Week #7

Here I am in Vermont. There are 17 inches of snow on the ground. I just ran into my old baby-sitter in Walmart. The only thing that has changed in the past 30 years is that they finally built a round-about at the intersection.
My mom is going "ga-ga" literally about August. There are onsies hung up in every corner of the house... My sister is enabling her.
And despite all the chaos, I packed my floss and used it.
That's enough commentary for now, or it might get nasty.

Week #6

I am still improving. I flossed six times in a row last week.
I mentioned my flossing campaign to a neighbor in casual conversation and she gave me a "Bryton pick"
I am not sure about this contraption... so I asked Julie (my dental hygienist/consultant)...
She had never heard of such a device, so I am still skeptical.
It says "FDA registered" on the package - which doesn't necessarily ring in as true as "FDA approved."
Also, according to Bill Cosby, you should never put anything metal in your mouth, until you go to the dentist
and then, the first thing he grabs is a metal hook:)
This contraption looks to me as though it's made of metal. I am not going to use it until Julie gives me her seal of approval next week in class.... Regardless, still not doing so well with the prenatal vitamin. I guess I have to start keeping track of that too... took only one or two last week. I think I won't give myself "credit" for flossing unless I accompany it with my prenatal.

Week #5

I am well on my way to oral health!
I flossed 5 times IN A ROW this past week.
I didn't manage to convince myself that mouthwash is a good idea...

In addition to many more practical websites such as: www.floss.com

I did find this website helpful: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flossing
Especially the following definition:)
"The act of putting a towel between the legs then pulling it back and forth for the purpose of drying ones crotch after a shower. This act is usually spotted at the change rooms in the gym where the towels are shared by the public."

I am not going to incorporate this into my routine, but it was helpful to know that I have other areas to consider flossing...

This also was educational:
"In bondage, the positioning of a taut rope so that it runs vertically down the female's back, between her buttocks, against her perineum (taint), and then vertically upward separating and lying between her labia. The visual is enhanced when her pubic hair has been completely removed."

This self improvement mission is lending toward directions that I never even considered!
I am still concentrating on flossing my teeth for now...but if I turn to flossing my vagina, this is going to be a whole different kind of blogging experience.

Week #4

I flossed 5 times last week!

I am very happy with my progress... I actually feel a difference in my mouth and gums.
But, I have, however, noticed some barriers to my achieving perfect flossing records:

1.) If I brush my teeth too late. My laziness seems to be directly proportional to my fatigue. If I fall asleep on the couch while Peter is watching TV (I rarely actually watch the TV, only I sit in front of it to be next to him...:), and I have been falling asleep quite regularly before I make it to the bathroom to brush my teeth, then my chances of flossing seem greatly diminished.

2.) If I think I have been doing very well. This particular obstacle makes no sense on rational evaluation. If I am doing well, I could always do better... it just occurred to me, that I could even floss MORE than once a day. There seems to be much room for improvement... so much so that I definitely shouldn't cut myself any slack.

3.) If my teeth already feel clean. Hmmm. Again, not such a good justification. No matter how clean they FEEL, they clearly aren't, as evidenced by the flecks on the mirror... (sorry for the graphic).
My mom used to floss while driving and it absolutely disgusted me how she sprayed flecks of plaque on the windshield.

Regardless... I am vow to do better this week! Maybe I will even use mouthwash, once.

Week #3

I flossed three times this week (once more than the previous week).

Julia certainly has been a motivational inspiration for me to change my poor oral hygiene.
I took the lesson she gave us to heart, and even tried to share some good flossing technique with my husband... who fervently maintains that he needs to wrap the floss around his whole hand multiple times in order to get satisfactory leverage. (Mind you, this is the same man who flossed off half of his back tooth last year).
I even considered using mouthwash last night, but then quickly discarded the idea. I don't like the burning...

This flossing project is bleeding over into other healthy habits... My husband and I share a pomegranate a day, the single best health intervention I can imagine (other than exercise). I feel a remarkable difference in my body, my outlook, my spirit, my connection to nature...all from an antioxidant-overflowing strange, little fruit. We have been maintaining this routine since October, only because he does all the procurement work.

Omega 3's are being consumed (although with about as much regularity as my flossing).
The gym is being visited (although my expanding uterus puts a damper on my workout)
The Yoga studio has been frequented (hoping to go once every couple of weeks until third trimester, then weekly)
All in all, very pleased with the progress... empowering.

Week #2

Since my last blog, I can't say that I have made much psychological progress.
I did floss twice (Monday and Tuesday night), but still feel as though I am playing nightly games with myself.

As I told the class, I justified not flossing for the first four nights because I wanted to leave much room for improvement.

