Floss Every Day

Ok I have blackslidden again with this goal. It’s been about a week since I flossed.

I am going to call the dentist in the morning for an appointment to have my teeth cleaned. I still think I am doing better oral care than in years past. I am using an electric toothbrush morning and most nights, rinsing with Biotene 1x a day most days, flossing … well I was doing well.

Seems like I always lose my train of thought when I go on vacation however—by the time I get home I have gotten out of the routine.

I need to put reminders in my calendar for when I come home from vacation. I can send myself email, text messages every day, have reminders and popups at work—with a list of all my daily health goals. I can set this up before I leave for vacation and make them run until I get in the groove again when I return. I think that will help.

Can’t hurt!!! :-)

Now I am going to go brush and floss and rinse with biotene and get Jasper and Buttons and Nigel in and go to bed.

Good night. b.

PS Note to all: I’ll be off 43T from Jan. 12 – Jan. 21. Sister having surgery. See swimming entry for more info.

I got another package of flossers Saturday. I have them in my top drawer of desk at work—next to the stapler and tape dispenser.

Several weeks ago I distributed Ziplocks with 8-10 in the sun visor, briefcase, purse, drawer where the remotes live, lunchbag, gymbag—anyplace I’d see them throughout the day.

There is a package in bathroom next to toothbrush.

“Floss” is on list of things I need to do each morning taped to bathroom mirror. I am not a morning person. Without the list I forget something as mundance as “wash face.” Same when I get tired at night—I have a night time list too but refer to it less often. The morning list I check before I leave the bathroom every AM.

Now, today, I put an entry in my calendar to buy more in 60 days (Each package has 75 in them—I have 2 divvied up between Ziplocks and at work and home in bathroom.)

We maybe able to mark this goal “DONE” very soon!!

What I wrote in a comment about this goal is proving to be true: I have to see something so I am reminded visually throughout the day, I can’t run out, I can’t wait until bedtime to plan to do something —then it gets DONE! :)

I have buried baggies with flossers in my purse, in my desk at work, in the truck and in the drawer next to the recliner in the living room - where the remotes live. When I see them I grab one and usually have a couple of minutes to go at it. I have yet to put ” buy flossers” in my calendar to remind me to get them before I run out but I will. The first week of listing this goal I was trying to do it at night before I went to bed, but sometimes I was just too tired to get motivated to stand there in the bathroom another 2 minutes before crawling in bed. Once or twice I actually went to bed with a flosser in hand - don’t actually remember if I managed to floss before I got to sleep or not.

So this plan is working. I have gone more than 2 weeks flossing every day. This is very good - I have tried to learn to floss every day for over a decade and have at times been better than other times - but never made it every day for even 2 weeks!

I have discovered two thing that I like very much: an electric toothbrush. And, floss picks. The little handle things with floss strung between two prongs. I actually don’t mind flossing anymore because I can reach back teeth w/o contortions and I don’t cut the circulation off to my fingers with dental floss. But I don’t remember until I get ready for bed and then sometimes I am just too pooped to pop - or floss! :)

I need to do a couple of things: add flossing to my morning check list instead of my bedtime checklist. I need to buy a bag of flossers for my desk at work and put some in a baggie in my car. I also need to bury some in my lunch bag and purse.

If I am in a rush and don’t have time in the morning, then I will be reminded everytime I open my desk drawer, pull down the sun visor or open my lunch bag. It only takes two minutes. With the floss picks I can even do it one handed in the car. If all else fails I can do it at bedtime. But hopefully it will be done way before that.

I will get flossers this weekend, and set the baggies up with spares next week.