Day 11

Okay, day 11... I did my exercises...and not much else to say! I haven't noticed any real improvements, but as I said yesterday, I didn't do the exercises for several days, which isn't good! As long as I commit to doing my exercises every day, I know I will see results! I just have to be patient and work hard.

Day 10

Well, as you can see I skipped a few days, so I hope it doesn't put me back too far! Ideally I need to do my eye exercises EVERY day, or at a bare minimum, six days a week. So, overall I'm not happy with myself for missing several days. I really don't know how much I slip backwards if I don't train my eyes every day. I guess it is impossible to tell!

So, my goal is to get 100% into this for the next week at least! I really want to improve my vision so by the end of the year I hopefully won't need glasses for most tasks (or will at least have gained enough improved vision to be sure of a successful outcome).

Day 9

Again nothing much to report. I'm not seeing much change, to be honest, but I'm not sure if that really matters yet or not. It could be that I've had some improvements, but they're just not that obvious at this stage. I sometimes find it much harder to see the letter on the In and Out exercise than other times. I wonder if my eyes are fatigued? I am trying not to wear my glasses at all for near work (or using the computer), unless I have to have the monitor too far away. I'm also getting headaches, which I'm not sure if it's related to this or not!

I just have to keep persisting with the exercises and try to keep note of any changes or improvements. I do hope that by the end of 30 days there will be a distinct difference though! Well, not necessarily major, maybe only a bit. But something that is measurable. I believe that measurable difference makes all the difference in being able to persevere with something over the long haul. Once you know for sure something is working it's much easier to stick!

Day 8

Okay, well done today's exercises. Nothing much to report! All the exercises are now fairly easy. I just have to continue sticking with the program for another couple of weeks (until I've done at least 4) and then I'll get my eyes tested and we'll see if I have something GOOD to report! Honestly, ANY improvement in that time will confirm that it's working and that my vision isn't improving. I can't expect miracles (I think miracle testimonials are very misleading actually, and quite disheartening for folks who don't see amazing results straight away). Even if I get a 0.5 diopter change, it proves that the exercises are working and that if I stick with them I can expect further improvements.

It's sort of like losing weight. You see programs that may actually be good, and read testimonials of losing 3 or 4 kg a week or whatever, and think WOW! So, you go on the program and lose mayby 0.5kg and give up because you're not seeing amazing, mindblowing results. This is the same. Even a small change is significant because it demonstrates that it DOES work. You just have to stick with it to reap the rewards!

Day 7

Today the series of exercises changed. The first changed was the three cups exercise. It was funny because now it's easier (focussing behind the picture). I was able to do this straight away without even trying (which made it harder to do the first stage of the exercise). Anyway, if it helps my eyes it's all good! Today I also started doing the string beads exercise, which looks relatively easy.

Not sure whether my vision is improving... it's hard to gauge it. Sometimes it seems better, sometimes it seems worse, and sometimes it seems as if there's absolutely no difference! Frustrating! However, as it's only been a week I'm not really worrying about it. I will persist with it and over time keep track of my eyes and any improvements. I am looking forward to ditching my glasses!!

Actually, I do find sometimes that when I'm reading and I've forgotten to take my glasses off, my eyes get a bit weird or I get headachy. Not sure if that's because I'm improving my eyes OR because I'm wearing old glasses! I have no idea what prescription these ones have either, but I don't think it was massively different to my other pair. Hopefully they're a bit weaker, that's all!

Day 6

Well...it's Monday and Day 6 meaning I didn't do the exercises yesterday; although I definitely should have! I'm not sure there's much to report today. I do think I found the "out" part of the In & Out exercise with two eyes easier to focus on (hard to explain... but it seemed that it took both my eyes less time to get into a focussed state). Of course, they're still not focussing clearly ;)

My husband was actually telling me of an optometrist in town who he went to see some years ago who promoted eye exercises. I may have to make an appointment with him, because it's likely he'd be more understanding of what I'm doing than my usual optometrist who has NEVER said anything about eye exercises!

I have decided to give the course a full four weeks before making an appointment though... so another three weeks to go! Am hoping for something noticable in that time!

Day 5

Blogging each day of my vision improvement is sort of boring...because not much happens! But it DOES help me keep accountable, and will help me keep track of how many days I've been doing it for!

