LIVE PUBLIC DRAFT Began Friday 5th September 11:50PM. 

So I have an idea.

I do know how it runs and “feels” in my head. But as to the “how” –  that becomes a different story.

Introducing Nutritional Humility Self-Journalling Tool 2.0 (App).

Context

So if you are new to this initiative I have been providing a self-journalling template, battle-tested myself in Google® sheets since its first iteration in 2020, as first public beta. This template comes into two (2) releases, first six (or seven, depending on the dates / calendar year)  followed by another six ~ months. The reason why this had to be split into two is due to sheer cognitive load when viewing the spreadsheet.

It is a boilerplate aiming to offer more than just “Dear Diary”. You get inputs for weight readings, miscellaneous notes and a custom input; all collated together as a graph you can see at-a-glance summary. Adding these features all up as you can see, things can get complicated very quickly.

Today’s expectation of “Journalling”

I take self-journalling from far different light than most seeing it as obligatory “exercise”.

My view: it is solitary space for your’s truly ~ scientific logging, querying  and databasing.  I further wager that it is not (unless if one is indeed clinical or physician care) a “proving”.

Some, particular those favouring the detail freaks among the “health optimisation”, or the Quantified Self crowd however may find solace among tools, gadgets and apps.  Think ultra expensive 24/7 glucose / ketone CGM / CKM monitoring, smart watches, etc. Anything that changes is a quantified change. All that – before one actually gets to writing.

So what is wrong with this present climate of journalling? One side beckons you a “good job!” pat in the back. The other half? You will be labelled as a freak. Health & fitness snob. Tall poppy syndrome then, kicks in.

So there is, in essence, “no middle class” that exists amongst the ladder of self-improvement. This app, as an idea form back of my mind ~ aims to remove these hyped expectations. Not so detailed to impress the Quantified Self crowd.  But it needs to be more elegant than just another “spreadsheet”.

A reminder, I also believe, is needed whenever we write something about ourselves. There needs to be forgiveness for imperfection. That ~ is where “honesty” must be facilitated.

People may think “Huh, why are you worried? Nobody reads your journal!”. I am referring to truly reflect, by way of self dialogue.

This might sound strange. But you can say what you want about yourself. “Self-affirmation” and all that to cope with everyday stress .

Are you really writing about your ego or your own honesty? Which (or “who”) is doing the actual accounting?

That –  is where “another perspective” is needed.

The inclusion / implementation of AI Agent

I should stress, that I absolutely maintain a very cautious stance when it comes to AI. Including text-to-prompt models. But having this secondary perspective on our side helps inform and best of all – remind us potentially of information we’ve long forgotten, under or overlooked….before they become a personal or scientific – debt.

Once again I appreciate your patience here to understand the “why”.

There is a saying that learning off from someone else’s mistakes (observation) is less painful. But learning from your own? Extremely painful.

Sometimes writing them down makes it all the more concrete and self-affirming. Good things, depending how rare it is (let’s face it, it’s VERY rare) is of coruse worthwhile to write about. Bad things on the other hand, is a lot harder. It involves diagnosis, reflections, where, what, how, or more importantly – why – things go wrong. 

If there is a takeaway from all my years of self journalling ~ whenever bad things happen, they usually point to some sort of “debt”. In other word, if it happens, getting into the roots  “mechanism” or the how, what or why on causality is most already and probably be – too late.

We are all human. Jobs, and other obligations get in the way. 16 hours out of 24 is already spent on just existing alone between you, your work, exercise, taking care of your home/rent, and putting food on the table. 

I know that taking Betaine HCL pepsin, and my non negotiable(s) – Vitamins D, K2, E, COQ10 alongside other “non negotiables” are already and should be a daily recurrence I should not be writing about it on, and on and on and on, to eternity.

But what about days, weeks (or perhaps even months) that I had to go without? I would likely be forgotten how my entire days went about it. Hence …..that’s where my Ego comes in.

Sooner or later – I become a victim of my own doing. If things remain constant and/or consistent we often assume they “no longer matter”.

That – is where “another perspective” here is needed. To help “analyse”, should any entry you feel is not up to your “usual self”.  Re-reading what you wrote a day, a week, a month or heck, even a year ago – may hold clues what you are experiencing changes adverse or not, at present 

What did you do exactly? What supplements were you taking during, before or after you realize the “pain” or event? What season of the year? At what fasting glucose/ketone levels? At what gut setting? Was it due to FODMAPs if so, coming from what food, when, how and what?

Having an AI agent that remains at the “ready” ~ analysing (upon request) to look through past entries, assess and return with a series of hypothesis would be far helpful than us having to claw back, tabs upon tabs of spreadsheets hidden somewhere in that table cell.

For the next part

I will get to disclose the technical specifics of what I hypothesise as the surface backbone how I envision this “app” to work.

Live-It-Forward,

AW.