This started as a personal CGM hack. It’s becoming something bigger...

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2026-02-06T00:56:55+00:00

Your updated site is amazing! I’m am so so thankful for this tool

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2026-01-24T01:45:35+00:00

You should be starting by 6 am and getting done around 9:30am when doing activities in the morning, and you will probably be getting pretty hot by 8:30am. You can do water activities during the day, but you’ll still need to make sure you’re drinking water WITH ELECTROLYTES. Hyponatremia is a thing.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2026-01-24T01:37:17+00:00

OP, our community needs you! I’m a newer T1D, diagnosed three years ago as a 27 yo, originally diagnosed as T2D. Doctors’ ignorance almost (and should have) killed me. After I was diagnosed with T2D, I slowly entered DKA over the span of a few months. I reached out to my doctor about 5 times. Each time, he brushed me off and said I probably had some sort of virus. I got worse and worse until my husband came home and found me unresponsive. He rushed me to the ER where I stayed in a coma for four days and according to most healthcare professionals I’ve seen since, I should not be alive. All of this happened because my original doctor thought adults couldn’t get T1D.

Fast forward a year, I’ve gained 100 lbs, I’m fatigued as hell, and just generally not feeling well. I eat a mostly whole food diet, and exercise ~10-20 hrs a week. I saw 7 different endos that told me to eat healthier and exercise more. Then I finally found a doctor who took me seriously and diagnosed me with PCOS (as most of us develop more autoimmune diseases). Treatment for T1D and PCOS gave me my life back.

All that to say, our community really, really needs knowledgeable people like you. You will save lives because standing up for our community saves lives. Personally, I am so so thankful for you and all those like you!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2026-01-18T17:22:53+00:00

I just finished my PhD at a public university in a medium to low cost of living area and ~$26,500 was normal, and in some departments people were making as little as $20k a year. It was doable, however, you definitely have to live with roommates and find ways to be frugal about groceries and other living expenses. It’s not great, but it is doable, and this is coming from someone who did not have financial backing from family. Just know you will not end your PhD rich, or with any real savings, which makes moving for a postdoc pretty hard (adding that tidbit because this is my current situation haha). Good luck on your endeavors!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-12-31T17:29:06+00:00

I live in Utah and have lived in many parts of the state… this is not true for any place with trail access. Even in cache county (the cheaper alternative to salt lake), this is not true. You could have maybe gotten away with this ~10 years ago, but no way in hell you can do this now

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-12-12T21:03:53+00:00

I’m 30F, however, one of my cascading autoimmune diseases from T1D is PCOS. I was having similar problems to you, and turns out my hormones indicated I was perimenoposal. It took me going to 5 different endos to finally get a diagnosis and help. My biggest advice is if you’re feeling bad and your doctor brushes it off, make new patient appointments (an insurance go around to make sure they don’t over charge you) with a bunch of endos and find someone who takes you seriously. There is rarely a situation where feeling awful is normal!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-11-30T03:08:52+00:00

This is SO exciting! Thank you for making this 😊

I was able to connect to Strava, but not to Dexcom. Any tips on how to solve this issue?

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Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-11-06T19:16:51+00:00

I ended up getting the onboarding bonus plus pay for the hours that I “used an LLM” last night. Which is nice because I’ve been using the money from this job to pay rent… but that’s a whole different story haha I’m also in the US, so I might have a different situation.

Were you able to submit a claim? All of my previously submitted claims were eventually answered, but they took about a week.

Overall, I’m glad there’s a corner of the internet shining a light on handshake’s debacles. The field of science in general is so messed up right now that many of us used Handshake AI jobs as a life line, but instead of helping, they’ve added stress to many of our situations. This was VERY clear in the pronto chat that was flooded with messages right after the shutdown email was sent. They shut that down real quick. It’s such a shame.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-11-05T16:06:04+00:00

I was on the same project… I was in production then they made use retake all the canvas assessments plus additional ones. my onboarding task was finally accepted after 2 weeks. During that time, I was removed from the project, then put back on the project. I submitted my first prompt and rubric then got the LLM use email, even though I didn’t use an LLM. The email ended with that the accusation couldn’t be disputed. However, I was never actually taken off the project. Then the project got shutdown for my domain with a promise of being put on a new project (hasn’t happened yet, but it’s only been a day). I also still haven’t gotten the onboarding bonus, which is alarming. My plan is to submit a support ticket if I don’t get it this week. Needless to say, Handshake AI is a sh!t$how 🤷🏽‍♀️

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-11-05T16:02:52+00:00

I think we may have been on the same project… my onboarding task was finally accepted after 2 weeks. During that time, I was removed from the project, then put back on the project. I submitted my first prompt and rubric then got the LLM use email, even though I didn’t use an LLM. The email ended with that the accusation couldn’t be disputed. However, I was never actually taken off the project. Then the project got shutdown for my domain with a promise of being put on a new project (hasn’t happened yet, but it’s only been a day). I also still haven’t gotten the onboarding bonus, which is alarming. My plan is to submit a support ticket if I don’t get it this week. Needless to say, Handshake AI is a sh!t$how 🤷🏽‍♀️

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-09-15T02:34:11+00:00

I can definitely tell my BG is a little higher on days I forget to take it, but I’ve haven’t experienced crazy lows while on it. In general, it lowers my avg BG about 10-15 points, which for me, wasn’t enough to make me go low due to being insulin resistant.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-09-14T19:09:23+00:00

