Invisalign

I began my Invisalign treatment this week. Oh boy!

So my teeth, cosmetically, aren't that bad. But I don't like them. I had braces as a teen and over the years they have changed. I am about to click over to 35 and I feel my teeth age me most of all. And maybe my weight (I'm still a BMI of around 23. So healthy but not lean but I think I look reasonably fit and healthy). My bite is quite narrow, I have an over-bite, some lower crowding, an uppers gap, and my bite at the back is off and feels uncomfortable. Anyway, it's pretty much nay going to get worse so I decided to fix it now and not wait until I've finished med school (the original plan, for everything, is to defer all major expenses until this time).

It's taken a few months to get my first tray due to needing to get an intial consultation, seeing my dentist for a check up, getting the moods done, and then finally getting my "buttons" (small attachements points for certain teeth) and then first tray fitted.

Oh my word - the pain. They say the first few days of each new tray is painful as that's when the most amount of pressure is exerted. I've had to take pain killers and eat soft food.

The other thing is, with Invisalign, you're supposed to only taken them out for a total of an hour a day to eat, and you must brush and floss before replacing them. They're also a bit difficult to take out. All this combined means I'm only eating my 3 square meals a day. No more snacking, you're not allowed anything but cool water while wearing them. So, I'm thinking, will I lose weight? Firstly, I love to snack. And it's from hand to mouth without stopping to consider. My main meals are usually pretty good. Fruit from breakfast and lunch and a low fat cooked vegan meal for dinner (think steamed veges and rice with a tomato-based sauce) or a leafy green salad. Secondly, because of snacking my main meals aren't always that big. But the last few days with Invisalign they have been. This is what Doug Graham recommends in 80/10/10.

I'd love to get leaner for taekwondo competitions in the next few months.

Also, Invisalign makes your mouth dry and causes some pain to the tongue and gums due to sharp edges. This makes fruit smoothies and mashed veges very appealing. I'll see how I go next week when my teeth adjusts.

My boyfriend likes them. He says they make my lips more pouty. My friend at work though I'd had a lip-job done lol. You really can't see them more any more than half a meter away (normal personal space)' although I do have a slight annoying lisp atm.

I thought sleeping with them in would freak me out due to the choking hazard, but they are well and truly stuck onto my teeth due to the buttons. They take a fair bit of effort to get them out. Hence, no snacking, I don't mind brushing but I hate taking them out.

I found warm water from the shower/bath helps sooth the pain and actually I will take them out and brush them in the shower from now on as its more comfortable on my teeth. I've used some bi-carb soda to clean them (they discolour easily) but I've heard that soaking them in white vinegar works well, so ill try that when I get some vinegar!

Life is an illusion

I am currently pondering on the idea that life is an illusion. I mean, I can easily accept that perception of things is what creates our experience of reality, but how far does the illusion really extend?

If I can change things, like the scenario and outcome, of my dreams when lucid dreaming, how come I can't do that in the so-called "awake" stage?

I'm working through Atisha's Seven Points on Mind Training, and the second one is to treat all phenomena as if they are dreams. Clearly, they are not exactly the same thing as the dreams we experience in the sleeping state, so what's the go?

Anyway, I'm Googling the fruit out out of this and I hope to come up with some answers. I've even asked my Mensa friends. Maybe I'll ask the monks in some of the Buddhist groups I'm in!

Here's a link to more on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_in_Buddhism

And also: http://www.rinpoche.com/teachings/sevenpoints.htm

No playing doctor today, and feeding my dog a vegan diet

The GP I observe wasn't abe to have me today as he already had other medical students booked in.

That's ok becaue tonight I go and get officially recruited as a student doctor with St John's. Woohoo! Unfortunately, my uniform will probably be badged as "paramedic", but I'll know deep down inside that I'm a student doctor lol

Today: I have no other plans. I normallly do my workout first thing in the morning, but I felt a bit lazy today. As long as it's done before 6pm, so I'll plan to start it at 4:30. Until then it's food and Facebook.

Last night at the Buddhist Gompa was really good. I had my vegan meal (I couldn't have dessert as it had dairy in it) of pumpkin and lentil soup and a main of tofu noodle satay and a massive green salad. Delish. I had water with my meal and I heard another lady say she was going to have a cup of tea so she could stay awake during the lesson...Not sure that's a good idea. I am pretty anti-caffeine these days. Clean carbs are the new caffeine....

The Geshe spoke of how wisdom means love and compassion for others, but that this must start with ourselves; how we must not just eat what tastes good, but what is good for our bodies. We cannot love others without loving ourselves first. He also spoke of, basically, peer pressure and adopting the habits of those around us, and when our peers leave, the habits become ours and harmful to ourselves. He used drinking and smoking as examples, but to me it resonated with general modern living and this toxic food environment we live in.

I've also started my dogs on a transition to vegan diet. I thought it was mean at first, but then I read about how healthy it makes dogs, and how they can live to a really old age, I thought it was mean NOT to put them on a vegan diet. I think I wont make them strictly vegan, but their daily meals will now consist of about 90% fresh vegetables like steamed root vegetables and grated zucchini and carrot. My dog had watermelon for a snack this mornign for breakfast with me. He wasn't sure at first, but then he loved it and kept coming back for more. There are heaps of resources on the web to find out what foods are ok for dogs. Bascially, grapes/raisins/sultanas are bad, apple seeds, and tomatoes, garlic, and onions. Everything else seemed logical to me: no chocolate, no caffeine, no big pips from stone fruit (choking hazard). It's best to feed them root vegetables cooked, as you do to humans. They also need more fat in their diet than humans do, so coconut oil and peeanut butter seem to be a popular choice. Oh, macadamia nuts and avocadoes are out too.

