The Element of Becoming More Focused and Precise in Our Goals, And Its Hope for Experiencing Powerful Results

I am used to exercise.  For a few years, I walked in the hills for over two and a half hours every day with my friend Becky.

On the days I did not walk, I went to the gym and I bicycled on a stationary bike. I then did 10 minutes of weights.

Regular exercise has been part of my routine ever since I can remember.

Exercise is good for our health.  Exercise keeps our weight down. Exercise keeps us fit.

Watching what I eat and drink is something I have also done for most of my life.

When me and my friend Julia talk, nutrition is one of our favorite subjects.

I can count on Julia to tell me things I do not know.

I learned about trans fats from her, I learned about pro-biotics from her, I learned about the benefits of green tea from her, I learned about the health value of leafy greens from her, I learned about raw foods and raw milk from her.

Slowly, I incorporated raw foods into my diet, eating a handful of nuts, a few baby carrots, half an apple, and a stick of celery every day. I also started drinking green smoothies, which I made with frozen bananas, strawberries, soy milk, avocados and greens.

I avoided fats like the plague (based on the ADA recommendations), ate modest quantities of rice or wheat every night for dinner with some meat and vegetables, and indulged in dosas, pizza, candy, ice-cream, Indian sweets, Starbucks mochas and cake (not too much, I thought) whenever I was tempted.

My weight was normal to low.

Then in 2010, came a slap in the face in a routine physical.

I found out my fasting blood sugar was 99 mg/dL, and that it classified me as a pre-diabetic.

How could it be?

I ate less than most people I knew (one of my friends used to say "you eat like a squirrel"), I exercised more than most people I knew, and in spite of both those facts, I was "pre-diabetic".

I did not alter my course.

I continued to eat the way I was eating, and exercise the way I was exercising.  I continued to have very general goals - keep my weight down, do cardio to raise my heart rate, keep my muscles toned by doing 10 minutes of weights most days, eat raw foods to increase my nutrient intake, keep my overall consumption of food low.

I was able to fit this way of eating and living with my busy work and personal life.

Then came an assignment with a heavy workload. My food and exercise went for a six.  This was not helped by the fact of the free food I had access to at this company. There were 30 different snacks to choose from, free breakfasts on Friday (donuts, bagels, juices, fruit), and free dinner catered by a different restaurant every night.

I stopped bringing my nuts and carrots and celery and half an apple from home, and my small quantity of cooked food (why bother), and got into the free snacks and food, and the cafeteria lunches.

My weight went up, my clothes size went up, but I ignored both.

Then in September of 2015, I went for a blood test, and wham. 

My pre-diabetes had worsened. My fasting blood glucose was now up to 107 mg/dL.

I went online to check what that meant for me and it was not good. With a fasting blood sugar of 107 mg/dL, the odds of me becoming a full-blown diabetic within 5 years were high.

I decided to take control.

I now eat and exercise with a purpose, or rather, a precise purpose.

This precise purpose is to reverse my pre-diabetes.

Many people think I am fighting a losing battle.   

"Minoo, it’s your genes.  There is nothing you can do about it". 

Yes, it is in my genes. My mum was diabetic.  My grandfather was diabetic. Why even bother?

But I do want to bother.

I want to give myself the best chance of avoiding this dreadful disease.

And so I have educated myself.

Luckier than Your Mother or Father

'You are luckier than your mother or father' is what each one of us needs to understand.

Thanks to the internet, we can find the information we need to avoid things before they become problems.

Sure, we can go to a doctor to find out what's wrong, and get a prescription.

But what if we can avoid reaching the stage where something is wrong in the first place? Isn't that even better?

I now eat and exercise with much more focus.

I have learned a lot online, and I have taken what I have learned to heart.

I also purchased a glucose meter. Since doing that, I have learned how my body responds to different kinds of food.

As a result, I have changed what I eat, and how I eat.

Do I run into roadblocks or problems?

Yes, of course.

But I research those roadblocks and problems too.

And I always find an answer.

Muscle cramps due to loss of electrolytes?

There is an answer for that.

Nutrient deficiencies?

There is an answer for that.

You and I both are luckier than our mothers and fathers.

What are we doing with that luck?

Isn't it a shame to waste it?

This post is about becoming more focused in your goals, and making them more precise.

You can do that in any area of your life, and if you do, you will experience powerful results.

"But Minoo, what if this leads to only short-term results?  What if we do long-term damage in the process, without knowing it?  And what if we aren't able to keep it up, and are back at square one eventually?" After all Atkins had cardio myopathy, Roy Walford, the calorie restriction advocate, died from complications of ALS (which they said might have been brought on by his low energy diet), and the winners on The Biggest Losers challenge have been known to gain all the weight back a few years later.

In other words, what if what I am doing bombs? It is possible.

But I would much rather take on the challenge of keeping my pre-diabetes where it is at, or improving it, even if I fail eventually, than sit and watch my pre-diabetes progress to diabetes, without any intervention on my part.

My plan is to give it my best shot, and see where my cards fall.

