TT 170

CONTENTS

My Pulpit message notes: | Hope in the Saviour Shepherd | 3-4

My Parenting: Our Children Need to See Weakness | 6

My Business: Second Joint Statement by the Heads of FAO, IMF, WBG, WFP, and WTO on the Global Food Security and Nutrition Crisis | 7

My Inspiration: What’s on the other side of every problem? | 8

My Entrepreneur: 5 indicators you’ve taken your eye off the leadership ball | 9

My Health: ‘Night owls’ may have greater type 2 diabetes and heart disease risk than ‘early birds’| 10-11

My Kitchen: Sticky Chinese five-spice chicken traybake |12

My Sports: How fast was Eliud Kipchoge’s world record? 2022 Berlin Marathon breakdown |13

My Pulpit Message Notes

Hope in the Saviour-Shepherd.

My Pulpit Message Notes are extracted from the sermon preached at the Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC) Ngong Road on Sunday 25th September 2022. Preacher: Dr. Joshua Wathanga (NBC Elder). Scripture: Micah 6:1-7:20. Topic: Hope in the Saviour-Shepherd.

How do we know when revival comes? How does it look like? How do I know when God answers that prayer for revival?

Suggestions of what to expect in revival.

1. Passion for God’s Word. When God revives His people there’s a new awareness of the greatness, goodness and the holiness of God. God reveals that primarily through His Word, because God is a revealing God. He has revealed Himself to us supremely through the Lord Jesus Christ and we know about Jesus through God’s Word.

2. We will be people of worship and prayer and then we will realise that having seen afresh about this holiness and freshness of God, we realise our un worthiness before Him. So there’s confession, repentance and people come to the LORD.

3. God’s people then begin to live lives of holiness, aligning themselves, their actions and everything they do to God’s Word and that holiness begins to permeate even in the society. So when we talk about transforming nations, it is from what God is doing and has done.

As you look at Scripture, every time there is evidence of revival and renewal, there’s always a passion for God’s Word. There’s Nehemiah. If you look at the reforms of the Old Testament (O.T), there’s Josiah in 2 Kings 22. In the New Testament (N.T) in Acts 6:1, “So the Word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, a great number of priest came to the faith.”

The Word of the LORD grew. The Church grew.

Micah 6

It starts with God being unhappy, because you have heard all these promises God has given to His people, you would think that you would be responding in repentance and gratitude, but they don’t. So the section starts with God asking, “What have I done to you that makes you treat me like this? Have I not blessed you? Have I not been good to you? I have taken care/provided for you and then you treat me like this? Because you see, the sins they were committing to one another were ultimately sins against God.

Micah 6:1-5

Listen to what the LORD says:

“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.

God is incomparable. There is no other God like our God who does these things. He is a forgiving God, He is a merciful God. He is a compassionate God. He is the God who casts our sins into the sea of forgetfulness.

2 “Hear, you mountains, the LORD’S accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.

For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.

3 “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.

4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.

In Scripture, particularly in the N.T in the book of Acts, the Church growing is in the same breadth as the Word of God grew and spread. Acts 12:24, “But the Word of God continues to spread and flourish.” God’s Word spreads, the church spreads. God’s Word flourishes, the church flourishes.

Let’s continue to pray for our own revival, the revival of this church and our country, transforming the nation and the nations.

>>>

In the book of Micah and all the prophetic books, both the major and minor prophets, there’s a sense in which this is a book of doom. But actually it isn’t because the book of Micah and other prophetic books you could says they are divided in three parts:

1. What is the problem? Why is God angry with His people?

2. It gives a diagnosis, but it also says what the judgement is going to be unless they are willing to turn back to Him.

3. There’s always a message of renewal/revival, of transformation when we say yes to Him.

5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered.

Don’t you remember that I would put a word of blessing instead of a curse in Balaam’s mouth. Don’t you remember. Have I not been good to you? Why do you treat Me like this?

- They responded, perhaps they way we respond. They said, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come be fore him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7)

- LORD aren’t you seeing how we are sacrificing for you. Don’t you see the way we give to your causes. Don’t you see the way we spend and are spent for your causes?

My Pulpit Message Notes

- What does God say to that? Micah 6:8. He says, no, I don’t need your sacrific es. They are meaningless to Me. And don’t think about offering your firstborns. That is what pagans do to their gods. That’s not Me. You cannot buy, or work for your salvation, God is reminding them. 1 Samuel 15:22 ““Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” God does not require any sacrifice from you.

- Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, anything you have done. It is a gift of God. It is not by works so that no one can boast.

- Anyone who does not know the LORD, or you are thinking what could I do to please the LORD? God is not interested in your sacrifices. Whatever we receive from God is through His grace and mercy.

- This response that God is going to give is not for those who do not know Him, unbelievers. It is not for someone wanting to know, what is it that I need to do to know You and have a relationship with You? It is not sacrifices that is required. Whatever we have from God is by His grace. And so God responds, Here is what I want. What I really want is not sacrifices. It is not the blood of thousands of lambs. God is not interested in ritual, but in righteousness. “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly[a] with your God.”

This is what God could not find among the people there, and what God does not find among His people now. Justice is giving people what they deserve. Mercy is giving people what they don’t deserve.

In summary Micah 6:8 is saying, act justly. God is asking His people, we who are believers, act justly. Be just and fair with people. Don’t take advantage of one another. Don’t mistreat people. Deal with others honestly, fairly and justly. If there are signs that God is working among us, that we are people who have been redeemed, God is saying this is what I want to see among us.

Secondly, love mercy, not just like, love it. Be merciful to others in the same way God has been merciful towards you. Don’t punish people for their sins and keep reminding them of the past, but forgiving as Christ has forgiven you. God says, “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.” You want mercy? Then show mercy as God is.

Thirdly, walk humbly with your God. Know your place with God. Be humble about your life. And what you have and have accomplished because it is all from the hand of God and God can take it away as He pleases. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We ought to be quick to repentance from sin, but God honours a broken and contrite heart. He will oppose the proud and the arrogant. We need to walk humbly with God.

Justice and mercy

Justice comes first and then God shows mercy. This is the theme of the book of Micah. The reason for that is that justice can only go so far and the mercy takes over. God is supremely just. He will give everyone what they deserve. No one will ever be able to say God is unfair, but our God goes beyond justice and gives us what we don’t deserve and that is sheer mercy. Praise be to God!

This is what God was looking for and He didn’t find it. He got blood of thousands of lambs and they kept the rituals, they kept up on the religious side, but God was looking for more than that.

The one thing that matters is how men stand with God and one test of whether we stand with God is how we stand with men. Relationships with oth ers.

We should be glad that God goes beyond justice and shows us His mercy, because none of us would be here if it were not for His mercy. There go I but for the grace and mercy of God.

Why this is so important for God’s people to understand

Could God have forgiven us without the cross? This is where the cross comes in, because if God forgave us without the cross, He would be merciful and not just. And if He refused to forgive our sins and punished our sins, He wouldn’t

be merciful.

- Many of us struggle between justice and mercy and every time around elec tions we argue between what is more important than the other. Is it justice, or peace? Is it justice, or mercy? For God, both of them are important. The God of righteousness is as concerned about justice as He is about immorality.

- In North America, rightwing politicians and believers are concerned about immorality and those in the leftwing care more about injustice, but God is more concerned about both because righteousness covers about everything that is wrong in God’s sight.

- Pray that there will be more Micahs of today who will raise their voices on behalf of the weak and are exploited and says God is angry about the way we behave/treat one another.

Micah 7

Chapter seven is a glorious passage, but doesn’t start that way because Micah is disappointed. He has said all these wonderful things about God and what God has done and what God will do, but the people are not responding. His prophecy has not brought about change. He longs to see fruit even the evidence of the first fruit or early figs, but there was none. “What misery is mine!

I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.”

- He notes that not one person remains. No one in operating in grace in verse two.Then in verse four, he says that when people get into contact with God’s people, when non believers interact with believers, they find that they are just live everyone else. Among God’s people they find evil, corruption and injustice.

- Micah doesn’t give up and in verse 7, he still persist in hoping in God. This covenant keeping God will hear me.

- This is why we must persist in prayer, asking that God revives us and changes us and our nation. 7 “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour my God will hear me.” 9 Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause.”

God’s promise of restoration (Micah 7:18-20)

Micah had been miserable in this cold courtroom and then he realised that God Who is the Judge is not only going to be a just God, but is also going to be a mer ciful God. That God is the One who is going to declare the sentence, but God is also the One who is going to pay the price.