So, nothing much to report today. Three cups at this level is almost too easy ;) Umm sometimes when I'm using the eye chart it seems clearer than others, which is interesting but I'm not sure if it's notable or not!

Tomorrow I will probably not get my exercises done (I will be away all day, leaving pretty early in the morning, so there won't really be any time). So day 6 will have to be on Sunday. I assume that missing a single day won't hurt too much in the whole scheme of things! However, in general I will endeavour to do the exercises each day.

Day 4

Well three cups is now super easy to do. My eyes just automatically do it without any effort! Lots better than it was when I started.

What else can I report? Well it didn't seem that my eyes were getting any different (or at least not perceptibly). When I read the chart from 7ft (which is about the length of this room) I still can't see the top letter clearly (so I have a bigger E stuck there). However I thought it might have been a little clearer. Hard to tell... it's certainly not clear as crystal ;)

Anyway, I did a little experiment where I tried to measure the distance I could see clearly with a tape measure. It's not exactly accurate, as it's hard to tell how perfectly clear the letter is... however, it seemed to me that my left eye could see it quite well at 50cm and my right eye at 37cm. Now, that would make my left eye -2.0 and my right eye -2.7 diopters. And this is DEFINITELY better than they were. However, that is my own measurement, and certainly isn't as accurate as an optometrist could do. It's also reliant on me a) holding up a card, b) holding up a tape measure and trying to get it to hit the card at the right distance lol! It might be better to stick the card to the wall and move back and then measure from where I am.

Okay, I tried that and the results weren't quite as good (lol) but I was reading smaller letters (hard to know how small I should be looking??) Anyway, I got 32cm and 42cm this time. Which would be -2.4 and -3.1 diopters (for left and right eye). Still better than -3.0 and -3.5! So, I'll try and do a similar test at least once a week to see if there are any improvements... I really want to go to the optometrist and have him surprised at how good my eyes are! I'll wait a couple of weeks before I do that though ;) I'll try and wait a month if I can. That way there's time for a definite improvement. I think I'll make the appointment for for weeks after starting, so almost a month. Then at least I'll have a decent pair of glasses when I need to use them instead of this old embarrassing pair that I'm wearing now! They are also annoyingly flimsy feeling. My other pair, despite breaking, felt much more solid.

Day 3

Done the exercises again today. I found three cups a bit easier, but it's still a challenge to "get it". Once I've got it, it's easier and easier to keep getting it! I have also realised why my dad sees those Magic Eye 3D pictures backwards! It's because he's focussing in the wrong place ;) I'll have to mention it to him sometime (generally you focus behind the picture...they say if the picture has a glass front or a glossy front you look at your reflection in it to get your eyes not focussing on the picture but BEHIND it (because your reflection is always BEHIND the glass). However, he's obviously throwing his eyes out of focus and is focussing in front of the picture instead (which I found trickier to do with the three cups exercise... it's easier to go behind than in front).

Funny what you can learn from doing some simple eye exercises ;). Well, I still can't say I've had any great moments of clarity or whatever, but I sometimes think I'm seeing a bit better (however, this could be purely my imagination of course). I don't expect to have huge success within just a couple of days; however, one would imagine that there could be a slight improvement (I assume it's an additive effect...therefore a slight improvement each day leading to a more dramatic improvement after some weeks' effort).

I deliberately left my glasses in another room this morning so I wouldn't "forget" and put them on! I am now trying to only wear them when I really need to (ie riding my bike or driving the car); however, when someone comes to the front door I generally put them on because I like to see who I'm talking to! I also find it easier to wear them while doing general work around the house because I can see better what I'm doing. But I'm trying to train myself not to need them so much, and to get used to looking around with less than perfect sight. Once I'm used to it, it's not so bad.

Day 2

Done my exercises for the day. I can't say I've noticed an improvement yet, but then again I don't expect more than about a 1 diopter improvement by the time 6 weeks are up! So, yeah, I can't expect much yet.

Yesterday afternoon and evening I did think my eyes were hurting/straining a bit more though. I do wonder if it had something to do with the exercise I was giving them. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing ;) Sort of like the way my thigh muscles are aching today because I did squats yesterday afternoon, and I haven't done any for a few weeks! Perhaps eye exercises are the same... my eyes/eye muscles will feel tired for a few days because I've actually worked them.

