a curious cat

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Have to make a scary phonecall, and cuddling a toy would make it easier but you feel like that's stupid? Doesn't matter! Cuddle the toy!

Need to use a planner but you keep forgetting it? Literally tie it to your bag!

Dishes keep piling up and becoming insurmountable so then you just don't do them and your eating gets worse? Only keep an amount of dishes you can ACTUALLY feel able to clean around. Everything else goes away, or someplace inconvenient, so there are never too many dishes to clean.

Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

Day 21/100 days of productivity

got up at 9am

started work at 10.45am till 3.15pm

took a bath

went for a 1 h walk and collected flowers for my journal

pressed the flowers, made a wildflower/ gardenflowers bouquet

did the laundry

cooked dinner

watched Heidi (2015)

>world settings

Plus make sure to take breaks regularly - and stop if anything starts to hurt!

Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

Dismissing the idea that there's a specific time of day to brush my teeth. Whenever I remember and have the energy is a good time to do that whether I just got up, it's 3pm, or midnight. Brushed and flossed at "abnormal" times is better than not at all. I also don't always brush and floss at the same time. I don't know how ideal that is but it does mean I'm flossing and brushing more often than when I try and keep strict rules about it

In a similar vein, brushing half assed is better than not brushing at all. Or flossing but not brushing or visa versa. Giving myself space when I have low energy or low mood to not perfectly get every corner of my mouth has helped me get in the habit of oral health. Id rather have 75% cleaner teeth than letting them be dirty. Whatever I'm able to do in the moment I do. I'm much more in the habit of getting everything clean and flossing these days but at first it was really hard. Working up to being able to brush and floss was easier for me than trying to force it all at once. Most days I can do the full brush and floss but I dont beat myself up when I can't manage both

Putting stuff to brush my teeth with by my bed. I am so frequently stuck in bed with fatigue that having travel sized disposable toothbrushes and flossing picks accessible to me has been a game changer. They also make refillable flosser tools if you don't want the single use ones.

Getting toothpaste that I don't hate. I use kid's toothpaste because minty toothpaste makes me not want to brush my teeth. I don't like the strong leftover flavor of mint that makes things taste bad for so long. Trying to find a fluoride toothpaste that tastes fine was A Process but ultimately worth it. I use the Deagon Dazzle Blue Raspberry toothpaste by Hello and it doesn't taste like much but it gets the job done. If you have sensory ick around oral health there's probably a way to get around whatever it may be

Obviously I am not a medical professional or a dentist and these things that help me aren't perfect. You do need to brush regularly and you do need to floss regularly. (Every day ideally). But! You also can find ways to accommodate yourself. Beating yourself up isn't going to get you in the habit of taking care of yourself

"The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer.

Texas researchers proposed in 2022 using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now, they’ve found that okra and/or fenugreek extracts attracted and removed up to 90% of microplastics from ocean water, freshwater, and groundwater.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, Rajani Srinivasan and colleagues at Tarleton State University found that the plant-based polymers from okra, fenugreek, and tamarind stick to microplastics, clumping together and sinking for easy separation from water.

In this next stage of the research, they have optimized the process for okra and fenugreek extracts and tested results in a variety of types of water.

To extract the sticky plant polymers, the team soaked sliced okra pods and blended fenugreek seeds in separate containers of water overnight. Then, researchers removed the dissolved extracts from each solution and dried them into powders.

Analyses published in the American Chemical Society journal showed that the powdered extracts contained polysaccharides, which are natural polymers. Initial tests in pure water spiked with microplastics showed that:

One gram of either powder in a quart (one liter) of water trapped microplastics the most effectively.

Dried okra and fenugreek extracts removed 67% and 93%, respectively, of the plastic in an hour.

A mixture of equal parts okra and fenugreek powder reached maximum removal efficiency (70%) within 30 minutes.

The natural polymers performed significantly better than the synthetic, commercially available polyacrylamide polymer used in wastewater treatment.

Then the researchers tested the plant extracts on real microplastic-polluted water. They collected samples from waterbodies around Texas and brought them to the lab. The plant extract removal efficiency changed depending on the original water source.

Okra worked best in ocean water (80%), fenugreek in groundwater (80-90%), and the 1:1 combination of okra and fenugreek in freshwater (77%).

The researchers hypothesize that the natural polymers had different efficiencies because each water sample had different types, sizes and shapes of microplastics.

Polyacrylamide, which is currently used to remove contaminants during wastewater treatment, has low toxicity, but its precursor acrylamide is considered toxic. Okra and fenugreek extracts could serve as biodegradable and nontoxic alternatives.

“Utilizing these plant-based extracts in water treatment will remove microplastics and other pollutants without introducing additional toxic substances to the treated water,” said Srinivasan in a media release, “thus reducing long-term health risks to the population.”

She had previously studied the use of food-grade plant extracts as non-toxic flocculants to remove textile-based pollutants from wastewater and thought, ‘Why not try microplastics?’"

Oof, so many things to think about with this ask.

First off, resident dentist, @nothingiswrongwithyourarmrests, has pointed out something super important that I had not considered. Having bad teeth can be worse for the environment than the plastics you will use in order to keep them healthy. I thought filling cavities and all the stuff needed to fix teeth, like all the plastic gloves that dental professionals have to go through, masks, the equipment, use and discarding of the various supplies was the worst part of the impact on the environment. But no, consider your travel to your appointment to get your teeth fixed, on top of all of that. If you need to get fitted for dentures, that's multiples trips. I think it took my mom 4 trips, and then an additional 2 adjustment trips to get her final dentures.

So yes, the plastic of the floss and floss picks aren't great, but there is a weighing of things. It's amazing that you are thinking about your own impact, but also compared to the massive impact of industry, your daily floss pick likely is a drop in the bucket of damage.

BUT, there are def things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment and keep your teeth healthy. There is a reusable floss pick where you replace the floss yourself, so you're reusing the handle over and over. Search for reusable floss holder and you'll find them. Pic below. They also come in metal and wood, I think. And to fill them, you can use an environmentally friendly floss not made of plastic. I know cocofloss is one of them, but I don't know where you're located and it's just in the US. But they exist everywhere. So give it a search to see what's available where you live.

I've also been told there are biodegradable floss picks. I haven't seen them in store, but I also haven't looked everywhere. From a quick google, there are some that are made with bamboo. And some that say biodegrable, but I don't know if that's city compostable. So options there! Just gotta see what you might be able to access.

The other thing you can do is switch to an interdental brush if you have the space between your teeth. This is dentist recommended to work better for your teeth if you have the space for it. And then that's also reusable. Or more so than floss is.

Lastly, you can give a water flosser a go. There is plastic in the manufacturing, but again, it's there for long term use. I have had mine for 10 years. So if you make sure to clean it every once in a while, should last you a good long time. If you want more info on water flossers, check here.

So good luck. I hope this helps you make an informed decision.

Fluoride can make a huge difference in dental health.