- God is the One who through His justice is going to judge us, but through His mercy He gives us the Lord Jesus Christ who is able to take away our condemna tion and sin so that we can be right with God again.

- So in verses 18-20 he says, “Who is a God like you who pardons sin and for gives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry for ever but delight to show mercy.” Then he says, 19 “You will again have com passion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

- God will have dominion over our sins. The things that oppress us and make it difficult for us to follow after God. God will conquer. He will have dominion. He will subdue our iniquities. He will cast our sins in the sea of forgetfulness.

- When God hurls and casts our sins into that sea, He puts a sign, ‘no fishing is allowed here’, because God has thrown our sin so far away, they will never be remembered.

- In summary, God is incomparable. There is no other God like our God who does these things. He is a forgiving God, He is a merciful God. He is a compas sionate God. He is the God who casts our sins into the sea of forgetfulness.

- Psalm 103:12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

My Life

How to get saved and spend eternity with God

His Love

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (NASB)

My response

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)

My prayer

Lord God Almighty, thank You for Your love for me. Thank You that You sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins. Please forgive me for all the sins I have committed against You. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He died on the cross and You raised Him from the dead on the third day. Please write my name in the Lamb’s book of life. Help me to live a life that is holy and pleasing unto You. In Jesus’ Name I pray and believe. Amen

By Vaneetha Rendall Risner | www.desiringGod.org My Parenting

Our Children Need to See Weakness

“Would you please, please come with me? I really want you to be there. All the other moms are going.”

My daughter was pleading with me to volunteer at field day for her kindergarten class. How could I deny such an earnest request? But since I couldn’t navigate the outdoors without assistance, I had to say no once again. She nodded her head understandingly when I explained why — she was used to disappointment. She didn’t know how much I wanted to go, how I longed to connect with her at school, or how guilty I felt that she was missing out.

Before I had children, my disability primarily impacted me. I could choose what I wanted to do, and I taught myself to want only those activities that were physi cally possible for me. But after I had children, I was faced with more challenging responsibilities and requests, constant reminders of what I couldn’t do. I felt guilty and responsible for what my girls lacked due to my limitations.

Over the years, I’ve met other parents who also feel inadequate — financial con straints, lack of education, limited resources, one all-consuming child, their own emotional battles, familial dysfunction, or a whole litany of other struggles. Like me, they were convinced that their inabilities put their children at a disadvan tage.

“God, in his infinite wisdom, has chosen us to be the parents of our children.” Yet God, in his infinite wisdom, has chosen us to be the parents of our children.

Dependence Can Be a Strength

In my frailty, I rely more on God. I need his power and wisdom because I don’t have power and wisdom in myself. And I have discovered that since “the foolish ness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25), I have unimaginable resources at my disposal.

When I ask for wisdom, God generously gives it. When I wait on the Lord, he renews my strength. When I am weary and troubled, he gives me rest. When I turn to God, he gives me everything I need.

My dependence and limitations have become my greatest strengths because they push me to pray before I answer or act. When I could easily do what my children asked, I didn’t seek God’s wisdom or help. I just responded. I didn’t consider al ternatives or potential pitfalls. I assumed I had it under control.

The Israelites were once deceived by their Gibeonite neighbors, who claimed to have come from a far-off land and presented torn sacks, dried-out provisions, and worn-out clothes as proof. The Israelites “did not ask counsel from the Lord” (Joshua 9:14) because it seemed obvious what to do. I can relate to their actions, as I look back at the impulsive decisions I made without giving them much thought. Decisions I often regretted later. But when my children asked me for things that were beyond my abilities, I had to ask God for wisdom and help. Just as Jehoshaphat did when he said to the Lord, “We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:12).

Weakness Made Me a Better Mom

In my weakness, I begged God for tangible, specific help and saw concrete an swers to prayer. The more I asked, the more God answered. The more I needed, the more he provided. The more I sought God, the more easily I found him. I would have missed out on untold blessings had I not been so needy.

My physical condition involves increasing pain and weakness, so I daily crawled to Jesus weary and heavy laden, and he gave me rest. I had to let go of my desire

to do things perfectly, to meet everyone else’s needs, to wear myself out to the point of exhaustion. I had once been Martha, pulled apart by much serving, but my disability forced me into the role of Mary (Luke 10:38–42). Yet it was only then that I discovered the richness of sitting at Jesus’s feet, trusting him with all that felt undone.

