident also involved a skin graph and month long hospital stay when I was in the 1st grade in 1981. This left me with pretty significant scars on my body, which could really only be seen when I wore a swimsuit, but since my brothers and I swam competitively until my teenage years, this was pretty often. Anyway, so that’s the origin story of my relationship with my body, but it certainly left me with a good amount of shame.

Unfortunately, I turned on my body at a very young age because of its scars, and then when puberty hit, I turned on it again. I abused it with food, nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine throughout my adolescence and young adulthood (Of course, this was pretty easy to do growing up in New Orleans and in a Catholic, Italian family—to be clear–I regret none of this as it has made me the person I am today).  However, I always thought I abused it to cope with life around me, which was a pretty good life truth be told, so it never made a whole lot of sense.

In reflecting on my life to date (mostly through this blog and over the last several years) and making decisions for the future, loveyourbodyI’ve realized some pretty important things when it comes to the relationship we have with our bodies and what they can and can’t do. Just recently, I realized that I have spent entirely too much time in my life hating my body and/or being uncomfortable in my own skin. And because of this, I treated it in horrible ways and most of the time, I did so unconsciously. But as I began thinking about my body in different ways, I recognized that it is incredibly difficult to take care of our bodies while also treating them poorly. This re-acquaintance with the one body I have has taken years. It wasn’t until I decided that yet another weight loss plan (you name it; I’ve done it) and fat shaming spiral was not going to work for me. After all, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.sweet-bodies

I had to change the way I was thinking about my body, and at least two events triggered this several years ago. 1. I was faced with the possibility of never having a body healthy enough to carry a child and 2. I was seriously considering the possibility of having weight loss surgery. In hindsight, the surgery scared me most. I wasn’t keen on going under the knife to have my digestive system reshaped in order to lose weight. Lucky for me, no doctor suggested this path and because of my work on the IRB, I knew the risks and understood how dramatically it would change my eating. It was just the wake-up call I needed.  A potential surgery seemed the ultimate turning on my body, and I was ready to stop the cycle, so I took very specific steps to treat my body better.  As a result, I am much more comfortable in my own skin, my own body. I take care of it in ways I never thought were possible. I push it to do the things I never thought were possible. I feed it lots of different things while also enjoying my very favorite things. I also take care of it in hopes that I am healthy enough, even at my age, to have a child.

The realization that my body was not able to do the things I wanted it to do was a gift and led to my path to a healthier and fitter body. The weight loss for me has always been lagnaippe…the relationship with my body and the pure joy and elation from living with that knowledge, that’s something to celebrate, especially today!

This is part of my body story, but we can likely ALL do better in acknowledging body shaming and work to respect our bodies–scars, size, imperfections, beauty and all.

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A Mighty Girl

In honor of Women’s History Month, it seems fitting to use the blog to post about women we may not know but should.

Years ago, someone gave me a shirt with this quote on it…and I recognize its enactment in my own life.

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Smart Girls

I just love Amy Poehler, and I was happy to see her listed in the following article. The motto of her Smart Girls campaign is just perfect:
“We change the world by being ourselves, and being ourselves is a lifelong quest.”
Being ourselves is certainly a lifelong quest, but one especially worthy of our efforts.

Spring Break

Ahhh, Spring Break…that time in the semester where we have one week off from classes and meetings. In most years, it just means catching up on all the things. In some years, my big conference falls on that exact week, which is always sad, but this year, Spring Break is this week and then I head to Indianapolis next week for ATTW/CCCCs. Growing up in NOLA, we didn’t have a one-week spring break. We had 3 days off at Mardi Gras and another 3 days off at Easter. I spent several spring breaks at the beach with friends, and even celebrated my 16 birthday, when Easter fell on my birthday. The first weekend of my spring break was quite productive.

One of the things we loved about our new house when we looked at it last spring was all of the landscaping and flower beds, but it’s a lot of yard. This weekend’s weather was amazing, and our friend, Andygator, helped me tackle the front and side yards of the house on Saturday. We were attacked by several types of vines and took a small tree down with a chainsaw. I couldn’t believe the huge piles of leaves and debris we carried to the front of the yard to be picked up. We still have the backyard to conquer, and it’s a bigger mess, but I think it’s doable with some help. Once we get it cleaned, it will be a bit more manageable. I’m glad we got an early start on getting things cleaned up and out in time to enjoy the outdoors.  It’s going to be so much fun seeing the yard bright with colors over the next several months. Here are some before and after pics, and I’m so thankful to have had such great help!

Pergola with overgrown uncontrollable vine.
Pergola with overgrown uncontrollable vine.
Side of house view of pergola.
Side of house view of pergola.
Piles of debris/leaves
Piles of debris/leaves