I fully admit to tending toward a type-A personality, but I really think there’s something to be said for having a plan B (and C, and maybe D, E and F, too) in work, school and life. I realize it can be a lot of planning for nothing if The Plan goes great the first time around—and, of course, I always hope it does—but if it doesn’t, which we know is pretty darn common, the lack of a back-up plan can cause unnecessary panic, scrambling and allover stress.

And I’ve had a lot of chances for practice lately:

The Plan: To do my MPH master’s project (basically my thesis) on a very specific topic with a very specific connection and a pretty specific data collection and analysis plan.

The Problem: Logistics. Communication problems. Time, time, time. The fact that despite my fabulous school allows seven years for an MPH program, I would like to get out of there as soon as possible (read: I have senioritis).

Plan B: When things on my original project started smelling fishy, I started looking for other options. What I’m working toward now, fingers crossed, will end up to be a better, more manageable project that just happens to sit at the exact intersection of my interests.

The Verdict: TGFPB (thank god for plan B).

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The Plan: To get a way-cool part-time job at a way-cool company that just might have some way-way-way-cool full-time positions up for grabs right around the time I’ll be donning the ol’ cap-n-gown.

The Problem: Great conversations, great sort-of interviews, great (I thought) cover letter. Thinks looked good…until the company decided not to fill the position right now, for a good reason.

Plan B: After clicking “submit” on the application, I came up with all of the things I would do if I didn’t get the job—the most important of which cranking out a bunch of credits in the spring and finishing up both of my master’s programs and projects earlier than I’d planned.

The Verdict: TGFPB.

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The Plan: To run the Twin Cities Marathon like a champ (or, well, just to finish)!

The Problem: Injury. Which you may remember. ‘Nuff said.

Plan B: None. I was going to run, and I was going to finish, and it was going to be the best moment of my life. Duh.

The Verdict: I bawled. And moped. And moved on. And starting practicing a heck of a lot of yoga. And survived. But it was miserable for a while there—and I should have had a back-up plan, even if it was a mental one.

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So I’m currently planning what to do if: another master’s project falls through, I can’t find a job after graduation, my right hip decides it only likes me if I’m not running—and about a million other things. Maybe it makes me crazy, maybe it makes me smart, maybe it’s a combination of the two. But having a Plan B always makes me feel better, especially when I end up using it.

Photo by gingiber

I got all pumped up to blog – about something totally different than what follows – and brought a bag of jumbo marshmallows to the couch with me. As I popped a big fluffy thing in my mouth, then another, I realized how funny this scene would probably be to my public health classmates and professors, my running buddies, my fellow yogis, the 548 people who follow health_nutty on Twitter.

And, probably, you. (No judging on the marshmallows, by the way. I blame my mother for my strange sweet tooth. Hi, Mom.) But as I starting thinking – and laughing out loud – at the disconnect between someone who studies, lives and breathes health stuff shoveling marshmallows directly from bag to mouth, I realized it’s actually pretty common to not walk the talk.

Let’s face it: We know accountants with all kinds of credit card debt, hair stylists with terrible hair, event planners who can’t schedule their afternoon and public health students who eat marshmallows. Why can’t – or don’t – we practice what we preach?

I’m going to guess it’s because we’re burned out. Now I’m no financial planner, but I’m guessing if I was one the last thing I’d want to look at when I got home from work is my own bank statement. We put the vast majority of our energy into our careers, so when it comes down to it, we don’t have much left for ourselves. And I think it’s really sad that I could work my butt off all day trying to get people living in poverty the resources and education they need to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and then come home and have a frozen pizza for dinner.

Luckily, I think there are exceptions, and I had the immense pleasure of living one for a summer during college when I interned at a health and lifestyle magazine. We had a free gym and were encouraged to use it and ate in a mostly local, organic, highly subsidized cafeteria. We wrote about health and talked about health and lived health, and for some reason, all I wanted when I got home from work was to go for a long run and eat a big salad.

Do you walk your professional talk? What would make it easier?

Photo by Vali...

