Still making fast progress

 Haven't made any changes to the regimen yet.  It feels like I'm still making fast progress.  There is still some difference in the power of the image on the right side when I do Columns.  I'm still noticing fast progress with the double vision images coming together, and improvement when do VR.  There's still a significant amount of work that has to be done.  I do notice my eyes look better every day when I look at myself in the mirror.  

I did make another printout of Columns.  You can see in the previous entry I've worn out my sheet.  I fired up Google Docs and created another one which has a slightly different font, and has four sets of columns instead of three, so that my eyes have more work to go in on the inner column.  The nice thing about the new font is that there is more detail to look at with the tails of the letters and numbers.  It's more stimulating, particularly on the right-hand side when I look at it.  When I slide over from left to right--at least initially--I notice it takes a number of seconds of staring to get the letter or number big and bold--while keeping the left hand side big and bold.  This is where the stretching and workout occurs.  After around 30 minutes or so, both sides are nearly equivalent.  There is still some 'floatiness' between the two sides, which is a result of not yet having fusion--but I feel like the floatiness is slowly going away.  Eventually it will be solid, which will indicate fusion.  I'm happy with progress.  Excited to think about where I will be in another two weeks.  

What's taking so long?

Well... I'm not sure that things are indeed taking so long.  I'm grinding my ass off and loving it.  

I think part of why things are taking so long for me is my accommodation reflex: it's difficult, and takes so much work for me to plant my eyes on a piece of paper.  That needs to happen in order for fusion to occur.  That has to happen in order for my eyes to fuse and read the same piece of text with both of my eyes.  It is a bitch.  But I am doing the correct things at the moment.  I flattening on my eyes on the paper, for around an hour a day.  It is tough, and incredibly work-intensive.  But it is paying off, and I do see my vision improving at a rapid pace.   

Naturally the accommodation reflex is going to be a bit out-of-whack for people who have had strabismus their entire life.  There is naturally going to be variability in out-of-whack-ness between people.  I think that may be the biggest contributor for why this is so work-intensive for me.  However, it's only been a bit over a month since I've made the correct adjustments to my regimen.  Things are going fast.  Keep going.  

This is the sheet of paper I've been putting hundreds of hours into practicing on.  You can see the oil build-up and hole from my hands gasping this thing. 

Still fast progress, a bit Zeno's paradox, but progress is undeniable

 Today has been a great day.  Noticing quite a lot of improvement.  

I have quite the stack going on at the moment.  I'm doing:

• Cold exposure
• Ketogenic diet
• 20-minute session of red light therapy
• A piece of Nicorette while doing Columns exercise
• VR

It's hard to know what's making the biggest difference.  I think they all help.  The red light therapy has been the most recent addition.  I think it may be helping with energy.  

It is a bit annoying how much work this is... but I have made a huge amount of progress in the past month.  And the progress that I'm seeing now is still happening on a daily basis.  The VR is great, because it gives me subjective feedback.  I know that my vision is improving on a daily basis, and I think the VR helps to lock in the gains.  But I still notice the improvement when I drive my car and notice the lines in the road.  

What else... Columns is still challenging.  I'm still getting quite a lot out of it.  Keep going.

Lots going on behind the scenes; I think I ODed on Matcha

Things are moving quickly.  I just got done with a session of Columns.  When switching from side to side, I noticed a few things: one is that both sides are becoming equivalent to one another in terms of size.  The left side was always bigger and sharper (which I assumed was due to hyperopia and difference in refractive index on the right side).  However, today, they seemed surprisingly equivalent.  Also, the accommodation was close to being the same.  There is some minor adjustments that I have to make, but it was minor.  A month ago, it would take me around 45 minutes to get both sides to be somewhat the same in terms of clarity.  This means the workouts are working.  I wasn't sure how things would look as I progressed.  But now I kinda know.  It's like it's all becoming one eye, and the paper is moving around less.  It feels like I'm definitely making good, and rapid progress toward eventual fusion.  Lots is going on in software behind the scenes.   

What else.  No one told me how powerful Matcha is.  A buddy convinced me to try Matcha, and holy god.  That stuff is... bananas.  Er... green tea leaves, rather.  I did not expect it to be so powerful.  I normally drink huge quantities of green tea, because I like the taste; it's good for hydration (I drink around two liters a day--I make it with my French press), and it has a good mild stimulant effect.  I read that Matcha is like green tea, but cranked up several levels.  It has all the health and energetic benefits of green tea, but way, way more intense, because you're not just drinking the juices of the leaves: you're drinking the leaves whole.  

