Day 26: Pretty sure I didn’t even do my eye exercises. I meant to, while lying in bed close to midnight, but went to sleep instead. Day 26 was a Monday, a start of a new daily routine for the fall which involved more work and it threw me off my priorities.

Day 27: With all the detailed computer work, reading, and cell-phone facebook/twitter/blogging/note-taking I like to do, my eyes feel doomed. Obviously I haven’t instituted my focus breaks yet. New plan: tomorrow, set phone timer to go off every thirty minutes while on my laptop to stop and do far focus exercises.

This could be my last hope!

I am excited for this experiment to be over in 5 days. The last 4 days I’ve been holed-up sick at home, with little energy nor motivation, and I feel like I’m making backward progress.

Mostly I’ve been working and playing on my laptop for 4 days, and my eyesight seems to have gotten worse when trying to focus on distant objects. The most useful focus exercises (and most frustrating) I have found to be going to a bookstore, grocery, or, today, going to a flea market and trying to find small items when you’re not even sure they exist. This is really trying on unfocused eyes and creates a tension headache within minutes.

If I were to continue (or re-do) this experiment, I would say that one should spend at least 15-30 minutes a day in such an environment to really exercise the eyes fully. It really sucks so it probably helps. And it probably should be woven into computer time usage on top of that, like focusing on distant objects for 1 minute for every 30 minutes on the computer, or something like that.

Will I dedicate myself to doing this over the next 5 days, for the sake of science?

Ug. I’ll try. My eye appointment is on Saturday and I’d love to tell my eye doctor my eyesight has improved because I am not wearing glasses/contacts anymore!

Day 20: Wore low correction glasses out-and-about today, for most of the day.

Day 21: Eyes felt super blurry after yesterday’s glasses-wearing. Don’t know if eyes got lazy in one day or if it’s just the contrast that makes me feel twice as nearsighted.

I also notice that the eyes seem to water more when straining to focus far into the distance. This seems like a sign of progress, or at least change! Otherwise, not feeling super optimistic that 20/20 vision can be achieved in the next 9 days. Also, more time spent on laptop makes distance objects appear even more blurred. Extra laptop usage today.

If it’s worth considering in this experiment, I’m coming down with a throat infection today. I can feel it, a little raw.

Did 1×100 near-far focus on each eye. Left eye bothered a bit.

The more time I spend with the laptop it seems the less progress I feel I’m making in the “real world” improving my vision.

Wore low-correction glasses for a couple hours today. I can see “perfectly” well when I wear them, must be the left eye is overcompensating. This may explain the headache I have today above the left eye.

Today I noticed that riding my bike to work I simply didn’t “try” to see objects in the distance. I narrowed my world down to what I could see around me, and accepted everything else as blurry. I had to coach myself to try to focus on a faraway object.

I think my right eye is getting lazy. I will try to do more with it tomorrow to wear it out a bit. Only 10 days until my 30-day eye exam!

Day 17: Worked a concert festival as a security guard all day. Borrowed housemate A’s glasses, which were about 1 point strong. They were strong enough that I could see perfectly well with both eyes, blurry but not terrible through just the right eye. I will be keeping these glasses with me for the remainder of the experiment for driving and necessary glasses tasks. I had forgotten about the experiment’s recommendation to wear glasses at least 2 points weaker than your eyes.

Day 18: Did my eye exercises as a lead-in to a full-body yoga routine which my body needed SO badly. Went the whole day with no glasses. No headaches. Still not doing any strict near/far focus exercises :-/

Day 15: sucked. everything felt fuzzier than usual. bad attitude. horrible headache. Eyes hurt. happens to coincide with a hormonal change?

Day 16: Still feeling really fuzzy, like no improvement in vision at all. Realized I had been leaving out 2 exercises the past week or so by not using my list when doing the exercises. I am also not doing the 100 near-far exercises in one sitting, I am mostly just trying to focus on distant objects when out and about. Not sure if being rigid about this exercise helps. Perhaps I will re-incorporate the rigid 3×100 near-far exercises again tomorrow.

Also was challenged by a colleague to learn to not only cross my eyes but make them both go to opposite corners at the same time. Now that is a challenge!

Felt blind as a bat walking to BART station early this morning. A “no improvement at all” kind of feeling today.

While in Subway waiting for train, practiced just staring at fuzzy letters on wall with right eye. Observed that I saw a double/triple image, one slightly above and below the original. I then noticed that if I applied light pressure to that eye with my thumb and fingertip below and above the pupil, that I could correct my vision to 20/20. This was kinda cool, but I’m not sure how to apply that to my exercises. It’s pretty much like squinting, which I’m not considering as a valid alternative to contact lenses!

Another day…

Jezuz, I can’t believe it’s only been 13 days into this experiment. Now I’m starting to wonder how much hormones are involved in this eyesight thing, and/or how much they can work against your morale.

I have stopped using hormonal contraceptives, as of a couple days ago. So I think my quick change in mood today about this project has more to do with hormonal changes than anything else. I read a British study from like 2008 that showed women were more attracted (by scent) to men of similar genetics when on oral contraceptives. No thank you.

So, today, I went a bit too long without eating and ended up buying a crappy “oatmeal raisin” cookie (no visible oatmeal nor raisins in the cookie, as discovered after the purchase) and a piece of coffee cake for lunch at my least favorite local coffee shop near the BART station. Which probably kicked off an insulin spike and crash which led to a dinner of pasta and ice cream for a midnight snack.

Which leads me now to a tearful, reflective mood, and a slight, generally negative disposition.

Bearing that in mind, I did not sense any real vision improvement today. I did my eye exercises tonight (while trying to recover from a beat-up hammer-throwing spine) and noticed some tearing-up during certain exercises. Kind of a sign they were working?

Enough of today already. On to better nutrition and mood tomorrow, hopefully!

Survived an outdoor music festival for one day. Had a great time dancing and not feeling any judgments from people’s eyes. Very freeing. Worked the eyes trying to see objects clearly on stage. Slacked on muscular eye exercises. Did most of the before tonight but not all of them.

I am an eye ninja.