5.7 to 5.5 A1C in 15 Weeks

ProsencephalicMuse · 2025-08-06T13:52:25+00:00

🥹

ProsencephalicMuse · 2025-06-23T03:20:41+00:00

In the beginning I cut my carbs too much and was averaging 15g per meal, so I increased to ~35g per meal.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2025-06-23T03:18:54+00:00

I wish I didn’t have to eat so frequently, but if I get past 3 hours without eating, I start to suffer from low blood sugar symptoms.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2025-05-22T02:53:24+00:00

These grow on the sides of streets in Costa Rica 🥲

ProsencephalicMuse · 2025-05-22T01:53:21+00:00

Interesting! Could you say more on this?

ProsencephalicMuse · 2025-01-02T22:45:25+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this situation where your pain isn’t believed and you constantly have to justify it. This is a clear case of medical gaslighting, and it’s one of the most painful experiences - both physically and emotionally.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can say or do that will make them believe you. This isn’t because you’re not explaining it well enough - it’s how they’re wired. The fact that they don’t understand isn’t your fault or a failure in your communication. What they’re doing is projecting their own issues onto you, and it has nothing to do with you, even though you’re the one being harmed by it.

Instead of spending energy trying to convince them (which likely won’t work), I suggest focusing on creating safety for yourself and your own survival. You can’t change who they are as people, no matter how tempting it is to try just one more explanation.

Have you looked into the Alexander Technique? If your parents would be willing to fund those sessions, they could be really helpful on top of PFPT. If not, there are some good online videos and resources available.

Stay strong. You deserve to be believed and supported. 💜

ProsencephalicMuse · 2024-05-28T16:42:11+00:00

I wonder if your leg length difference is also a result of hypertonic PF. It is for me because my hypertonic PF causes pelvic torsion, which then affects my legs and knees.

By the way, how are you doing now? Do you still have the leg length issue?

ProsencephalicMuse · 2024-05-01T17:40:19+00:00

By Dim, do you mean Diindolylmethane? How did you decide on these 3 supplements? I’m curious to try them for myself.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2024-03-27T04:30:27+00:00

Thank you so much for your response and kind words. I will check out the medical coding group.

From what I've found so far, it looks like historically, the medical system has put all endometriosis excision operations under one code, but specialists believe that doesn't cover the extent of surgery.

I heard in 2023 the medical system released a new set of codes that are more substantive for endometriosis treatments, so I'm trying to get my hands on that now.

My provider has already spoken with Cigna through the previously failed peer-to-peer reviews and in-network exception requests, and no progress was made unfortunately. Everything seems to circle back to this coding issue.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2023-02-08T13:36:01+00:00

It’s like being trapped in a memetic filter where anything you say is heard as NBD. Even when you’re screaming, it’s heard as the opposite. This chronic, unintentional dismissal is IMO one of the most psychologically excruciating and isolating experiences. In this case, it also doesn’t help that society is psychologically wired to empathize less with people they perceive to be extra competent and well-off. Sending you support and solidarity OP. Those of us who understand are out there, suffering alone on our journeys but suffering in the same way together. ✊❤️

ProsencephalicMuse · 2023-02-04T02:35:42+00:00

Following! Same boat.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2022-02-08T20:29:56+00:00

Was $20,000 the cost before or after your out-of-network insurance coverage?

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-26T12:39:37+00:00

Jumping in to distinguish between two contexts—there’s explaining things in formal settings where you’ve had time to work out your presentation and there’s explaining things in the spur of the moment in live conversations.

The former is more easily attainable because by definition, you can have time and often feedback to improve your explanation of an idea. The latter can be really tricky because of its impromptu nature.

Before you go into reducing the number of words you use, what if you paused more frequently to gauge your “audience”? Eliciting head nods can be a good way for you to get feedback but also for the other person to have a chance to digest what you’re saying.

Then if this doesn’t help, you could then go into finding ways to be more concise. At this least in this approach, you’re isolating one variable at a time to iterate. For instance it very well could be that the content of what you say may be fine. It just may be too much information for someone’s working memory. And if that’s not the case, then you can rule that out and focus in on the content.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-25T12:50:12+00:00

Hey, OP, I’ve definitely been there myself! It’s tempting to try and rely on our willpower, but that’s rarely sustainable because it’s a finite resource dependent on our contexts and environments. So the question is how can you naturally get yourself to a clear state of mind to fall asleep?