I've finally got the three cups exercise working properly at the first level. The funny thing is, I can do it the OPPOSITE way easily. Hmm to explain... the image has two "cups" and you have to focus your eyes away from the two cups to create a third cup in the middle (which is three dimensional). At first to do this you are supposed to use a pen to focus on (which is held in front of the card) so you can see the third cup behind the pen. You then have to learn to get the third cup without the pen. That is the first level. It basically involves focusing IN FRONT of the image. In the second level your eyes have to focus BEHIND the image (which makes the cup appear upside down). For me it is super easy to do it the second way. I did it straight away. However, when I did it I thought I was doing it the FIRST way. I didn't understand the difference ;) Until I realised that the cup I was seeing was upside down!

Anyway, today I got the first level right. I'm going to find the second level easier though ;) It is much easier to sort of throw my eyes out of focus to get the centre cup if they're far focussing not near focussing (if that makes sense). Anyway, it is a good exercise... Even once you've got the third cup, you have to take your eyes off the card and do it again and again. Quite a challenge! Hopefully it's helping :)

Day 1

Okay, I started this blog to document my own quest to improve my vision. This isn't a quest that involves using laser surgery or glasses (obviously I already need glasses, otherwise I would have no real need to fix my eyesight!), but instead involves doing regular, daily eye exercises.

For many years I've believed that once your eyesight starts to deteriorate, there's really nothing you can do short of surgery to fix it. That seems to be the consensus of my parents and of my optometrist (and of pretty much everyone I know). However, a couple of times I've come across information that suggests that it IS possible to improve one's sight. Now, I believe it's easier if the process is started young (at the time the eyes start to go bad), rather than starting more than 20 years after the fact! However, the only place I can start is from where I am NOW. I can't go back in time to 1986 when it was first determined that I needed to wear glasses!

I am now of the belief that if my children start developing myopia they WON'T be getting glasses to fix it, but I will be giving them eye exercises and possibly pinhole glasses (which are sort of odd for me... but do help me see better at a distance...albeit with a lot of distortion...I think I have a cheap crappy pair of pinhole glasses, personally).

Anyway, I bought the "Rebuild Your Vision" kit, and started using it today. It consists of a series of eye exercises (which are applicable for long sightedness, short sightedness, astigmatism, as well as aging vision or presbyopia) and a schedule to follow. While it's been awhile since I had an official eye test, the prescription of my current contact lenses (which I'm not wearing at the moment) is about -3.0 for the left eye and -3.5 for the right eye. That's a starting point! I intend to go to the optometrist in a couple of months for a new eye test (I also need new glasses as I broke my frames... however, I don't want to get new glasses until I've given this system at least two months to give my eyes some improvement). Ideally, when one gets new lenses, the new lenses should be made weaker than the prescription, so the eyes still have to work! I want to see an improvement of at least 1 diopter in each eye, and if I can demonstrate to the optometrist that I AM improving my sight, then I'm hoping he'll agree to give me a weaker prescription (at least 0.5 diopters less than I "need").

As part of my vision quest, I'm also trying to wear my glasses as little as possible. This has meant dumping my wireless keyboard and typing straight onto my laptop computer so the screen is close enough to see!! Obviously, if I'm driving the car I need glasses...goes without saying. I also need to wear glasses when riding my bike (I don't think it's safe not to!). However, around the house I aim to avoid glasses as much as possible. The hardest thing is to adapt to poor vision. I LIKE to see well! Without glasses everything beyond about 30cm is a blur. The more distance I have to look, the blurrier it is!

I will try and watch TV wearing pinhole glasses (but as I said, I think I have a crappy pair... I bought them off eBay and they came from Hong Kong or somewhere and cost me less than $10), and I won't wear any glasses for close work such as computer or reading. I aim to update this blog each day, stating whether or not I've done my exercises (accountability) and how my eyes improve. I aim to eat a good, healthy diet (mostly raw vegan, which has been anecdotally shown to improve vision in some people) and I'll probably also get some supplements of eye friendly nutrients. Ultimately I want my vision to be 20/20, however, I'll settle for not having to wear glasses for most interactions! In general though, as I said before, I LIKE being able to see well, so really I want to be able to see clearly without the need for glasses. I want to be able to see the way I could before my eyes started going bad at the age of 13! I honestly think we don't take our vision seriously enough until we start losing it ;)