A fairly uneventful week, this one. My knee is not back to a 100% and so the exercises have been of low intensity and more focused on the upper body. Apparently, the body tries to convince you to move less to compensate for injuries. I started doing pull-ups and can’t even do 1 unassisted. I can do a lot more with 96 lbs of support. We have these machines where the machine provides you some support and you put in that much lesser effort. With time, you start reducing the support. I love this machine and plan to add it to my daily routines.
Given the decrease in work-out intensity, I have also cut back on calories this week by about 25 per day (involuntary). It is really difficult to maintain that 1:1 carb:protein ratio while consuming grains.
A serving of rice is a half a cup of cooked rice. I was shocked to see how small that amount was. In my pre 20-20 days, I can bet that I used to have about 6-8 servings of rice in a meal!! I am still not eating white rice, though. I had rasam sadham (rice with clear tamarind pepper soup) with brown rice and despite my reservation, I was able to eat it. It’s definitely different than white rice but I hear that after a while, one starts liking the flavor of brown rice and disliking the flavor of white rice. We will see.
A funny incident: My hands started getting callused and I went to get some weight lighting gloves. They were $40 and I did not went spend that kind of money. To convince me the salesperson starting pitching the benefits of the gloves and finally he told me that these gloves could also be used for bike riding. That’s when it struck me – I have bike riding gloves. I thanked the helpful salesperson and went my way :) Had he kept quiet, I might have at least purchased a cheaper glove – Oh! Well! :)
Lapse and Relapse
Several of us try to break a habit and the first slip we have, we just decide that our mission has failed and we just completely give in. Then, we give ourselves permission to resume the bad habit or abort the mission for the rest of our lives. See these 2 videos.
It’s not unusual to have lapses. So, if you lapse or in our case, fail to stick to your diet or exercise regimen for a day, instead of giving in completely, do the following
- Forgive yourself (Hey, to err is human)
- Analyze why you slipped? (Was the goal too lofty? Were there external forces? Were there emotional issues? physical issues? Where were you? Who was with you?…)
- Write down the lapse and your analysis?
- Plan to succeed (How can you not lapse in this same manner again? Avoid the circumstance? Ask for support? Be better prepared?…)
- Rehearse how you will act the next time (Yes, full dress rehearsal).
You might lapse again later, go revise your analysis and plan. If you relapse, then seek help:
- from a friend
- from family
- from a co-worker
- from a professional
- from a support group
- from books/resources
You still have to forgive yourself but you need a 3rd party to help you and to keep you honest with yourself. With any goal, one has to be flexible. If there are emergencies (job loss, health issues, others need urgent assistance…), be ok with pausing on your mission for a while. But, remember to resume soon. Deadlines, work-pressure, pressure at home… are not good reasons to pause a mission, generally speaking. To ensure that no one else sabotages your precious missions, you might want to learn to be assertive.
Being Assertive
Watch this video about assertiveness that educates us to stand for our rights without violating others. I don’t remember the quote or source (help me out here). “Your can swing your cane all you want but you can’t touch my nose – your rights end at the tip of your cane”
There is a huge difference between being passive, aggressive and assertive. It’s funny to see me and my co-worker not being assertive more than half the time. It’s a huge area of improvement for me and my team at work.
Goal Setting
Now, that you know how to deal with lapses and relapses and about being assertive – you know about the worst 2 enemies and you are prepared to start a journey to the destination of your choice. Your 2 enemies will come visit you during your journey but you now know how to deal with them (at least theoretically).
I read a book on goal setting (see references) and these might help you if you are setting some goals for yourself.
Alice: Oh, no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn't matter, as long as...
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn't matter which way you go.
- Why? The more and better reasons you have for a goal – the more likely you are to achieve it. An introspection exercise is probably warranted at this step
- Write the Goals down (We have all heard of SMART goals)
- Ensure that this goal does not conflict with other goals you have.
- If required, break a big SMART goal into smaller SMART goals.
- Visualize how it will be to achieve the goal.
- Analyze the goal for potential problems. Here’s where critical thinking becomes very useful. At Microsoft, we use Precision Questioning to aid us in Critical Thinking. In the references section, I have mentioned a book on the topic.
- Consider what actions you could/would take to to fix problems identified.
- Break the goals into steps that are bite-sized. Set the right amount of time.
- Regular review your goals and the progress you are making on the goals.
- Reward yourself when you achieve your goals to reinforce this process.
Here are some areas that most of us would have goals in:
- Spiritual/Religious
- Personal
- Health/Wellness
- Spouse/Children
- Social/Civic/Community
- Professional
- Economic/Financial
Good Luck with your goals! Please share them by clicking on the comments links below.
Resources
This is Angel’s landing that we climbed.
This is the view from the top (Notice the white bus on the red road – tells you how high we were)
This is in Bryce Canyon – Navajo Trail.
This is Bryce Canyon’s Amphitheater (full of hoodoos). 