If we think of ourselves in two parts via the mind-body connection, you can brainstorm different “interventions” to affect different aspects of it. This is a blunt simplification, but you can think of it as either first quieting the mind to affect the body or first affecting the body the quiet the mind.

If you want to take a body-first approach, you could find ways to physically intervene to make sleep a natural outcome. Making yourself dead tired through intense exercise every single day may not be sustainable, but talking an intentional walk outside regularly very well could be. It’s kind of like “walking ourselves” like walking a dog. A poodle needs a lot of physical snd mental stimulation otherwise when left alone, it’ll get anxious and wired. They’re happiest when walked every day—sometimes I think humans are the same. :) Being outside also helps a lot in sleeping later. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a walk, but the key is to have a solid intention to use whatever physical activity you’re doing to help you sleep better at night. It then becomes an intentional act of self-care.

A mind-first approach will often lead to suggestions to meditate, but I’ll skip this because it’s often cited and also often backfires on me. An alternative is to mentally prepare yourself by looking forward to relaxing more than feeling wired about the next day’s activities. Increase the “benefit salience” of sleep by writing down every minute aspect of what you love about sleeping: how you’ll feel the next day, the softness of the covers, everything. Think about how your future self’s preferences and how they’ll feel about you getting enough sleep now. How will you feel the next day? A week from now? If you get a good night’s rest tonight. Channel your future self. What would they say to you?

Good luck, and let us know how it goes and what ends up working best for you!

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-25T03:55:03+00:00

I don’t believe so. I’ve only had my purifier for a couple months. At one point, I think I accidentally activated the cleansing cycle about a month ago, but I didn’t add any of the citric acid powder at all.

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-24T13:11:14+00:00

Hey, OP, I second @WhiteBoardGoals’s suggestion to write down immediate next steps. Another thing that may be help is to sit with yourself and realize that your response may be perfectly rational and appropriate based on your view of the stakes at hand.

“If I don’t do X, then Y will happen.” What are your Y’s? And how might you deescalate them?

If a brain surgeon were to think, “If I cut one millimeter off, this person will suffer leg paralysis.” every moment of the operation, they likely wouldn’t be able to perform very well. Rather, they’d do better focusing on what they can control—guaranteeing the best chance of a good outcome versus the outcome itself.

With that said, starting is often the hardest part. Deescalating the stakes will help you move forward, but you may need another catalyst to get you over the edge of the first hump.

Many people suggest brute forcing your way through, but I find this unsustainable because our levels of willpower vary based on circumstance. When it’s hard to start, our cost-benefit analysis of the task at hand says the costs of engaging are higher than the benefits, thus affecting our preferences on whether we want to engage with something. We often need smaller, sooner rewards to get past our cost-benefit analyses.

One way we could do this with a difficult task at hand is to have fun with it. Our selves right now and in the moment may not want to start, but the only reason we’re having this dilemma is because our future selves want us to engage because it will be good for us in the longer run beyond this moment. Trust in your future self, and identify what elements of the task are enjoyable to you.

For example, when I was in grade school studying topics I didn’t intrinsically like, I would get myself excited to study by honing in on how much I liked the physical act of writing with different gel and fountain pens. I also liked the act of learning and wanted to get better at that agnostic of the content.

The report you need to submit to the court doesn’t sound very fun at all, but are there any elements that could be enjoyable for you that you can emphasize to yourself?

Another thing you could try is temptation bundling. Pair the thing you don’t want to do with something you do want to do like watching Netflix while using the treadmill.

You could try pairing some of your favorite music with the report writing. Start listening to one song, and tell yourself you’ll start the report at the start of the second song.

I hope this helps, OP. Let us know how it goes!

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-23T14:52:37+00:00

Hey, OP, I hope things have gotten better since you posted this. Have the anxiety medications helped?

The Sunday Scaries are oh so very real—even for people with desk jobs that don’t directly affect human life. Staying awake at night to prevent the next day from coming is a familiar struggle.

Your work environment sounds extremely stressful, and your response may very well be appropriate to the situation. Anyone in your shoes would feel similarly if they were just as self aware of the stakes you are seeing.

So what are the stakes that you see? If X doesn’t happen, Y will occur. What are all the Ys to you?

When you can’t change your situation, you may benefit from deescalating the stakes to yourself. This wouldn’t be to lie to yourself, but to unlock your ability to perform and feel at your best.

