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Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?

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Re: Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?

#85

Post by jablongo »

Apple Watch - Allows me to view my blood glucose at any time.

Dexcom CGM - This is the best way to constantly measure your blood glucose, though it is a bit expensive.

Rileylink - This is an open source hardware device which intercepts BLE packets from my continuous glucose monitor and sends reverse engineered 433mhz communications to my insulin pump. This has a companion app (Loop) which tells me projected blood glucose on my Apple Watch and automatically administers insulin accordingly.

To a lesser extent, AirPods - it’s pretty cool to be able to say “hey Siri, what’s my blood sugar?” while I’m riding my bike.

When I first got the Apple Watch + plus rileylink setup it was like Xmas every morning ; I got to wake up and look at how my blood sugar had been successfully controlled by the system through the night. Taken together, this open source loop/rileylink system was probably the first legit artificial pancreas used by diabetics in real life. All the other data like insulin on board and active carbohydrates was so exciting to have directly modeled and displayed on my watch since I had spent years trying to estimate those variables in my head throughout the day.

Re: Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?

#86

Post by ykevinator »

noir_lord wrote: post #57

A cheap aluminium road bike (since replaced with a full carbon Felt). At the time (10 years ago) I was 240lbs (been working stupid hours for nearly 2 years and pizza was easier on the way home) and the doc had just found I had stage 2 hypertension which he wanted to medicate, I asked him to give me a couple of months and if no improvement I'd take his advice, stopped in Halford's (bike chain in the UK) and bought the…

Good for you, your story is inspiring

Re: Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?

#87

Post by ggregoire »

mynegation wrote: post #28

Tickets to cart racing for the second date with my wife (back then future wife). I did not know she does not drive, and she does not drive now, but she carried through this with such a poise and good attitude that I realized she just might be the one. Books - some of them were free, some of them bought, about mathematics, physics, chemistry, programming that got me hooked on these subjects. Computers. Sinclair ZX Spe…

> Contact lenses. I am myopic and used glasses. Contact lenses required some time to get used to, but ultimately gave me the great feeling of freedom.

Have you thought about LASIK? (I am myopic too but it's very recent, about 2-3 years)

Edit: there are 2 other comments about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23669299

Re: Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?

#88

Post by Raed667 »

dingaling wrote: post #52
Raed667 wrote: post #30

A Garmin watch. Having your health data easily available makes healthy decisions (take the stairs, or walk a bit more, or hit the gym...) a lot easier.

Frankly those should be defaults, not decisions you take based on data. I see this quite often with people using smartwatches. "Oh I've hit my calorie burn target for the week, I can skip workout today". It's not just about calories but also about toning and stamina and establishing daily routine.

They should be default, but we always underestimate how much we eat and over estimate how active we're.

Having hard data in my wrist and setting up reminders and gamification helps me to remain on track.

I have daily goals that reset at midnight, so when I walk twice as much yesterday, I still have to walk my daily quota today.

It was very effective for me.

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