God used my weakness to make me a better mother, and to forge a deeper char acter in my children.

When faced with something I couldn’t do, I sometimes wondered if my daugh ters would have been better off in a different family. But God reassured me that I was handpicked by him to address their unique strengths and struggles. Christ equips and strengthens us for everything our children need (Philippians 4:13, 19), so we need not feel inadequate.

What God Did Through Weakness

While I’d been consumed with what I couldn’t do for my children, I almost missed what God was doing in them because of my weakness. Now I see they are both creative problem-solvers. They show up for people and keep their com mitments.

They are also compassionate and caring, noticing what people need and looking out for people with differing abilities. Even as small children, they never stared or asked strangers, “What’s wrong with you?” Once, when my older daughter’s first-grade teacher dropped her papers in class, Katie immediately jumped up from her seat across the room to pick them up. None of the other students even attempted to get up. When the teacher recounted the story, I realized that God was shaping my daughters through my disability in ways I hadn’t even noticed.

My younger daughter saw the blessing of crying out to God one rainy night when I was driving her to her basketball game in a neighboring town. In the stop-and-go traffic, my leg began to give out, and there was no way to get off the road. Tears rolled down my cheeks — I felt inadequate, scared, and over whelmed yet again.

“Our weakness could be the making of our children’s faith. They learn to rely on God for the things we cannot do.”

When Kristi realized what was happening, she immediately said aloud, “God, please make my mom’s leg feel stronger and the traffic clear up.” We took turns praying back and forth together. Within minutes, we stopped seeing red brake lights, and the cramping in my leg eased as we made it to the game just in time. On the way home, she commented on how God answered our prayers.

Our Cracks Help Them See

Our weaknesses could be the making of our children’s faith. They learn to rely on God for the things we cannot do. They watch us pray. They see our limitations. And they get a front-row seat to see how God provides. As they watch our weak and flawed earthen vessels up close, they see the surpassing power that belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7). In this way, our cracks help them see.

Parenting through weakness can bring God glory. As we rely on God and his grace, he shines through our lives. God’s grace is sufficient for us, and his power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). What more could we want?

Vaneetha Rendall Risner is the author of Walking Through Fire: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption. Vaneetha and her husband Joel live in Raleigh, NC, where she writes at her website, encouraging readers to turn to Christ in their pain.

My Business Second Joint Statement by the Heads of FAO, on the Global Food Security and Nutrition Crisis

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Director General Qu Dongyu, Inter national Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank Group (WBG) President David Malpass, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngo zi Okonjo-Iweala issued the following second joint statement calling for urgent action to address the global food security crisis.

The war in Ukraine continues to exacerbate the glob al food security and nutrition crisis, with high and volatile energy, food and fertilizer prices, restrictive trade policies, and supply chain disruptions. Despite the reprieve in glob al food prices and the resumption of grain exports from the Black Sea, food remains beyond reach for many due to high prices and weather shocks. The number of people facing acute food insecurity worldwide is expected to continue to rise. Fertilizer mar kets remain volatile, especially in Europe, where tight natural gas supplies and high prices have caused many producers of urea and ammonia to stop operations. This may reduce fertilizer application rates for the next crop season, prolonging and deepening the impact of the crisis.

There has been considerable progress in four key ar eas we had highlighted in our first joint statement. Announced or implemented social assistance mea sures across all economies quadrupled from 37 to 148 between April and September 2022. We welcome the efforts of the Global Crisis Response Group and the Black Sea Grain Initiative: through the Joint Coor dination Centre, over 3 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs have already been exported from Ukraine. We are encouraged by the downward trend of trade restrictive measures implemented by coun tries and hope that the trend continues. International financial support to the most vulnerable countries is increasing from various initiatives. The World Bank is implementing its $30 billion program to respond to the food security crisis and frontloading resources from the IDA20 Crisis Response Window. The IMF is proposing a new food shock window within the IMF emergency lending instruments. The FAO has proposed a series of policy recommendations and launched detail soil nutrition maps at country level

to increase efficiencies in the use of fertilizers.