Well, the first day I tried it, I threw it up with my entire breakfast.  I had way too much of it.  A serving is one teaspoon.  I had a few glasses, each with heaping tablespoon.  This stuff doesn't mess around.  Next day (today) I tried it again, but only one glass, but still with a heaping tablespoon, and this time I would have it on an empty stomach.  I threw that one up as well.  Tomorrow I'll try again, but only a single serving with a single teaspoon on an empty stomach.  

But what about the effects?  Well, I can see what the fuss is about.  Matcha gives you quite a lot of long-lasting, sustained, and focused energy.  And to boot, it has nice appetite-suppressive effects.  One of the reasons I'm generally so vigilant about eating breakfast is because of the energy breakfast provides.  But if I can get those same energy effects from a glass of Matcha, I might do Matcha instead of breakfast.  Then I can get the energy benefits of breakfast, alongside the benefits of fasting (of which there are many), along with all the health benefits of Matcha (of which there are many).  This might be an interesting experiment.  

I think I'll have fusion/stereopsis within a month

 Yeah, things are still moving fast.  I think I'll achieve my goals with the current regimen.  We'll see.  It really is incredible how long this freakin' ramp is.  I am getting impatient, but I cannot deny the rapid progress.  So it's a combination of impatience, excitement, and a lot of let's-get-this-fucking-thing-done-already.

What am I currently doing? What do I put into my body?

Heh, what a nut I am.  I do quite a lot.

Here's the current regimen.  I wake up, do a 15-minute workout consisting of 10 pull-ups, 40 push-ups, and six deadlifts (315lbs).  I do three supersets of that, which takes around 15 minutes.  Then I go directly to the cold plunge, and submerge my entire body 35º F water for about five minutes.  Then I eat a large four-egg omelet, with lots of butter and cheddar cheese.  Then I wash that down with about two liters of green tea I make with my French press over the next few hours. 

I use quite a bit of supplements that I take with the omelet.  Beef liver tablets, lecithin, Vitamin B Complex, Vitamin D3, turmeric, rare-fraction alpha lipoic acid, coenzyme q10 (Ubquinol), a large swig of cod liver oil,  Ashwaganda, and Lion's Mane extract.

Lately I've been doing red light therapy for about 20 minutes before doing exercises.  I'm not sure it does anything yet, but I think it does.  Interestingly, it would appear I'm doing Syntonics again.  Full circle. 

Sometimes I will pop a Nicorette before I do the Columns workout.  I read that nicotine is a drug (among others, like Adderall) which increases neuroplasticity.  Nicotine is not good for you (though it's not terrible), but I do not think I'll be using it for very long.  I'm sort of using it strategically for the stimulant effects, the effects it has on neuroplasticity, as well as the anti-inflammatory effects it has on the body. 

Then I'll do the Columns workout for around 1-1.5 hours while chewing the Nicorette.

Then I basically fast all day, and then eat a bunch of cream and broccoli soup I made in large batches and which I thaw out.  In terms of macronutritents, it's basically all fat and some trace amounts of protein.  I'll eat that with some spinach, and chicken that I've thawed out and grilled.  I eat about 20 grams of chicken, so we're talking maybe around a total of 60 grams of protein a day, and the rest is fat.  So... we're talking pretty low protein, so I force my body to stay in fat-burning mode (ketosis), which helps with vision, vision therapy, and cognition in general.  

Later in the day I'll try to do two hours of VR, or for as long as I can bear it, which is around two hours.  I think VR helps with integration, because of the power of the binocular cues it provides.  I think the Columns workout works to get the eyes working together, and to tune the accommodation reflex, as well as eye coordination.  Then the VR works to tell the brain, 'Hey, here's some input you can use.  Now start using it.  Open the channel.'.  

My night time supplement cocktail is zinc, magnesium threonate, apigenin, l-theanine, Tongkat Ali.

Still a bit more progress to make on this ramp

 I'm not where I'd like to be on this particular ramp (Special Columns + VR), but I feel like there's still a bit more to be squeezed out of this particular regimen.  

Tomorrow will be the 10th, exactly a month since I discovered this new regimen.  I'm going to keep going.  Things are still moving quickly.