#I had fewer mixed salad greens in one post this year :0 That's on me

[sysig]

2023 Art Purge

Original edition! Ended up having to split the doodles into two parts, I didn’t mean to end up with so many left over but oops - onto the commentary!

Remember crayon Edgar? I drew this one at the same time! Loosely based off Circus Baby but really just more of a general cutesy look - layering with colours is fun :)

Eyes, every year. Two general eyes, and two characters! Bottom left is Souichi, and bottom right is Vivian :) Vivian always gets a spare eye haha

Some concept art for a false backpack I still kinda wanna make - it’d be a prop for a game I made earlier this year, as the prize container! It’s meant to be kind of like a pop-up shop that can fold away fairly small and hold a bunch of small items safely and inconspicuously, though it wouldn’t actually work as a real backpack lol

Some Cherubsona concept art, thinking about their hair and the light rays - I considered having a single asymmetrical hair tuft, I think while I was still on the fence about having asymmetrical wings as well - I’m happy with the final design :)

And some baby angels! Based on my DQIX/AGE headcanons/actual canon lol, took a few tries to get a design I was happy with before settling on the bottom-most one with the fuzzed ears, lolling about haha. Cute!

Also thinking about “Fallen” designs, since my cherubsona is meant to be a fallen angel - or even just biblically accurate angels! Maybe they became more normal-looking after falling haha

More Charm doodles based on the Hungry idea - neither Frankenstein nor Zombies were quite what I was looking for, but they were close! Poor Charm, even if it is a Look

More eyes! Concept sketches of the Yanderapy boys :D Mitsu’s swirls and Ishida’s sleepy ♥ eye expression haha

An alternate panel of Mitsu being shy to admit his love language haha, I wanted his expression to be a little more visible but him hiding in the book is also very cute haha

Little doodle of Ishida singing Daisy Bell! He’s half-crazy all for the love of Mitsu after all

Technically these are from later in the year but I was really hoping to have the set up for a silly concept rolling - Ishida wants to play a game! The game would allow each of them to take a turn, with the goal of the game to be to sneak a gift into the other’s bag or pocket when he’s not looking. A cute and silly and fun concept to reverse pick-pocket the other and give a little treat! Totally harmless and not at all strange or weird or with any kind of underlying sinister vibes!

The punchline of course was that since they’re both yanderes that it basically turns into stalking each other, which as featured here, Mitsu is very into, who could have guess lol. The double punchline is that they’re both so aware of/obsessed with each other that they notice each other right away, but play along because it’s obvious that they’re both enjoying it haha It’s yandere enrichment! Ishida would also get a real rush from “hunting” Mitsu, as would Mitsu enjoy being “hunted” - yet more twisted love languages ♥

Random deer :) Actually one of the animals I considered for Dahlia early on but decided to scrap, because I don’t know how to draw deer lol

Also went through a couple scrapped designs for her artist friend, just to make sure I explored all my options thoroughly! I’m glad I did, but I’m happiest with the one I decided on, of course

Brief Dahlia and Tala meeting. They’re unsure of each other! Squirrels and dogs don’t have the best track record admittedly

Bit of vent :( Bar’s always good for it ♥

Bucket! :D Been a bit since I drew anyone from that cast, though I somehow made him on-model by accident lol, and of course he’s still cute! That’s the important part really

Eyesssssssss <3 <3 On the left were some quick comparisons between dot/filled-in eyes and eyes with a differentiated pupil and iris, since I’ve been defaulting to dark eyes a lot lately (it’s the Vargas influence lol); and on the right were a bunch of Cure eyes! I think at least partially studied off of some character creators? Lots of eye styles to choose from, which one suits her the best hmm. She has very sparkly eyes

And another sort-of study off a character creator haha, it’s very cute! Not very Cure, though

One of the early ideas that made me want to dig her out of storage was actually an animation idea that was maybe a liiiiiittle ambitious to go about making without her having a fixed design lol - I’ve always been a fan of magical girl transformations that completely glow-blot out the body and then they explode into frills and bows and fluff at the end haha. I would still like to come back to the idea at some point!

Ended up with a good handful of muscle studies, even after the ones I already posted - a lot of the poses ended up silly haha

And a lot of skull/face/neck studies as well, with mixed success :P

I’ll get it figured out eventually!

Sometimes it’s fun to just doodle around, shapes :) My own original human style feels so constantly in flux with the fanart I like to make and having so many non-human characters haha, probably doesn’t help that I prefer high stylism

A trio! They look kinda familiar, hmmm....