Maintaining momentum on these fronts and build ing resilience for the future will require a continued comprehensive and coordinated effort to support ef ficient production and trade, improve transparency, accelerate innovation and joint planning and invest in food systems transformation:

1) Support efficient production and trade: Govern ments in all countries need to urgently re-examine their agricultural trade and market interventions, such as subsidies and export restrictions, to identi

of major food crops and promoting policy respons es. In addition, the Global Alliance for Food Securi ty (GAFS) is harmonizing existing tracking systems in a dashboard to enable governments and country teams to identify needs and channel financing to re spond to the crisis.

3) Accelerate innovation and joint planning: Agri cultural research and development is a chronically underinvested sector, while it has one of the high est returns on public spending. Innovation is cru cial for meeting the long-term challenges to global food security and nutrition posed by climate change, land and ecosystem degradation, pests, and transboundary plant and animal diseases. Disseminating best practices from FAO and supporting the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (OneCGIAR) are important actions to address these chal lenges. Such efforts should also lead to more systematic coordination and joint planning to connect short-, medium- and long-term opportunities and deliver support in a time ly manner.

fy and minimize distortions. Shorter interventions cause less harm than indefinite ones. Promoting the production of nutritious foods and repurposing the US$639 billion support per year provided to agri culture by governments can transform food systems and improve food security and nutrition. Preserving open trade in food, agriculture, and energy can re duce price distortions that dilute incentives for effi cient production. Countries should follow through on commitments made at the WTO’s 12th Minis terial Conference to restrain export restrictions on food and fertilizers and put in place trade facilitation measures. We also welcome clarifications of relevant regulations to allow critical agricultural inputs such as fertilizers to move swiftly to countries in need.

2) Improve transparency: Food market monitoring serves as an important and efficient early warning mechanism and must be supplemented with trans parent tracking of financing by the international community to respond to the food crisis. Govern ments should provide necessary data and resources to support Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which enhances transparency in food mar kets through monitoring the prices and availability

4) Invest in food systems transformation: Strengthening the resilience of food systems to risks, including conflict, extreme weather events, econom ic shocks and diseases is key for the longer-term re sponse. Addressing both infrastructure bottlenecks and input supply bottlenecks (e.g., fertilizers and seeds) are critical to an efficient food supply system. Effective and sustainable support to smallholder farmers will be vital to ensure they are part of the solution and to localize supply chains. The private sector has a critical role to play, and the Internation al Finance Corporation (IFC) will establish a Global Food Security Platform that will provide working capital and longer-term financing for sustainable agribusinesses and related sectors in the food supply chain. Deeper integration of markets can also help avoid price spikes of essential goods and drive eco nomic diversification and job creation to build over all resilience.

We remain committed to working together to ad dress immediate food security and nutrition needs, tackle structural market issues that may exacerbate adverse impacts, and build countries’ resilience to prevent and mitigate the impacts of future crises.

My Inspiration

What’s on the other side of every problem?

By William King

None of us like problems that come against us or people who are unfair. It’s easy to get discouraged. God won’t allow a difficulty unless He has a purpose for it. He may not have sent the trouble, but He knows how to use it to your advantage. On the other side of every problem is promotion. The difficulty feels like a set back but it’s really a setup for God to do something new in your life.

When God wanted to promote David from the shepherd’s fields to the palace, He didn’t open a new door or send a friend to help. No, God sent him a problem - a giant. David could have thought, “God, You said You were going to show me favour, so why am I facing Goliath?” David understood that with the problem came promotion to the throne.

On the other side of that difficulty was a new level of his destiny. He went out and defeated Goliath. New doors opened. He gained respect, influence and fa vour like he’d never seen. Some promotions only come through adversity, closed doors, things that are unfair. You can’t reach your potential without problems.

When you understand that there is promotion in every problem, you’ll keep a good attitude. “God, I don’t like this problem, but I know that You’re in control. You’re ordering my steps. I’m going to come out stronger, promoted, better than I was before.” Sometimes the promotion means you’ve developed a greater trust in God.

You saw His faithfulness, felt Him strengthening you, making a way where you didn’t see a way. Your faith grew, spiritual muscles got stronger and character was developed. Every time you come through a challenge, that’s fuel for your faith. God is preparing you for greater things. The next time you face a problem like that, you’ll think, “This is no big deal.”

God says, “Trust Me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you and you can give me glory” (Psalm 50:15). He didn’t say, “Trust Me and I’ll keep you from trouble.” He says, “Trust Me when things don’t make sense, when the medical report is not good, when a loved one doesn’t make it.” God is not going to leave you in the trouble.

