Stop Complaining, Start Doing. It is Time for Plan A.
How many times have we complained about some circumstance, about a problem of ours, an aspect of our life, without never really taking the time and the energy to fully explore it and understanding its causes? That “wrong” behaviour (that we know it’s wrong) that we tend to perpetuate out of our own laziness is a Plan B. The easy, comfortable way. Complaining is easier than fixing.
And how many times have we sat down to dissect the problem, figuring out its real source, and tackling that to fix it once and for all? Acting on the root cause is a Plan A. We understand the subject matter deeply, and we fix it. It’s a future-proof strategy, but it’s harder. And because it entails a lot more responsibility, ownership and leaves no space for excuses or pats on the back, we tend to avoid it.
(Big credits to the amazing blog Raptitude for inspiring this “diabetes management edition” of their article!)
Overview of Plan Bs and Plan As
Plan B is “doing thing the usual way”, and complaining that things are not changing. Plan B is “easy choices, hard life”.
Plan B is taking the shortcut once again simply because we didn’t take the time to really understand the path.
Plan B is “Yes yes I know this is not optimal, but it’s always been like that for me anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what I do”.
Plan B is surrendering to the status of thing, without even considering that an alternative is there for us to explore. But since Plan B is comfortable, and perhaps complaining is less effort than doing, we go for it once again.
Plan A is that of discipline, efficiency and courage.
Plan A is the “hard choice, easy life”.
Plan A is the act of engaging with the problem to solve it.
Plan A is deconstructing the issue, questioning the assumptions, auditing the behavior, and taking the appropriate steps to strengthen the weak link once it is found.
Plan A is “what is the point of seeing, if then we don’t act?”, and then taking action.
My Plan As and Plan Bs: Diabetes management edition
Plan B was enjoying another pizza, pasta or any other “tasty” dish based on oils and processed carbs. Inevitable staples for an Italian.
Plan B was then lamenting the same old spike in blood glucose overnight, being frustrated because it was happening “once more”, blaming circumstances, life, others…everything and everyone except for myself. And then of course shrugging the shoulders because the rollercoaster “was just inevitable”, “that’s the life of a diabetic”.
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Plan A was taking the time to read Mastering Diabetes and to understand that certain foods (oils and refined carbohydrates) do make you insulin resistant and lead to the up and downs.
Plan A was gathering up the courage to detach from the meals that pleased my tastebuds at the expense of my health.
Plan A was changing my grocery shopping behavior, explore a universe of equally tasty, but health-promoting foods, and realizing that the blood sugar roller coaster is inevitable only as long as I allow it to be that way.
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Plan B was not running because “when I do that I have hypoglycaemia, so running is unsafe for a type- diabetic like me”.
Plan A was discovering groups of ultra-endurance athletes with diabetes, deciding how they do it, and implementing it in my day to day. How they eat, how they handle insulin, and so on. Understanding that one is not enslaved by insulin spikes and drops, so long as one is eating the food that stabilise blood glucose before was a life changing revelation.
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Plan B was avoiding fruits because “they’re sugar and sugar is bad for you and they skyrocket your blood glucose.
Plan A is adopting a diet that promotes insulin sensitivity and enjoying all the fruits I want in a day, the only limit on quantity being dictated by the capacity of my stomach, because fruits are extremely, extremely, extremely good for you.
Plan A.
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Plan B was enjoying that processed food, that little treat that “won’t do any harm, it’s just for this time”…and being frustrated because our blood analyses and our hbA1c is once again all over the place.
Plan A was understanding that processed foods, even in small quantities, do have an impact for hours after the meal, and that if they enter the food rotation fairly regularly, we must not be surprised that our blood glucose seems impossible to manage, and that we’re constantly running after insulin corrections.
Plan A: the Way of the Courageous
Plan B is not acting, even though it is evident that something is to be done now, otherwise there’s a big price to pay some time later.
Plan A is changing the narrative, taking courage, and then acting.
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Plan B is “just one more time”.
Plan A is “the only way to stop is to stop. And so I stop”. Plan A is “the only way to change this, is to act. And so I act”.
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Plan B is just another excuse.
Plan A is taking ownership and responsibility.
My Plan A for This Week
While writing this article I found several other plan Bs that are holding me back in my daily life, not necessarily related to diabets. I took the occasion to note down the plan As that can replace them.
To get started with this exercise, let me publicly share a Plan B (and Plan A) not related to diabetes that I am focusing on this week:
Plan B: “I don’t have enough time to study because work is too much” (…how many times have I made this poor excuse!)
Plan A: I do have the time to study. Outside work, I can meal-prep more, lose less time hunting for food in supermarkets, and optimise my routine to free up at least one hour to study after work.
I know this sounds silly, but that is just the mundane reality of Plan As and Plan Bs! Small daily stuff that holds us back.
Several weeks of journaling revealed to me that the very reason I can not realise a day’s full potential is merely because I visit the supermarket every day on my way home from work. That is time I can easily dedicate to study.
Now that I’ve seen the problem, solving it is on me. My responsibility.
I am sharing this silly example of mine for some self-motivation and to spark the challenge in you, dear reader, to audit your days, your behaviours, your habits for small things that are holding you back. It takes courage, some energy and some time for reflection. If that sounds boring, that’s a sign you should probably do it. Plus, it is really worth it.
Fixing a Plan B will be a proof that you (me) one people who takes action to fix it. Once the first plan B is dealt with, moving to the second will be much easier. And so on with all the others, one by one.
So, what about you? What are the plan Bs that are holding you back? What are the plan As that could replace them and push you forward?