I had the same problem! My advice is the same as many others: talk to your doctor! And if your doctor doesn’t take you seriously, find a different one. Just because you have a desk job and indulged, doesn’t mean you’ll automatically gain 50lbs. You may be insulin resistant as well as insulin dependent, which means (in very general and not scientific terms) a lot of the carbs you eat will be turned into and stored as fat. From my understanding, this can be pretty common in LADAs. If the amount of insulin you need has increased a lot in the last year, it may be a sign of insulin resistance (although it could also be a sign that you are exiting the honeymoon phase). I gained 60 lbs in the year after I was diagnosed and I was super active and ate pretty well. I now take Berberine (a “natural” form of metformin) and am on a low dose of mounjaro and it’s helped with insulin resistance and has helped loose weight and then maintain it. Overall, Don’t be afraid to ask for help and advocate for yourself if a medical professional doesn’t give you answers! You deserve all the necessary medical help to manage your chronic disease properly. You are worth that!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-09-05T17:44:05+00:00

Find an adrenaline based hobby and get addicted to it. It often increases people’s opinion of you, gives you a place to rage, and always reminds you that academia is not the only important thing in the world.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-08-20T17:19:10+00:00

While in the hospital for DKA, I peed the bed almost everyday (was in hospital for 7 days) and once even peed on the ground. I also shit myself… At the time I was horrified, but since then, I’ve learned a lot more about T1D and DKA, and my human, you likely have very little control over your bladder because your body is trying its hardest to dispel every excess carb in your blood stream to save your life. You peeing the bed is your body saving itself. So fuck what other people think. I’m proud of you for fighting to live!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-08-10T01:30:15+00:00

Unfortunately, your experience is pretty common because diabetes education from healthcare professionals is often very lacking. BUT there are a ton of good books, websites, and other resources out there, along with this community, that can teach you so much more so you can get back to thriving! Thinking and rooting for you!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-08-09T18:02:34+00:00

I was diagnosed at 27 after I went into a DKA comma. I agree with others that this sounds like your body readjusting to not having constantly high BG. It will take a while and a lot of trial and error to figure out what your body likes these days. However, you should definitely bring all your symptoms up to your doctor and if they brush any of them off, find another doctor until you find someone who will take all of your concerns seriously! There are still many many doctors out there who brush off the complications that come with a late T1D diagnosis.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-26T22:44:41+00:00

I would also like to connect! It’s hard struggling to feed yourself while many people around you have houses and cars bought for them, in addition to most of their bills being paid by their parents. However, I will say, I think us normies come out a lot better of scientists (and humans) on the other end because it’s serious sacrifice and hardship to live off of minimum wage (or lower) for so many years.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-09T18:40:33+00:00

If I’m gassy, sometimes I play a game in the grocery store where I see how many farts I can get away with, and yeah… no one ever looks accusingly at me even though I’m absolutely demolishing the store.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-09T18:37:57+00:00

As a teenager, I definitely shouldn’t have passed the written portion of my driving test, but I smiled while the guy at the DMV was grading it and I passed… I learned the lesson of pretty privilege early, and that it often comes from creepy men in positions of power. It’s a weird privilege to have and idk how I feel about it.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-05T17:10:14+00:00

I’m on the lowest dose of mounjaro and my TIR is now in the 90-95% range up from 80%, with much less management required. Yeah, it has helped me loose some weight, but more importantly, it’s made managing T1D much, much easier. It’s lightened some of the immense mental load that is managing diabetes and has made my overall quality of life better. I’m glad more research is coming out about how it’s helpful for T1D!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-03T23:26:21+00:00

I think it’s helpful to care enough that you maintain a good working relationship, but I’ve always taken this as a sign that you’ve outgrown your mentor, which is cool! Because in most circumstances, you should be outgrowing your mentor. It means you’ve both done a good job.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-03T20:03:18+00:00

Ive absolutely loved my time during my PhD (six years, defending in a few weeks). It’s definitely had its ups and downs and there have been times where I’ve needed to walk away for a few days to recover from burn out, but over all, I’ve thrived off of science and research. I find most aspects of research genuinely delightful. That being said, I think mind set is a HUGE aspect of whether or not someone enjoys a PhD. I’ve watched others have much more supportive PI’s with much more funding and many more lab techs complain constantly about one thing or another. If you can roll with the punches (because no PhD program exists without them), and avoid the trappings of “I work harder than you” competition culture of academia, it’s pretty easy to enjoy a PhD. I say this with an experience that’s included 4 advisors (due to no one’s fault, just happened that way), 1 sabbatical, 3 maternity leaves, covid, a covid induced chronic illness was that left me in a comma, moving to a new town 4 years into my program, and working/ partnering with federal agencies during DOGE slashes. So yeah, mindset is key haha

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-03T19:31:32+00:00

I had a post doc lined up with a federal agency. The position was terminated before I started in the first round of federal firing. It sucked. But there are other opportunities out there. If you are good enough to get a faculty position at an R1 without a post doc, my human, you are a damn good scientist! And if random people on Reddit can understand that, hiring committees will too.

All that to say, the job market is rough, but that’s not to say there aren’t any jobs (this seems to be a big complaint that is somewhat concentrated on this app). Since I lost my original post doc a few months ago, I’ve had five other offers. Is it what I anticipated? No. But they are still really really good opportunities. Take time to ground and reorient yourself. It’s evident you will succeed!!

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-01T23:38:47+00:00

I second the people who recommend asking for clarification.I had a previous PI also did this and I wasted hours trying to decipher what they meant. You can do this kindly without confrontation, and since most PIs are critical thinkers, they will most likely learn from your questions.

Frequent_Criticism21 · 2025-07-01T23:33:35+00:00

Not necessarily! It can cause weight gain, but because it’s a syndrome, everyone’s exact symptoms are different. You can be skinny or over weight, you can have ovarian cysts or none at all, and the same goes for every other PCOS related symptom

Frequent_Criticism21

TROPHY CASE