Teething problem

Aging is scary. Things which have been working well for years can simply become damaging and not suitable to the body overnight. Rewind to slightly more than one year ago, my teeth had pretty bad staining and plaquing although I was not a regular cola / coffee / tea / coloured beverages drink. The identified culprit was mouthwash so I stopped since then. With nothing else changed for the past one year, it is confirmed that the mouthwash was the cause. The funny thing is that I never changed my mouthwash brand since the first time I used mouthwash.

From young I have a bad habit of grinding my teeth when sleeping -something unconscious and not I want to do again now the bad impact starts to show with the wear and tear to my teeth and gum. Sigh.. While it is not something I can control when I am asleep, at least it is a good reminder not to be lazy with my retainers when I sleep. I tend to overnap in the evenings and I end up sleeping without the retainers lately. Bleah.. The other thing that the dental hygienist wants me to watch out is whether I am subconsciously clenching my teeth when I am stressed. Ok maybe now I am less stressed but I may subconsciously do that when I am focusing on what I do. I try to pay attention to this and yup, I am subconsciously clenching. I suppose part of it is due to me wanting to ensure that my upper and lower jaws are still aligned nicely.

Out of desperation to lose weight, I make it a habit to drink a bottle of green tea daily and this affects staining of my teeth (minus the plaque). My front rabbit teeth are affected the most since they are the contact point when drinking the bottle so I need to find reuseable straw for use now.

Yesterday I had another solo session at gym. Today I went again and this is my first time going on consecutive days since my injury in September. After my physio session last month, I think I am on the correct road of recovery. I was informed that I need not to go again if my back is not having problems. So yay! I think I have reached a plateau in my weight loss or gym progress so the only way moving forward is actually to push harder for jump squats, burpees with jump, and run faster for mountain climbers. I am less inclined to push harder with the weights because of fear of another injury. With my L-men stock is running out very soon, I need to find a diet cereal replacement here and I am thinking whether I should try protein powder. I have been avoiding since I do not want to bulk up and I want to lose weight. Now I am thinking if I should give protein a try as it will help with muscle repair and as long as the calories are comparable to what I have from L-men, it should not cause me to gain weight.

I checked out Cold Storage yesterday and could not make up my mind. Today I decided that I should get a packet first so that I can do research on the content and I would like to get the wagyu sandwich from Paragon. Then I remembered that Holland Village also has Cold Storage so I cancelled my trip to Orchard. I bought DIY salad from Cold Storage which is very reasonably priced ($7.90 for the basic one) and is of reasonable serving and good quality. I dare to say that it is more worth buying this than Sumo Salad or other salad places near my office.

Today is barely the first Sunday of Lent and I am already feeling the hardship. Cold Storage is discounting its Kettle's potato chips grrr... I was so tempted for the Korean BBQ flavour that Fair Price does not carry. There were other potato chips that I have not seen before but I decided to turn away from checking their flavours and prices as it would make the temptation even bigger. I cannot recall the last time I tried to participate in Lent (definitely not in the past 2 years) so perhaps that makes this year even more challenging. God help me!!

My PR is expiring in mid-April and I just applied for renewal last week. I thought it would be an automatic renewal but that is not the case for me. I am more stressed after checking with my friend as himself, his sister, and his friend all had automatic renewal. I am not going to lie that I am worried but I am sort of accepting this. After all it is not something within my control and worrying is not going to help. I still consider myself lucky that I will come back from Japan 1 day before the expiry or I will not be able to enter here.

On Friday, I had a dinner with my lecturer friend. The last time I met her was a few years ago when I was taking a testimonial for my job application. Now that things are better for me, I asked her to meet just to catch up with no strings attached. Haha.. I am still grateful to God for the job change last year as it seems to be the best thing that happened to me last year. My friend said that I definitely look happier. My dentist and dental hygienist said the same thing too so yay!! Hopefully this will continue on :D