E G G S

Entrepreneur

5 indicators you’ve taken your eye off the leadership ball

One of the most important roles of the leader is to ensure that they, and their team, are keeping their eye on the ball at all times.

That means providing clarity of focus and helping each person know which pri orities require attention.

Many years ago this hit me with full force during a particularly hectic season. During this period when I was allowing myself to be distracted by a number of lesser priorities, a department head came to me with a request to remodel their office space.

The plan was within budget, it seemed to be ergonomically sound and it could likely be pulled off with little involvement from me.

There was just one problem.

That department was not performing well. It was not hitting key objectives.

Rather than focusing the team on what really mattered, I was allowing them, and me, to be distracted by a side-show.

I was taking my eye off the leadership ball.

Leaders must keep their eye on the ball at all times.

In a busy season, it’s easy for lesser activities to distract a leader, and a team, from what really matters. But ultimately, it’s the leader’s job to keep everyone focused; to keep everyone’s eye on the ball.

Here are 5 indicators that you might have taken your eye off the ball:

1. There is no alignment in your “to do” list

A clear, direct line should run between your daily activities and your most im portant goals.

2. Your team is vague on today’s highest priorities

Every member of your team should be able to state unequivocally how their assignments are furthering the organization’s objectives.

3. You are being sidetracked with “busy work”

Busy work are tasks you indulge in which keeps your time occupied, but which does little to advance key objectives.

4. You’ve been avoiding difficult conversations

In order to keep your team on track it requires clear conversations, where you correct mission-drift.

5. You haven’t noticed measurable movement towards key goals

If neither you, nor your team, can point to recent “wins” with respect to key goals, you’ve likely taken your eye off the ball.

Watch vigilantly for these indicators.

Because when the game really counts, your focus matters more than ever. | By Scott Cochrane | image credit: istock

My Health

‘Night owls’ may have greater type 2 diabetes and heart disease risk than ‘early birds’

Chronotype describes what time of day people tend to be more active.

‘Early birds’ get up promptly and are active in the morning, while ‘night owls’ take longer to get going in the day, but like to stay up late.

Recently, research has suggested that chronotype may have an impact on health. Now, a study has found that ‘night owls’ may have a greater risk of type 2 diabe tes and heart disease than early birds.

Some of us leap out of bed eager to get on with the day; for others, emerging from under the covers is left until the last possible minute—often because we have been awake until the small hours.

And most of us know that we either function better in the morning or the af ternoon and adapt our working schedules to suit our ‘early bird’ or ‘night owl’ tendencies. But can our chronotype affect not only our functioning, but also our health?

Research studies have suggested that chronotype, and particularly chrononutri tionTrusted Source —what times of day we eat — may indeed affect health, but the findings are not yet conclusive.

Now, a study published in Experimental Physiology has found that our sleep/ wake cycles are associated with our body’s metabolism, with night owls having a reduced ability to use fat for energy. This may increase their risk of type 2 dia betes and heart disease.

Early and late chronotypes

A team of researchers from Rutgers University, NJ, and the University of Virgin ia, VA, divided a group of 51 adults into early or late chronotypes based on their answers to a questionnaire.

All participants were non-smokers, free of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and metabolic diseases, and were sedentary, exercising less than 60 minutes a week.

Using imaging techniques, researchers assessed the participants’ body mass and body composition. They also tested insulin sensitivity.

Participants wore an accelerometer on the right hip, during the day, for 7 days to record what times of day they were most active. Researchers compared this data with the chronotype from the questionnaire to determine whether chronotype was influencing activity patterns during the day.

After making them fast for 12 hours, researchers tested participants at rest and during exercise to assess what they were metabolizing to provide energy. They then took breath samples to calculate their fat and carbohydrate metabolism at rest and when exercising.

“Measuring metabolism during rest and exercise allowed us to see how changes in movement throughout the day could impact or relate to health.”

— Dr. Steven K. Malin, lead author, associate professor of kinesiology and health at Rutgers University, NJ medicalnewstoday.com By Katharine Lang on September 22, 2022 checked by Rita Ponce, Ph.D. | Image credit: health.com

My Health

Comparing early birds and night owls

The researchers noted no significant differences in age, body mass, or metabolic syndrome between the groups. However, they did find differences in how energy sources were used by those with early and late chronotypes.