Instead, this week I took some significant steps toward achieving my goal of nightly plaque purging. I made a trip to the land of the giant consumer, the Costco jungle, and purchased 6 new Oral B Glide floss reels; enough to store around our loft. My husband went through a fanatic flossing phase about six months ago to alleviate pain from a chipped tooth (which he damaged by rigorous flossing)... during that time, he was never far from the floss; and I never could find any. Now, I have no excuse. There are conspicuous little gray, round-edged floss donors sprinkled in every room just waiting for me to give them a chance to yield their bounty. Secondly, I changed one of my icons on my iperiod app (the green one) to keep track of the nights I follow through. iperiod is a must (only two weeks in and I am spouting non-solicited advice to my audience); not just from a gynecologic standpoint (although from a professional standpoint, every woman should know her menstrual patterns) but from a health maintenance perspective. I keep track of everything from gym days to weight loss (and these past months: weight gain).
Now I keep track of my flossing.

My motivation for change: a sense of disbelief that such a simple task has eluded my mastering for the past twenty years. I don't fear for my gum-line; however, according to the various dentists I have seen throughout my life, I should. Even today at work, the anesthesiologist brushed and flossed during lunch. What!?

But if I start flossing every night from now on; won't you, as the reader, be bored? I certainly don't want to be boring. I am looking forward to Julia's (the dental hygienist) demonstration next week. I should introduce an element of quality to my flossing... I am quite sure I have much to improve upon in that arena.

On a more positive note, my baby girl's name is August. I am looking forward to meeting her... I think I will try tying my Omega 3 supplements (having a hard time remembering to take them) to my flossing so that I am nourishing her brain simultaneously... Our final exam is May 7th, 2wks before she is due to arrive:) Maybe by the time she is born I won't even have to work to floss...

Week #1

For more than one reason, this will be my blogging premier. Probably my most poignant anti-blogging sentiment, is my belief that very few people have earned the privilege of others actually caring what they think. I feel self-rituous even as I type. I don't have any illusions that I have joined this elite group, rather I am starting this blog as part of my PM 562 class: Intervention Approaches for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Secondly, I am just old enough not to be able to think creatively via a keyboard. I still put pen to paper if I must stimulate any hint of ingenuity... writing it first, and then typing into a blog, seems to defeat the purpose. Which brings me to the third reason: my purpose. Now I have one. I plan to start flossing, regularly. This blog will chronicle my efforts and ultimately, my success, or less optimistically, my lack there of.

My goal was inspired by the mandatory class requirement and by my day one class partner, Julia. I met Julia only through the good fortune of sitting next to her. She is a dental hygienist with gorgeous teeth. My teeth are really quite satisfactory, even in their dismally unflossed state. I have no complaints. Actually, they do spark some dentist's excitement because I am missing the root to #7?, the tooth next to my right top front tooth. The story goes: (still struggling with the fact that someone has to indulge this mental masturbation) when I was thirteen I had an impacted canine? secondary to a cyst that absorbed the adjacent root. The maxillofacial surgeons did some surgery which did interrupt my horse camp for a day that brought the impacted offender into line. The dentist informed me that the other tooth would fall out, likely within a year, and eventually need to be replaced by some apparatus that involves drilling into my bone... which doesn't really bother me. I pride myself on my ability to endure pain (we shall see, come May:) But, I am a minimalist, of the mentality that if it isn't broken, please don't fix it.... and never fixed it. I think my tooth is hanging (literally, it is quite loose, so I don't chew anything on my right side) in there nicely. It is not discolored and doesn't cause me any pain. But it does provide for some gratifying exclamations from the dentist each and every time they see it on X-ray. Regardless, I should floss around it and around all of my other teeth that my mother and father sacrificed hard-to-come-by money to have straightened. Nature provided me with a very large gap between my two front bucked teeth, which I am grateful my mother convinced my father might cause me insecurity as I grew older... It probably would have, and the humility of having braces in the sixth grade was actually brief and fleeting. There was this one contraption that set in the roof of my mouth that my mom had to crank each night with a key (attached to a piece of floss so that when she dropped it down my throat she could fish it back out.) My sister had a whole other torture... she had to wear a "bionator" (sounds even less imposing than it looked)... yet I digress. Is that the point?

My goal: By the end of this 16 week class to be flossing nightly. In the vain of full transparency, I really only floss once very couple of weeks...

My plan: Less ironed out. I will start with this blog to help me to identify my impediments (judging from last night, laziness has an awful lot to do with it). Each week, I will let all of you waiting with bated breath know how many nights I flossed... I have some other self-improvement goals that might come to fruition from this flossing pursuit, but I have to keep some mystery.

And so I begin...