Diet could be a/the factor -- I've drifted back to my usual low-ish carb diet, which tends to be lower on the protein and higher on fats and carbs than example. Not super-high on the carbs, I'm still holding at <100g/day. Besides macros, which other parameters are super-important for me to keep an eye on when picking out meals?

I would aim for high protein. The funny thing about the term "protein" is that it really doesn't communicate all of the important amino acids. In the dietary guideline, I'd indicated around 1 : 1 : 1 ratios, as net carbs : fat : protein. Really, the protein intake would be as a minimum amount and significantly more can be included. Depending on the metabolic trap(s) in play, some people would be benefit from higher intakes of EAAs (includes BCAAs), tryptophan, lysine, as found in most proteins.

I personally eat around 160-240g of protein most days, although my needs are a little different to others here.

Day 20

Not too much to report. Woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, went back to bed for a few hours a little later in the morning, but wasn't horribly groggy and wiped out afterward like I usually am. I assume this is because I only really made up for lost sleep rather than trying to make up for metabolic death spirals.

It's nice to not have to deal with pre-breakfast pills.

Day 22

Better than previous, no levocetirizine, no a-GPC 😄 Very nearly went back to bed in the morning, but didn't, and energy and mood improved as the day went on.

Day 24

I think some of the funk is passing. Slept an extra four hours today, but I also got less than five hours' sleep last night, so my total need for sleep is getting back to normal levels. Mood could still be better, but has been steadily improving. All of these symptoms have had me operating under my normal functionality level, so maybe I'll start seeing something useful in the next few days.

Day 26

I've had a lot of days in the past week where I haven't been able to get back to sleep after awakening around 4 AM (normal rising time for me is about 8 AM). Part of it is needing to get up to use the bathroom in the night (extra fluids due to protocol); part of it is that I'd usually gone back to bed for a few hours the day before; and, I realized, part of it is that my old bed frame isn't the most stable thing around and I feel it every time my husband so much as twitches a toe. I've ordered a new bed frame which is supposed to be "zero motion transfer", and I'm hoping that this will help, because there's a lot of toe twitching going on in the pre-dawn hours that prevents me from relaxing.

Between that and the hormonal fluctuations (still present but diminishing), I've been pretty tired and haven't been able to get a good grasp on what the protocol's been doing for me. It's been hard to eat consistently or take all of the pills, though I do make sure I take all of my reishi. Hoping that this next week will see better sleep, and that it'll improve further once the bed frame gets here.

Day 28

Oof. Not sure whether it was immune response or poor postural decisions or a mix of both, but in the evening I experienced headaches bad enough to make me nauseous. Seemed to stem from neck and shoulder tension, and were ameliorated by constant gentle motion and stretching, enough that I could keep an ibuprofen down to get some sleep. I can't recall having headaches of quite that severity before, nor does 3 hours of gaming generally cause such a reaction. The one thing I did differently, diet-wise, was have my oat bran in the afternoon rather than the evening.

Ah well. The rest of my day had been tolerable, not great, mostly due to mood issues exacerbating low energy.

Going to get all the sleep I can today to make up for yesterday.

Edit: Quoth Josh, in Discord:

If my urea gets too high, I get something that reminds me of PEM from the old days - that weird flu/heat stroke feeling and headache.. usually accompanied by tense shoulders, neck and irritability.

I can drink a litre of water, pee and shake that off quickly.

Usually takes me dehydration or experiments involving nitrogen retention to trip that.

That... sounds pretty familiar. Quite possible that I wandered into that.

Day 30: Morning Special Edition

Hey, an immune reaction more like I expected! I started developing a sore throat late last night. It's still pretty mild this morning but definitely still there. Time to bump up the lion's mane, maybe eat some extra oat bran, and see what happens.

I switched from the NOW beta-glucans to 40g oat bran 1/d five days ago.