Yet more eyes lol, the first trying to figure shines. You can really see what a lack of editing does to the implied shapes pfft ♪

Always trying to figure out how to dragons! Another one I’ll have to get to Someday. There’s gotta be a trick to them >:0

Out of general studies and tests - hey I thought Just Desserts already had a sona??? And that she was like the most important and best and all that?? I got curious what my sona might be in the JD universe without being the villain haha, and I came up with a Chocolate-Chip Brioche Bun lad! :D I’ve always had something of an affinity for brioche, also somewhat inspired by Edgeworth’s cravat haha. But would Charm still exist and be wreaking havoc, or would this be the alternate universe Charm equivalent?? ‘Cause they’re definitely not “Charm”

Speaking of Charm tho! She’s holding a tooth lol - something something, candy people mining teeth? Because cavities? I dunno lol, but she’s certainly not all that much bigger than a tooth so that’s some fun scale for you :)

And finishing off with some cutesie little chibis :) I made the first as a reference for proportions, and the second to show how my holosona would look in that style haha, what a cute evil computer

#Doodles #Original #Long post #Extreme link-out edition lol #Multiple editions! #Had to be working on this one up to the last minute since y'know - still making even up to the end of the year! #Luckily this one was very well-behaved and didn't break even a little bit :) Very polite! Very appreciated haha #I have to admit I'm a little nervous about the fanart one on that front #But for now! Mostly silly sona stuff and OCs and the like :D Some concept art here and there #I'm gonna try harder in 2024 to have fewer leftovers - I like all of these! I want to show them off in their good timing! #I had fewer mixed salad greens in one post this year :0 That's on me #It's tough when I only end up with a small handful of doodles leftover to any given subject! But it's fine if some sets are smaller haha #I think the eyes will always have a spot in the end-of-year roundups tho haha #As always there'll be more 2023 doodles on the way! More than the previous years actually since I've gotten these roundups done early #Cuts both ways haha - queues still absolutely kill me |P But they do give me a cushion to work on bigger projects! #Just need the focus and energy for them lol #Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself a bit lol - there's still a whole 'nother one of these coming up sheesh lol #And I doubt that one will be as polite XP Even more reason to like this one! Haha #I'll letcha know when 2024 is ''officially'' here art-wise - I can tell you it won't be for a while haha

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

How Do We Prevent a Diabetes Avalanche?

New Post has been published on https://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-type-2/how-do-we-prevent-a-diabetes-avalanche/

How Do We Prevent a Diabetes Avalanche?

This article is reprinted with permission from diaTribe. Find the original article here.

By Amelia Dmowska and Ava Runge

A major call for creativity, urgency, and new approaches to behavior change from expert panelists at SXSW 2017

The annual 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) conference drew tens of thousands of attendees to Austin, TX, to learn about the latest in entertainment, technology, culture, and healthcare. For the first time ever, The diaTribe Foundation produced two SXSW panels, including a session on one of the most pressing questions in healthcare: How Do We Prevent a Diabetes Avalanche? diaTribe’s very own Senior Editor Adam Brown moderated this fascinating and important conversation with Dr. Phyllisa Deroze, Founder of Black Diabetes Info; Dr. Sarah Mummah, Behavioral Scientist and Senior Designer at IDEO; and Marie Schiller, a Vice President at Eli Lilly.

Nearly 100 attendees gathered to hear the panelists’ insights on type 2 diabetes prevention and management, behavior change, education at diagnosis, and more. Below, are some of their key takeaways that focus on urgency, how to actually achieve healthy habits, what healthcare providers could do better, the importance of community, and why we should focus less on problems and more on solutions.

Elevating the national (and international) urgency about type 2 diabetes and prediabetes is a “must.” Adam opened the discussion with astounding stats on diabetes and prediabetes. If everyone who had type 2 diabetes were a country, it would be the world’s third largest country after India and China. Meanwhile, the estimated prediabetes population in China (about 493 million) is greater than the entire US population (319 million people). Globally, there are four times as many diabetes deaths (5 million) than traffic deaths (1.25 million) per year, a reminder that self-driving cars may have less upside than improving diabetes care. More people in the US have diabetes (29 million) and prediabetes these striking figures, Adam pointed out that despite all the attention that cancer and HIV/AIDS receive, their combined populations are half the size of the US diabetes population.

Tiny wins and small steps are essential for forming habits and changing behavior. The panelists said that drastic changes – like trying to replace every single meal with a salad – can often be daunting and ineffective. They recommended introducing small changes to established routines (e.g., eat one more vegetable per day, or exercise for just five minutes per day). These small changes can build a sense of momentum and lead to bigger changes over time. On a similar note, Dr. Mummah of IDEO said that behavior change should be countable, positively framed, and tangible. Adam said that free resources such as Dr. BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits program can help people build habits through small, incremental steps.