Try to become more focused in your goals.  Make them more precise.

Don't say "I want to lose weight," say "I want to lose this stomach". 

Then do the research.

You are luckier than your mother or father, because you can do the research while time is still on your side...before you suddenly land in hospital because of very high blood sugar or very low blood sugar - which was how my mother’s diabetes was discovered.

Time is on your side when the damage is still reversible. When the blood sugar spikes haven't done nerve damage, heart damage, kidney damage, stomach damage, eye damage.

Become more focused in your health goals.  Make them more precise.

A pre-diabetic and a diabetic, both, have many choices of goals.

A goal can be, "I want to lose weight"

A goal can be "I want to halt my march to diabetes".

A goal can be "I want to maintain my blood sugar in a tight range, so as to avoid spikes."

A goal can be, “I want to avoid kidney damage, peripheral neuropathy, eye damage.”

Any health goal can be fine-tuned for more precision.

And we don’t have to stop at health.

Health goals, career goals, finance goals - we can become more focused in all of them.

I know that I have become more focused in all of these areas.

When I first became a Commissions Consultant, all I knew is I was choosing to temp rather than be employed.

As I progressed down the path, I realized I wanted to position myself more precisely as a Transition Commissions Analyst.

This is what I am today - a Transition Commissions Analyst. I help companies who are in transition – either because they have lost a resource, or because they are transitioning between technologies.

This more precise focus helps me choose the right assignments.  The right assignments are at companies which are in a jam - either because one of their key people have left, or because they are implementing new commissions software and need people with experience on board.

I have other work-related focuses. One of my focuses is to become better at handling interpersonal issues at work, as well as job content challenges. I have made it a goal to take these on as meditation challenges, because they usually require humility. If something bothers me, I know I have an uncovered an area I still need to work on.  The goal is to get better and better with every challenge, in spite of occasional setbacks.

Another goal of mine is to delight managers and team members alike.  This is an important goal.  I do not want to focus on pleasing just the decision makers - the ones that approve my time-sheets, and decide whether to extend my assignment, or not.  I want to be a value to my other team-members as well.

Becoming more focused in our goals, and making them more precise, means being ready to take on all kinds of challenges.

But taking on challenges is rewarding.  Every challenge conquered brings a huge psychic reward, especially if you thought you would never be able to do it.

Difficult challenges are just the thing to stir us out of our complacency and boredom, and renew our confidence.

You can add a purpose to anything in your life. 

For example, you can add the purpose that when you deal with so and so (typically a member of your family), you will not get riled up by what you usually get riled up at - whether it is their undependability, or  non punctuality, or anything else.

Many of our problems are emotional, mental or social. Many of our problems are habits of behavior or mind. We respond the same way to the same triggers every time.  We can make it our goal to break that long-standing pattern.

Some time ago, I added the purpose of conquering my tendency to get the last word.  I am now able to stop myself from needing to have the last word in written and verbal communications.  This is something which has to be worked on. It is not easy. If you have never tried it, give it a shot. Take it on as a challenge. 

I have added the purpose of not giving my opinion on everything under the sun.  When someone has a problem and they vent to us (especially our child), our typical response is to give an opinion, or a thinly veiled criticism or lecture, or an' I told you so'. This rarely makes the person with the problem feel good, and in fact, makes them regret they vented to you in the first place.  Instead, we can just ask if there is anything we can do, or we can just listen and say "I am sorry to hear this happened to you."  It is very hard to do that.  But if you take it on as a challenge, you may be surprised at the results. At the very least, you will become someone your child believes they can trust with any truth about themselves. What can be better than that?

After I set myself the goal of replacing opinions with support, my relationship with my daughter transformed dramatically.  And I have observed that being less opinionated has made me appreciate life more - with all its different people and their different ideas and choices.

Try to become more focused and precise in your goals.

And enjoy the challenge of achieving those goals.

If some of them are hard, remember you are a victor at heart.

You have already achieved so much in your life which was against the odds.

You can do it again.

Just become more precise and more focused.

And things will fall into place.

I wish you all success.

As always, thanks for reading and sharing my journey to wisdom, meaning and a better life...M……a Pearl Seeker like you.  Thanks to Ajay for his compliments on my last post, and thanks to the rest of you for your likes, pins, shares, tweets and votes…..much appreciated.  Have a great week, and hope to see you next Sunday.  Before I go, here are links to some sites which have helped me in my quest to kick my pre-diabetes.  I hope they will be as eye-opening for you, as they were for me.

Avoiding Sugar Spikes

Video by Dr Jason Fung on Intermittent Fasting

  

Low Carb Diet Articles and Advice from Dr. Michael Eades

Glycemic Values of Common American Foods by David Mendosa

The Insulinogenic Index – More Important than the Glycemic Index

Dr. Richard Bernstein’s Diabetes Book – The One Book Everyone Should Read and Which Can be Read for Free Online And In Which You Can Understand Everything About Diabetes and I mean Everything - Gastroparesis, Hyperlipotrophy and More