Here's a link to the ASPCA guide.

Anyway, I'm probably going to find a good few recipes for them and stick to it, so it's not that difficult really. So far what I've been making them I could easily eat myself, so maybe I will do that in the future - make batches for all of us omnivores! (It's funny, I always thought humans were omnivores and dogs were carnivores, but now I think humans are herbivores and dogs are true omnivores...)

Another random update

I'm on annual leave at the moment, so I'm enjoying not stressing about anything.

I just got back from a most excellent road trip in Tasmania where I got to enjoy the magnificent natural beauty down there.

For the rest of my time off work I'm generally focusing on my fitness. I've had enough time to not have any excuses not to workout daily, and now I'm building a bit of a morning routine which I hope to carry with me into the craziness that is my work roster. My goal is to have the diet and fitness sorted before returning to med school so I don't have to worry about falling back into bad habits like caffeeine abuse and junk food use.

I've been still eating a mostly fruitarian diet for nearly one year now. I find the more fruit I eat, the better I feel, however cooked starchy carbs call me most afternoons/evenings. I seem to have finally broken the bread addiction, which in my opinion was the hardest to break.

My current day's food look a bit like this:
A large bowl of watermelon
About 10 mandarins and a few bananas
A few handfuls of raisins during the day as needed
Steamed potato or sweet potato or pumpkin with a handful of baby spinach
Then I make some sort of semi-raw dinner (last night was a sort of shepherds pie with raw grated zucchini/carrot/tomato layers and a layer of mashed steamed sweet potato)
And of course more water during the day
I also tend to have a few pieces of dark chocolate, maybe every second day. That's another difficult one to break.

I stopped drinking juices and now only drink water. I make the occasional watermelon smoothie or banana n'ice cream but I'm trying to eat fruit in the whole state.

My workout consists of about an hour (sometimes longer) of the Tracy Anderson Method, 6 days a week. I first do 30 mins of dance cardio, which is high-intensity, high-impact, and then 30-45 minutes of the muscular structure work which changes every 10 days. The Metamorphosis series has only 30 mins of musc, but I have an Mat DVD of heres which goes for 45-60 minutes and I really love it as it has standing legs (instead of on the ground) and more arms and abs, so I rotate that one back in every few days.

The main thing is, I'm sweating. I'm improving my cardio and I am really toning up nicely. I am not losing any weight though, which is really frustrating, but I keep reminding myself that this is a long-term process and not a quick-fix like under-carbing. I feel pretty good about how I look, it's just that it's annoying that half of my clothes don't fit. When I get up in the morning and look in the mirror, I'm like "Man, I'm looking good" but then I try on some of my clothes and they don't fit and I get upset. Such is life.

I am also doing taekwondo. It's on 3-4 times a week and the classes are really long at 2.5-3 hours. I'm going for my 7th kup grading next week so I'm trying to make the classes but on my annual leave I'm desperately trying to catch up with people and that gets in the way of evening training. There's also a Monday night social netball comp I'm now involved in. It's just held in my little town here, so I can even attempt to play when I'm on-call. Another girl in the team is from work so she's got it all down pat. It's good to have something to do in town.

So, I return back to week next week and I'm performing higher duties for the month, which means I wont be able to study as much, which means I'll have only 2 months of proper study before returning to med school. And...the anxiety flutters back through again.

My darling bf is currently doing assignments and studying for exams for his psych degree. He's so stressed and everything else in his life has been put on hold and he's procrastinating, and it's interesting to watch someone do that to themselves from an outside perspective. I really don't want to do that to myself when I go back to study. I did well at banning myself from stressing in the Chinese med course, but then again I was only doing 3 subjects (75% study load) and it was pretty easy compared to med school and it was only the first semester. But... saying to myself "I'm not allowed to stress" and "I'm prohibited from stressing" etc really worked well and I'll try to do this when back at med school.

Also, I've just completed the recruitment for St John Ambulance (volunteer first aid/med team service) so I will be volunteering with them as a paramedic and medical student in their medical team. They do events like the Iron Man and music festivals. I worked along them as a paramedic a few times (paid with my job) and saw other med students get some much practical experience and develop into really good emergency physicians that I want in on that action!

I've also got to tee up another observation placement at the GPs. I might ask him (the GP I shadow) if I can go in tomorrow seeing as some of my plans have opened up some space. He's only available for me to shadow Tue, Wed, and Thu. It's a really large multi-clinic so it's such a great experience for me there. I feel the volunteering stuff will give me more confidence that I can actual do this doctoring stuff. Being lost in textbooks isn't very encouraging right now.

Oh, I've also been listening to Jodie Whitely on YouTube who does hypnosis/guided meditation and I find listening to her at night sends me into a nice, deep sleep. I don't have that many sleeping problems, but with shift work and the chronic anxiety I had a while ago I found the hypnosis to be a really great tool. I can recommend it.

Tonight, I'm off to a Tibetan Buddhist centre to have a vegan meal and have a lesson on....can't remember. I think it's the Four Noble Truths or something like that. I listen to lessons occasionally on YouTube. I like the Dalai Lama, but the lessons can be long. I don't have much patience for long lectures which is why distance education works well for me.

That's my wrap up. I will try and post more again when I go back to med school. For now, it's all Kaplan and Dr Najeeb revision stuff.