“A really drastic change may be hard to do, so you admit defeat. If you give people really big challenges, you undermine their confidence in being effective. If you can start with tiny behaviors that build, you set people up for success.” – Dr. Mummah

“Inciting behavior change with small, incremental steps is much more effective than dumping huge behavior change asks on people. Many people get advice to make a huge change and they don’t want to hear it because it’s a huge leap, so they give up. I know – this has happened to me!” – Adam Brown

Healthcare providers need to meet their patients “where they’re at” and use more uplifting language. Dr. Deroze recounted stories of her diagnosis, where the advice she received was generic, negative, and not personal to her needs. Ms. Schiller discussed how physicians approach diabetes with a long-term perspective, which often drives ineffective scare tactics. Adam and Dr. Mummah argued for a reframe of the usual discussion around motivation and behavior change.

“Many people hate hearing negatives because it’s hard to prioritize the long game. One of the things that we argue in diaTribe and my upcoming book (Bright Spots & Landmines) is why you should prioritize something right now. How does an in-range blood sugar make me feel today – more energy, better sleep, etc. If we gave people more action-oriented NOW messages, we could make a bigger difference.” – Adam Brown

“Many physicians are looking forward but end up using scare tactics. It’s important to educate healthcare providers about how to communicate properly.” – Ms. Schiller

“I went to a nutritionist many years ago, and it helped. I’ve lost 85 pounds since. But at the time, she was giving me all these ideas and I kept saying ‘no.’ Her mentor interrupted me frustrated and told me I was resistant to everything! the nutritionist wanted me to eat Raisin Bran. But I ate Fruit Loops. I had chicken thighs in the fridge, and she wanted me to eat chicken breasts. Eventually, the young nutritionist told her mentor to hold on and approached the situation differently. She made a plan with me to eat half chicken breasts and half chicken thighs. When the thighs were out, she told me not to buy them anymore. She told me to buy cereal at the store – any cereal I wanted – but it had to have at least five grams of fiber. I had to mix a little bit of it with Fruit Loops or Apple Jacks. Eventually, I got to half and half, and then when those Fruit Loops were out, I didn’t buy them anymore. Her advice changed my palate. She met me where I was.”

“The long-term outcomes aren’t going to get you out of bed. Initially, they might be motivating, but two weeks or a month in, when you’re making a decision between a donut and a salad, you probably won’t think about how it will affect your long-term diabetes risk. We have to focus on the process and make the process rewarding in and of itself.” – Dr. Mummah

“All the information I got at diagnosis was dismal. The images were a turnoff. The data for African Americans suggested that they got more amputations and more blindness. It made it seem like I had gotten a diagnosis and that I was dying rather than that I would be a person living with diabetes. This depiction prohibited me from learning how to manage diabetes.” – Dr. Deroze

It is critical to have a strong community for people with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes – both online AND offline. There are few online or offline centers for people with diabetes and prediabetes to rally together. While the Diabetes Online Community (#DOC) is a robust online presence, many people still do not have access to digital resources, and even if they do, there is significant stigma in being “out” online. All the panelists said that we need to work together to build a larger community to raise awareness, provide support, and offer resources for people with diabetes and prediabetes.

“If someone gave you $10 million right now, what would you invest in or test in diabetes?” Interestingly, Dr. Deroze said she would “definitely” go offline – it was an in-person support group shortly after diagnosis that really changed her life with diabetes. She added: “There’s a digital divide that still exists – many in the community don’t have access to the DOC. Annually, I have workshops at a local library and I bring education that I’m getting from the DOC to my town community. For example, we have a “learn the plate” method day. We have a buffet, and they fix their plate with ox tails, chicken wings, collard greens, corn bread – whatever they normally do. Then I teach them how they should do it.”

“There is no foundation for people with prediabetes; no one has championed that cause. Ninety percent of people who have prediabetes don’t know. We need to create awareness and collaboration.” – Ms. Schiller

In diabetes and prediabetes, we need less problem-focused research (what’s going wrong and why) and more solution-oriented research (what works and why). Dr. Mummah put it well: “From my perspective, we don’t necessarily need more data. We need to be testing solutions. There is a subtle distinction between problem- and solution-oriented research. In problem-oriented research, you ask questions like “Are children who live in communities with fewer parks and green spaces less physically active?” In solution-oriented research, instead, you ask “Does adding green parks increase physical activity or does limiting advertising to children on TV reduce obesity?” If you look at neighborhood safety, it makes sense that you would be less physically active if you feel unsafe. You’re less likely to go outside your home if you’re likely to be mugged or putting yourself in danger. A solution-oriented approach to this problem would say, “Let’s increase street lighting, let’s hold a music festival one evening every month to bring people outdoors in the evening. Let’s create a neighborhood watch program.” Then if the experiment works, you have a solution that’s ready to implement and scale. It’s a subtle shift, but it’s powerful.”

Photo Credit: Amelia Dmowska and Ava Runge

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