Early birds used more fat for energy than night owls. They were also more insu lin sensitive — their cells used glucose more effectively, reducing blood sugar.

Night owls tended to be more insulin resistant, meaning they required more insulin to lower blood glucose levels, and they tended to use carbohydrates as an energy source rather than fat.

Insulin resistance indicates a greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Malin told Medical News Today: “A key finding was that individuals with later chronotype were indeed less able to respond to insulin by promoting glu cose uptake towards storage. And that observation related to how much fat was used for energy. This aligns with ideas that low fat metabolism relates to insulin resistance by either defects in the mitochondria […] or accumulation of fat me tabolites that impair insulin action on tissues like muscle.”

Differences in muscle quality

The researchers found no significant difference in muscle mass between the two chronotypes, although muscle mass was slightly higher in those with late chro notypes.

They suggest that their finding of greater fat oxidation in early chronotype may be due to differences in skeletal muscle quality rather than quantity.

Dr. Malin explained: “Based on our work so far, our sense is something is dys regulated in skeletal muscle quality. […] The ability to use fat was directly related to maximal aerobic fitness, which is partly linked to mitochondrial function. In deed, people of later chronotype had lower fitness when measured by VO2max [maximum amount of oxygen the body is capable of using during high-intensity activities], in addition to being more sedentary through the day.”

“That lower amount of fat metabolism was directly related to how well insulin promoted glucose uptake towards storage. That is critical because stored glu cose, known as glycogen, helps fuel muscle for physical activity,” he added.

Can we change our chronotype?

Family studies have indicated that chronotype is a heritable trait, and some of the genes involved have been identified. Chronotype also varies with age, as Dr. Malin told MNT:

“Some evidence suggests we have genetic links to our chronotype, albeit our chronotype can change as we age. For instance, adolescents tend to stay up later than in middle-age when we start shifting towards earlier chronotypes to the point of older age where we are generally early chronotype compared to when we were young.”

So, if it is healthier to be an early bird, is it possible for night owls to change their

chronotype?

Dr. Malin continued: “Given so many life factors can influence what our routine entails, it’s hard to know if we truly change our chronotype or if rather we learn to manage. Either case, there is some work to suggest people can adopt earlier bedtimes and wake times through practical recommendations.”

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR CHRONOTYPE

“One approach is to use 15-minute windows to adjust. So, go to bed 15 minutes earlier, then wake up 15 minutes earlier. In time and depending on how things are going, this can expand another 15-minute window.”

— Dr. Steven K. Malin

Is eating earlier healthier?

It may be hard to change our chronotype, but we can change our eating habits.

Research has shown that those with late chronotype are more likely to have un healthy dietary habits, with lower intake of fresh fruit and vegetables and higher intake of alcohol. They were also more likely to consume more calories at dinner and as bedtime snacks.

“Collectively, this dietary pattern would align with less healthy practices and could contribute to the risk of obesity and obesity-related comorbidities such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Malin.

Chrononutrition has been suggested as a way of managing diabetes — eating earlier in the day has been shown to have beneficial effects on blood glucose lev els after eating. This is thought to be due to circadian variation in insulin levels. Insulin sensitivity is highest at noon and decreases in the evening and at night.

One study provided evidence that earlier in the day is the best time for eating, and another that eating out of synch with our circadian rhythms may affect our health.

So, the answer is not yet entirely clear. But this latest study gives further weight to the advice that eating most of your food earlier in the day may well help to reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Perhaps there is some scientific support to the age-old advice:

“Eat like a king in the morning, a prince at noon, and a peasant at dinner.”

My Kitchen

Sticky Chinese five-spice chicken traybake

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sticky-chinese-chicken-traybake

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in 4 tbsp hoisin sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp clear honey

1 ½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder

thumb-sized knob of ginger, grated 2 garlic cloves, grated bunch spring onions, chopped 50g cashew nuts, toasted cooked brown rice, to serve

Method

STEP 1

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Arrange the chicken thighs in a large roasting tin and slash the skin 2-3 times on each thigh. Mix together the hoisin, sesame oil, honey, five-spice, ginger, garlic and some seasoning. Pour over the chicken

and toss to coat – you could now marinate the chicken for 2 hrs, or overnight if you have time. Roast, skin-side up, for 35 mins, basting at least once.

