Backwards Thinking to a (Diabetes) Goal of Eating More Veggies

Is that a funny way to make a behaviour change?  Begin with the end in mind?

I recently read, “The 7 Habits of Effective People with Diabetes“ by Steven Covey. This post is in response to Habit #2, Begin With The End in Mind.

To “Begin With the End in Mind,”  I thought of my goal and then went backwards from my goal to the first behaviour I need to do.

End goal – Eat Well by adding MORE (especially fresh and low carb) veggies to my daily food plan

• To eat more veggies I need to have them in my fridge.
• To have them in my fridge, I need to grocery shop.
• To grocery shop, I need to have an empty and clean fridge.
• To have an empty and clean fridge, I need to toss things and then clean it out.
• To toss things and then clean it out, I need energy.
• To get energy, I need adequate sleep.
• To get adequate sleep, I need to allow enough time in bed.
• To allow enough time in bed, I need to make sleep a priority.
• To make sleep a priority, I need to make a schedule and FOLLOW it.
• To follow a schedule, I need to determine what the benefits of getting adequate sleep are.

When I get adequate sleep (over a long period of time) I have more energy.

When I have more energy I feel motivated to do things, especially things I don’t care to do. And all this leads me to eating more veggies on a daily basis.

I see how helpful this backwards thinking is. I will do this with other goals too. But for the rest of this month (August) and September, I am going to work on my sleep and see where that leads me.

NOTE:  Evidently many, many folks with diabetes have sleep issues (like me) and so are chronically tired. I realize that getting adequate sleep (over the long haul) requires more than allowing enough time in bed. It also means being able to stay asleep.

As my blood glucose numbers have improved (from mid 300’s to 100-120), my ability to sleep has improved. I no longer get up multiple times each night to use the restroom. I also don’t have leg cramps 1-3 times a night.

So now, I need to get over my bad habit of not planning for enough time in bed. I used to avoid going to bed because I knew it would be a frustrating experience. It is no longer frustrating, but the bad habit persists, in part because I am a night owl.

But I will be concentrating on the benefits of getting adequate sleep. Hopefully I will have something positive to report by the end of September.

Resources . . .

• The 7 Habits of Effective People with Diabetes (Steven Covey)
• 7 Health Care Behaviour Worksheet (taken from the above document)

Your Turn . . . What “end” or goal do you have in mind? Write out your steps and share your answers with us.

Related Post . . . This post is where I first talked about my diabetes diagnosis.