First, and really encouraging -- several people I know who have been job-hunting have been landing interviews lately. Hopeful for these folks, hopeful sign for the economy.

But the question of how to "ace" an interview always comes up, especially because there are so many types of interviews and interviewers. There's a lot of good interview advice available, but let's start with some important, but easy things you can do:

1. Prep, prep, prep. You really need to know everything about the company that you're interviewing with -- who they are, what they do, how they do it. Anything you can't easily find out, consider that a question you should pop at the interviewer.

2. Defend without being defensive. If there's anything in your resume that's at all out of the ordinary, be prepared to talk about it. Maybe it's a question about being laid off, or a question a big project you said you coordinated. Again, prep, prep, prep.

3. Consider the opportunity. The questions (from a good interviewer, at least) will be designed to expose your strengths or weaknesses -- what have you been doing since the layoffs, other than job-hunting? Did the big project overwhelm you? Your answers will say something about how motivated you are, and your body language (as you digest and answer the question) will say a lot more about attitude.

A while back, after being caught up in some massive layoffs in the tech industry, I was in a second round of interviews with an interesting tech company. As we finished up, the interviewer told me something which stuck with me. He said that -- unlike most of the interviews he had been conducting with folks who had been laid off -- there was no tension, bad body language, no deer-caught-in-headlights feeling in the room. He said it felt like a couple of people just sitting there, talking normally, and it made him feel very comfortable (not a bad thing in an interview).

4. Leave an impression. Usually I hear that you're supposed to get the interviewer to talk as much as possible during an interview, which makes sense up to a point. Yes, you want to get a better feel for the job, the manager, the company, and yes, you want the interviewer to feel as comfortable as possible (who doesn't feel comfortable talking about one's self?) But the key is still to leaving an impression (hopefully positive).

If you don't make the hiring manager understand who you are and how you're different from all the other applicants, then you've likely missed your chance to get the job.

Sorry to be MIA – I’ve spent the last week-and-a-half in a fog. Like that commercial where the (cartoon) woman has medicine head and her head lifts off like a balloon. Yep, whatever evil, nasty cold that’s been going around finally caught me. And it was as described.

And while my Minnesota it-could-be-worse mentality still peeked through to some degree, I can think of few things less pleasant than basically not having a functional head for a week-and-a-half of grad schooling, working and Halloweening.

But there’s good news! I made note of my brilliant coping strategies to help you survive what’s bound to be a gross cold/flu/etc. season. Good luck (and wash your hands)!

Take advantage of couch time. I spent a whole lot of time chillin’ in my PJs, on the couch, with a box of Kleenex within arm’s reach—but my laptop wasn’t any farther away. Because I didn’t want to leave the house (felt like crap AND didn’t want to be a germ-spreading machine), I finally had the time and motivation…sort of…to just sit down and get all the tedious homework things I’d been avoiding done.

Be nice, and take one for the team. Especially with the H1N1 freak-outs going on, I found that people were very understanding of anything I had to cancel, miss, reschedule or adjust. My best strategy was being very nice and apologetic and really, really stressing the fact that I don’t want to get anyone else sick. Once people picture themselves in your shoes (see description above), they’re usually pretty quick to let you off the hook.

Suck it up. Now I realize resting is ideal, but sometimes that’s just not possible. So I—a usually super anti-medicine person—took my DayQuil every four hours, drank a lot of water and just pretended I wasn’t sick when I had to get something done. I admit to having a relatively miserable day at work, class and lab, but I did what I had to do and felt much less stressed out later knowing I didn’t miss anything.

But know when to let go. While I do believe in sucking it up to some degree, there are times you’ve just gotta let your body take over. For me, that meant sleeping a good 12 hours one day…then going back to bed a few hours later. It’s hard for me to let myself do it, but sleeping, relaxing and not trying to push a recovery can be the best medicine.

[Update on our user poll -- as expected, stay away from friends and family to avoid getting sick. And twice as many of you said work or school were the most likely sources of contagion.

[Unfortunately for you if you're reading this, an equal number picked "reading this blog" as the most probable way to contract the flu. Sorry! ]

Photo by blisschan