STEP 2

Stir through the cashew nuts and sprinkle the spring onions over the chicken. Return to the oven for 5 mins, then serve with brown rice.

How fast was Eliud Kipchoge’s world record? 2022 Berlin Marathon breakdown

Kenya’s long-distance master made history in Ber lin when he ran 02:01:09 to smash his own mara thon world record by over 30 seconds. Olympics. com compares his 2022 time to his 2019 run at the non-official Ineos 1:59 Challenge to see just how close he was to breaking the two-hour barrier on 25 September.

With 15 wins from 17 marathon attempts and two Olympic gold medals, the world has become used to witnessing Kenyan marathon king Eliud Kipchoge embody his catchphrase “Impossible is Nothing” over the 42.195 km marathon distance.

However, even for an athlete of his calibre, his per formance at the 2022 Berlin Marathon on Sunday 25 September was nothing short of remarkable.

Running at an average speed of 21.02 km/h or 2 minutes 52 seconds per km, Kipchoge finished the race in 2:01:09, shaving a full 30 seconds off of his previous world record. His average pace per 5km was clocked at a jaw-dropping 14:21.4.

Kipchoge has of course run faster, dipping under the legendary two-hour mark during the 2019 In eos 1:59 Challenge, where he set the quickest time in history when he ended the race in 1:59:40. However, the conditions under which that race was run - with laser pace guides and 41 rotating human pacemak ers - mean the 2019 attempt was never ratified as an official world record.

In the 2022 Berlin Marathon, Kipchoge had none of those aids at his disposal, yet still came close to once again breaking the two-hour mark in a race that saw him pass the 20km mark two seconds ahead of his time during the Ineos 1:59 Challenge. By the halfway

point, his time of 59:51 in Berlin was close to a min ute faster than the pace of his own previous official world record of 2:01:39 set on the same course in 2018.

After the race, Kipchoge admitted that he had been planning on racing the first half marathon in “60:50, 60:40” but changed his mind when he realised how fast he was running.

“I thought my legs were running actually very fast, and I thought, oh let me just try to run two hours flat,” he said after beating second-placed Mark Korir to the line by over five full minutes.

However, a gradual decrease in speed over the final half marathon caused the two-time Olympic cham pion to just miss out on the two-hour mark while still setting a new world record in the process.

“We went too fast,” he said matter-of-factly of the first half of the race. “It takes energy from the mus cles.”

2022 Berlin Marathon vs. Ineos 1:59 Challenge

Kipchoge got off to a blistering start in both the 2022 Berlin Marathon and the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, how ever it is interesting to see just how close the splits of his marathon world record are to his sub-two-hour race.

The first five kilometres in the 2022 Berlin Mara thon were run in 14 minutes and 14 seconds, just four seconds slower than his time in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge.

However, from there the splits got even faster.

Kipchoge’s next 5km at the Berlin Marathon was completed in 14:09 - a second faster than his pace in the Ineos Challenge, and with a third 5km run at 14:10 and a fourth 5k split of 14:12, Kipchoge reached the 20km mark in a time of 00:56:45, two seconds faster than the Ineos 1:59 Challenge.

It was just after the halfway mark in the Berlin Mar athon that Kipchoge began to drift away from his Ineos 1:59 Challenge pace. His time between 20 and 25km was 14:23, compared to 14:12 in 2019. And while the Ineos 1:59 Challenge saw him post identi cal splits of 14:12 at 25, 30 and 35km, Kipchoge’s de livered times of 14:32 at 30km and 14:30 at 35km in the Berlin Marathon, leaving him a total 47 seconds off of the 2019 pace at that stage of the race.

Between kilometres 35 and 40, Kipchoge was averag ing 02:57 per kilometre, compared to his early race averages of 02:50, and his 40km split of 14:43 was 33 seconds slower than his best 5k during the race.

However, with a final burst, his pace increased over the final 2.195km of the race, as he posted an average time of 2:52 per kilometre, just two seconds slower than his fastest average kilometre times in the race.

Kipchoge’s average speed at the Berlin Marathon was 21.02 km/h compared to the 21.2 km/h speed he maintained during his Ineos 1:59 Challenge run. However, without any outside aids to help him in his quest, it’s difficult to argue against this Berlin Mara thon 2022 run being the greatest of his already leg endary career.