Flux Potluck

April 11, 2010 - 10:28 PM

I have gotten really lucky this spring. For some reason, the skies opened up and gave me opportunity after opportunity. First, my dad gave Collin and me a graduation trip to Europe. Then I found out that I was accepted to Stanford for graduate school, and finally, I was asked to serve as editor in chief of Flux Magazine: one of the nation's premier student publications and the pride and joy of the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. The magazine, which began publishing in 1993, has earned students more than 100 individual and team awards.

So over the course of the last few months, advising professor Michael Werner and I have been working nonstop to make sure that Flux as a magazine and as a group of individuals runs smoothly.

After thinking about all of the business details of the magazine for weeks on end, we decided that the team needed a way to connect outside of the classroom.

Well, whenever I am in charge of a party, I always pull out my favorite card: the potluck card.

It is so much more cost-effective to let everyone pay for the refreshments than to place the entire burden on a select number of people. Also, it allows people to feel valued in the party setting and serves as a conversation-starter.

During the last two weeks, however, I decided to go back to Jenny Craig. I lost about 9 pounds in the first week and a half, and expected to celebrate by eating EVERYTHING I COULD GET MY HANDS ON this weekend-including the potluck fare.

After my first celebration meal, I realized that I didn't feel as good about my success. That night, Collin and I went out to eat, and instead of getting the reuben I had intended on ordering, I got a brewer's salad instead. I didn't feel like gorging myself as a reward. It didn't feel like a reward. It felt like a bad habit that I knew better than to practice.

So yesterday, I ate all Jenny Craig meals, but ate some cookies too. I had a few fun things, but stuck to the backbone of the diet. Then today, I got up and worked out with my best friend for the second day in a row. I ate well for breakfast and lunch and talked to her about my conflicted thoughts about how to eat at the potluck.

"I don't want to go eat all that fatty food, but I know it is going to be SO tempting, so I need to go there with a plan," I said. "I can't just go and be battling myself while looking at the food; I'll cave."

"Well won't there be veggies there?" she asked. (There were supposed to be, but there weren't).

"Sure," I responded. "But what I think I will do is take this Jenny pizza and cut it up and eat it like an appetizer. That way, I won't feel out of the loop."

When I got to the potluck, I was overwhelmed. I couldn't have predicted how tempting it would be to have so much delicious, fattening foods up for grabs.

That's when I got busy!

I decided that playing hostess (which I was even though one of our lovely staff members allowed us to use his house for the party) included cleaning as the party went. I started on the kitchen and got it to a point that was cleaner than when I found it.

People came in and asked me what I was doing, and I told them the truth. "I am staying away from the food because of Jenny, and I'm cleaning because I love to clean." Plus, I didn't want Simon to have to clean everything up, and cleaning during the party would expedite the post-party-clean-up-process.

In the end, I felt really good about the whole thing. I got to talk to the people I wanted to see, and I got to help Simon out. At the end of the day, I feel amazing about my ability to control myself as well as the way my body feels: unstuffed and compact.

The whole time, I could hear people interacting in the other room. It felt good to know that people were connecting out of the classroom, and I knew that I was making the right decision for myself.

It was a very rewarding experience as a leader and for myself.