I use mouthwash all the time now. I floss a couple times daily - half hygiene and half oral fixation. My dentist told me that since I have a heart murmur, I'm susceptible to bacteria entering my bloodstream. Apparently it can cake on the valve and kill me. He makes me take an antibiotic before he'll work on me, and he says I should be careful about flossing, even. So I listerine beforehand. I know, TMI.

I brought myself to drink some absolutely foul Chinese herbal tea while I was sick this past week. My GF went down to Chinatown and saw the herbalist, who sent her home with a bucket of stuff to boil down. When she was done, the sticks and bark in the pot looked like a big mound of gutter cloggings. I never knew something could be salty and bitter at the same time, but this thick brown hot tea sure was. Ewwwww. As bad as it tasted, having the smell permeate the house for hours was almost worse. I did this to prove I am open minded about traditional medicine.

Huh. I have a heart murmur, and I never knew that.

I'm bad about flossing. And I eat too much cheese.

I won't floss. Period. I can't stand the sensation of a string between my teeth. I go see the dentist twice and year and brush lots, that's gonna have to be enough.

Siwtch to soy milk.

Give up procesed sugar.

The ONLY healthy things I do are:

1. Excercise

and

2. Always Wear Sunscreen


I cannont seem to evolve any further.

Drinking a lot less beer.

Eating fruits and vegetables.

1. brood less.
2. do more.

Apparently it can cake on the valve and kill me. He makes me take an antibiotic before he'll work on me, and he says I should be careful about flossing, even.

Ah yes, the nasty that is endocarditis! I have that risk, too. Scarbic, if you have any surgery of any kind, check about prophylactic antibiotics, too. They're not always indicated (and of course, antibiotic overuse is a thing to be avoided as well), but it's always good to ask. (Once I cut open my finger really badly on a bookend [don't ask!] and needed stitches; when I mentioned my heart murmur, the doc gave me a shot of penicillin he'd even start sewing me up.)

gah! "a shot of penicillin before he'd even start sewing me up."

1) Proper sleep. I've blathered about this a few times. I feel so good when I get 7-8 hours in a night, but I won't make the changes to guarantee it happens more often.

2) Portion control. I have a hard time stopping at "enough" if there's more of something I enjoy on the table. I've toyed with only cooking enough for one meal, but that ends up breaking another goal of bringing lunch with me, rather than buying it out somewhere.

I'm terrible about sunblock and any kind of facial care, really. It's because of the glasses. I think I'd like to start wearing makeup too, but then I remember that I'm wearing glasses and have Asian skin and the majority of products here aren't made for those conditions.

I don't get enough exercise. I'm so tired at the end of the day, since I work on my feet, moving around the whole time. I have started walking after work, but occasionally I get grief because dinner is a bit later than usual. So I put off walking. I used to work out before work, but now there's too many people and the house is too small. I don't like people to see me work out.
And I avoid the dentist. Unfortunately, I have to go to union dentists, and the ones that are near have attitudes. Certainly, that doesn't make me want to go back.

Give up Pepsi. Every so often I'll start drinking it to the exclusion of everything else and I'll get sick of it and go into a detox period where I drink water and just enough coffee to avoid total withdrawal, but then I'm back a few weeks later. I can't stick to substitutes, either. It's gotta be THE Pepsi.

Eat more fruit. Exercise consistently.