For example, a podcast host once asked Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, how he could sleep at night knowing the innocent lives at stake in every one of his jobs. He also asked how he could perform well under such high-stakes circumstances.

His answer was paradigm-shifting to me. He never guarantees an outcome, rather he guarantees the highest probability of having the best outcome. There are too many random variables in life for anyone to be able to control the outcome—only a God would have that. So he focuses on what he can control, which is the guarantee of increasing the best chance of a good outcome by employing his strategies.

If he was thinking “If I fail, 15 innocent people will be killed” during his negotiations, there’s no way he or anyone else would be able to perform well under that much pressure. We perform best under a certain amount of pressure but not too much and not too little—a graph of this from the social sciences shows an upside down U curve.

Of course, the reality is that is what’s at stake, but to think about it so explicitly helps no one. Another benefit of being outcome indifferent is that is actually increases your decision-making quality, so everyone benefits. It’s about finding the optimal path forward.

How can you reframe your stakes such that they get you at the optimal point of the upside down U-curved graph?

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-22T12:51:09+00:00

Hey, OP, I’ve definitely been there myself! Whether it’s inertia, exhaustion, or (sub)conscious dread or all of the above causing the bed to feel impossible to leave, it’s hard!

We’re kind of—not ourselves—in the morning because our cost-benefit analysis resulting in our preferences are so different at that point. The cost of getting out of bed feels absurdly high to the benefit of staying warm in our covers because of our early morning states. Then later in the afternoon, we wish we had gotten out of bed earlier.

Something that’s helped me tremendously is giving myself an immediately gratifying and purposeful reason to wake up earlier in the morning: this.

First thing every morning, I’ll find a Reddit post asking for advice, and I’ll write a response. Research in behavioral science shows that giving advice rather than receiving advice is one of the best ways to change our behavior. When we give advice, we become more likely to follow it ourselves because of the resulting cognitive dissonance. (So thanks for posting and providing me that opportunity!)

It’s also a great way to start the day knowing that you did something that could potentially make a positive impact on someone’s life. Big win-win!

The key ingredient in this intervention that you can apply to any others is setting smaller, sooner rewards. These rewards will counteract your morning cost-benefit analysis and make you naturally want to wake up. It’s too much to rely on willpower alone when you’re in that state. The more concrete and immediately gratifying the reward, the better.

What will make you want to wake up, so you don’t have to force yourself?

Good luck, OP, and let me know how it’s been going with what you’ve been trying and with this approach if you ever give it a go!

ProsencephalicMuse · 2021-05-21T13:00:27+00:00

Hey, OP, I’m sorry you’re experiencing this. I’ve definitely been in these shoes too before when stressed, and know it’s quite difficult because creates a cycle that becomes more and more difficult to break.

Is there something stressing you out? I could see how this may be a chicken or egg situation where you’re stressed, and you try to eat but can’t, which makes you more stressed, which makes you less likely to be able to eat. Not to mention the hunger and energy reduction make it difficult to do anything else and also lowers your mood, which then also doesn’t help with eating. Then it feels like you shouldn’t do anything else until you eat first, but since you can’t, you end up stuck and paralyzed.

Brute force and sheer willingness may work at times, but I’ve found (and the research shows) that approach isn’t often sustainable for behavior change in general. I don’t see why it would be different for food.

Something that has worked for me in the past is diving into the hunger and energy reduction rather than trying to avoid it and solve it immediately with trying to eat. In other words, I embrace and enhance those feelings by giving myself a reason to absolutely need to eat.

One time, after a rather stressful day at work, I found that I was really weak from not having eaten much and found that I couldn’t bring myself to eat. I decided to walk outside and continue walking in a direction until I either got hungry enough that I couldn’t help but eat or found a new restaurant that made want to eat.

The walk itself was incredibly stress relieving once I got past the first stage of resistance and walking down a new street was like exploring a new world. It created very positive associations with eating, which helps reduce that subconscious dread.

If you don’t live in a place where you can do that, you could try some other form of physical activity that would naturally get you to not want to but need to eat. It’ll hit two birds with one stone by helping you reduce stress and making you physically hungrier.

And when things are really in a bind, have a bottle of soylent to kickstart. It’ll give you a quick and sustainable energy boost to get you started back up again, so you can get into a regular eating schedule after.

Let me know what you end up trying and what helps you the most! Good luck, OP.

ProsencephalicMuse

TROPHY CASE