Filler post - high times in Chicago

I'm working on a few posts, but they're not ready yet. I don't want you to think I've gone missing again, so I thought I would share with you a picture from my weekend, spent in Chicago with friends. That's me on the left - and the woman in the center is a frequent commenter, but I'm not going to out her.

This was taken at a lovely place called Dick's Last Resort. We weren't too very drunk. Yet.

And I counted myself fortunate that I didn't get the hat that said, "World's Oldest Whore" or "Goes down faster than power windows."

See you soon!

Oral stuff

Now listen. Don’t go getting yourself all excited. This post is not about THAT oral stuff. Keep your minds out of the gutter. The oral stuff I want to talk about has to do with your teeth and gums. Not nearly as exciting, I know, but important nonetheless.

Did you know that that periodontal (gum) disease may be a risk factor in heart disease, stroke, bronchopneumonia and premature or low birth rate babies? And did you further know that periodontal diseases are caused by a buildup of plaque and tartar?

Plaque is a disgusting build up of germs that sticks to your teeth and gums and then makes acid from the sugar and starches you eat. And those acids keep pounding away at your teeth for 20 minutes after you eat. That’s how you get cavities. Repeated attacks of acid.

If you don’t get rid of the plaque with regular brushing AND flossing, it hardens and then turns into tartar and infects your gums, causing redness and easy bleeding.

As you know, a bad dental experience kept me away from ANY dentist for seven years. And even though I always brush twice daily, I was a sporadic flosser. If I did it twice a week, I thought I was doing pretty well.

So it was not a big surprise to me when I finally worked up the courage to go back to the dentist to find that I did in fact have gum disease. Ick.

When you have gum disease, the hygienist likes to do a deep cleaning of your teeth (a process with the awful-sounding name of root planing and scaling) in four separate appointments – one for each quadrant of your mouth. Cost? $1000. Crikey!

So when the brave hygienist took a look in my mouth, she cleaned off some of the tartar at the gum line and then told me she would put me “on probation” for four weeks to see if I could improve it a little on my own and save some money on the deep cleaning.

When I got home, I turned on QVC (as is my habit when I’m depressed) and what do you think they were presenting? A little product called Oraparx – an at-home system that they claimed would bust up the plaque not only on your teeth, but even below the gum line. I took this as a sign and immediately ordered it. For under $20, I didn’t think I had much to lose.

Basically, this system consists of a tube of a toothpaste-like substance (which I suspect is mostly baking soda and hydrogen peroxide) and a foam rubber mouth tray. You fill the tray on both sides with the paste, put it in your mouth and leave it in for at least 10 minutes, but not more than 20. I use it while I’m in the shower; the timing works out perfectly.

You would normally use it only once a week or so – less if your teeth look like this:

And perhaps significantly more often if they look like this:


Being somewhere between the two, I used it for seven days straight and then every other day until my return dental appointment. The end result was that I only had to have the deep cleaning on 3 teeth – I had managed to clean the rest of them enough that they didn’t need them. And I saved $750. Pretty impressive, I thought.

I immediately went to the Oraparx website and got into their auto-delivery plan and continued to use it two to three times per week. And when I went back for my 3-month cleaning (which is another thing they make you do if you have periodontal disease), the hygienist said the improvement in my gums was “practically unheard of”.

So if you haven’t been to the dentist in a while, or if you are one of those people who have a lot of plaque build up for no good reason, or if you just want to improve on your oral health, seriously…get this stuff. I highly recommend it. Your gums will thank you.

I had some more to tell you – about a cheap, cheap teeth-whitening product, but this is too long already so I’ll save it for another time.

A little less conversation, a little more action...

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. --Henry David Thoreau

La la la la la…pretending I’ve never been gone…la la lala la….

Is 50 too old to develop ADD? Seriously, it’s like I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. No multi-tasking for me. If I’m putting all of my energy into reading and writing about healthier eating, I am putting NO energy into actually doing it. If I’m focusing on losing weight and getting back on track, I simply cannot find the time to write about it.

If I’m obsessed with my HUGE FREAKING PORES, I cannot be bothered about my lumpy thighs.

Bizarre.

Anywho, the good news is I am, indeed, about 95% back on track. The weekends can still use some tweaking, though. The bad news is I am writing this instead of planning my meals for next week.

See what I mean?

After almost passing out while driving the other day (I have self-diagnosed that as a blood sugar issue) I decided to quit screwing around and get serious. And wow, do I ever feel better since I did. I’m trying to stay in a 1200 calorie per day range but the main thing I’ve done is cut out most processed foods. Once you do that, everything else pretty much takes care of itself. Funny how that works.

Also funny is that I just said I cut out MOST processed foods - but I wanted to tell you about two things that I have recently discovered. Both in the processed category. (Picture a smiley face here.)

As a basically lazy person, wasting time every morning until the last possible moment, I hate to have to spend too much time on my lunch. Yes, I know I can do it the night before, but let’s get real.

My niece turned me on to StarKist tuna salad in a pouch. Tuna Salad. In a pouch. As in mayo and onions already included.

I had no idea there was such a thing. My first thought on seeing something like this would have been “ewwww, gross” but she assured me it was good - and even bought one for me. Such a thoughtful girl. And it IS good. And only 90 calories. So now I have that for lunch every day (I like the albacore) together with my second find:


Arnold’s Sandwich Thins. Yes, I know everyone else has already tried these. But I have never been able to find them until recently. So cute – and the perfect size for the tuna salad. One hundred calories of deliciousness. (And gluten. I’ve decided to work on slowly eliminating the dairy first and THEN worry about the gluten…but this is actually the only gluten-containing food I’ve been eating and it doesn’t seem to be bothering me.)

This combo is perfect for the lazy. Although it just occurs to me that it would be even easier if I would just take all five pouches for the week and the package of bread to work with me on Monday morning. Then I wouldn’t have to be bothered with schlepping them every single day.

Since I’ve been snacking on raw vegetables in the afternoon, I am buying those pre-washed and pre-cut. Makes things a lot easier. (I totally would never have made it as a pioneer woman. Never.)

Thoughts of getting back to exercising are tumbling around in my head. But that’s an obsession for another day…and I still have my Huge Pores to think about.