Wax Is My Friend

Learning to love this stuff.  I finally figured out that you can eat with this stuff on your braces, and it has made mushing up food in my mouth so much easier.  Since I have an overbite, the orthodontist built up the back of my last molars on both sides so that my mouth doesn't close and pop off the brackets on my braces.  That makes eating impossible!  So I have to mush food around my mouth with my tongue to break it down.  Exhausting.  Wondering though, is the stuff vegan?  Hope it doesn't contain stearic acid.  Time for some research.

Creative Food Preparation

So I bought some yogurt yesterday.  I don't normally eat yogurt, I never liked the sourness of it.  However, now that I have braces the game rules have changed.  I need something to have as a quick snack at work that won't require major clean up afterwards.  This came out fantastic! Mine is a vegan version. Here is the recipe:

Vanilla Soy Yogurt (I used Whole Soy & Co.)  topped with:

About 7 frozen strawberries
1/2 a sweet apple
1 TBSP of lemon juice
1 TBSP of honey, sugar, or sweetener of choice (you can adjust to your taste)
1/4 cup water for blending.

I put the strawberries, apple, lemon juice and sweetener in my Vitamix blender and blended until smooth.  Pour over the yogurt.  I had enough to ration out for 3 large servings.  Amazing!

Braces-the beginning

I've always prided myself on being healthy.  That certainly included my teeth.  For over 14 or so years, I have always gone to the dentist 2 times a year, and only needed a cleaning.

That changed this year.

This year, I got a new dentist.  On my first visit she said I had 3 cracked teeth.  How could that be?  She explained that my fillings had expanded over time and cracked the molars a bit. If I didn't do anything about it, then I might eventually need root canals.

Yes, I cried.  You know when you have long hair for many years, then for some crazy reason you impulsively decide to cut it?  You look in the mirror after the hair dresser spins the chair around, and you cry because your hair is gone and it seems permanent?  That is how it felt.  I cried for the loss of my teeth.  I could hear my mom's voice inside my head, saying that everything starts to break down when you get older.  I was officially breaking down and getting old.

The dental assistant asked me if I was ok.  Yes, I just need time to process I replied.  I took a few deep breaths.  Let's do it.

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Your teeth are also crooked, my dentist said. You need braces.  Wow, what a way to kick someone when they are down.  Then I thought, this woman is looking at me and seeing dollar signs.  Is she scaring me into treatments to make more money?  But no, my teeth are crooked, a bit more on the bottom than on top.  After mulling it over (the price and the whole ordeal) crying from shock at what it would cost (but don't worry, we have credit cards for this purpose) I decided to take the plunge.

To blog or not to blog?

I know there are many blogs about being an adult and getting braces.  I read some and enjoyed being able to relate to the experience.  However, it didn't feel like enough.  I had to vent.  My facebook friends got tired of my whining after 3 or 4 posts.  So I thought I needed a blog.  I don't want to be a complainer, I hate that about people.  But I am experiencing something new and uncomfortable and have no one to talk about it with.  So this is my journal.  I hope you enjoy it, but ultimately I'm writing it for myself.

As I began to toy with the idea of a blog, I thought about what would make mine unique.  Well, I'm vegan and I have braces.  Hmmm....well, actually I wanted to be able to write about more than that. I want to write about my own self image.  I want to talk about what the experience of being a woman in her 30's in southern California is like.  California, the land of sunshine and movie stars.  A place where it seems even more important to always look your best.

At first I felt like it was self important or pretentious to have a blog.  Why would anyone care what I have to say? I'm still not sure.  I know I enjoy reading, and I've always enjoyed journaling, but was afraid someone would find my journal and read it. It's so ironic that when I blog, the whole world can read it, but I can remain completely anonymous to my closest friends and family.  So this is our little secret.

Body Image

I just took out the measuring tape to check my waist size. 26 and 3/4 inches.  Despite complaining in public about losing weight because I can't eat (just got braces), I secretly enjoy my forced dieting.

Since entering my 30's, the end of the most celebrated age (20's) had gotten me down.  To add insult to injury, I could no longer eat what I wanted.  Well, better put, I could no longer pig out on carbs.  I knew it was my last hurrah when I made apple pies almost weekly for 2 years and had them for breakfast.  Jealous co-workers who were older than me had always told me that when I got older my metabolism would slow down and it would all catch up to me.

It caught up to me.  In the form of 2 inches. I used to be 25 inches around my waist in high school.  Some thought I was too thin.  But boys liked me.  I got the reassurance I needed.  Besides, I was naturally thin.  I never tried to stay thin or loose weight.  I was a vegetarian and naturally a size 3.


I mention my weight because it is all related.  All of it relates to my beauty.  My perception of beauty.  Not reality, just perception.  That is all it takes really.

So my latest drama is getting braces.  I'm 30 something, and I decided to do something I hadn't ever thought about in a serious way.