Which brings to me to my morning point, I want to be surrounded with fun loving, carefree, chipper folk! "Why?" You ask, because I've noticed that when I'm celebrating with others all the wonderful things they have in their life, I have a sense of above- chipper, silly, and elated. Who wouldn't want that? Aside from myself though, there are benefits of surrounding yourself with other purposeful positive creative people. Harvard Medical School and University of California in San Diego, have found individuals social networks affect their happiness; yes its TRUE! I'm not saying go out and ditch those friends that are going through a hard time by any means. They need you and you need to learn from them but if you are constantly bombarded by a negative attitude it will likely start to find its ways into your pores as well. This my friends, is why I was very careful who I hung out with at work too. What they found was that happiness is a chain reaction- one thing that ultimately effects one person's happiness influences their mood which boosts another's mood! Who wouda thought, huh?
So what does this all have to do with toothpaste and brushing your teeth? Have you ever had that mmm mmm good squeaky clean feeling? I only did after I left the dentist on my 6 month cleaning day (after I got over that horrible tasting paste they used to use that made me gag. cherry or peppermint- neither no thank you, but peppermint if I have to.. please no bubble gum flavor PLEASE, I would beg)! Last time I was at the dentist, I told them I wanted the cleanest stuff they had to clean my teeth- no fillers, no additives, NO JUNK! They used ground pumice stone, yes you read that right! It was awesome! My teeth felt so awesome, and I didn't have to gag through that horrible tasting paste... Win win!!!
So, I ventured out on my own experimentation- toothpaste. After scanning grocery aisle in several stores I was disheartened to find that toothpaste either had fluoride, and if not fluoride, carrageenan or xylitol. I settled on a toothpaste called Earthstone, it did have xylitol listed as the last ingredient but was a better option than all others. After using this toothpaste for a month, my hubby and I went on a trip and took our travel sensitive commercial toothpaste in the cupboard. We both agreed, our teeth didn't feel nearly as clean after using it for a weekend. I'm SERIOUS folks! We didn't have that squeaky clean joy and the fact that my husband made the statement just as my mind was thinking,"DISAPPOINTMENT" morning after morning on our mini-vacation. Our ESPs were surely on track, we had a quick discussion about it and came back home to our clay based toothpaste! How excited were we, really something that small can just be joyful but at 5.99 a pop, really??? This doesn't fit into my budget really and especially because I'm working hard to honor my time and not make myself available to work 24/7. This called for ACTION and luckily for me, a friend was on board to come over and experiment!
So we made....toothpaste and I LOVE IT! The first tooth brushing was "hmmm", my second "I like this stuff," my third "I LOVE this stuff." I will NEVER go back. Not to mention, although I did not do a thorough cost analysis, I suspect I saved a lot of money. I'll put this below the recipe for you to decide on your own.
Recipe:
1/4 tsp stevia (optional): I used this, but may try it without next time
1 TBSP baking soda: I used a gluten free, aluminum free kind
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 TBSP Bentonite clay
Warm coconut oil on the stove in a sauce pot. Warm slowly, low temp, coconut oil is hard to burn but you don't want to heat much, just enough to melt it.
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir
Use a funnel and pour into a jar, toothpaste tube, container. I choose to use the one you see in this picture because it came with a wooden spoon and a cute cork top! Yes, I'm a sucker for that stuff!
Let it cool, either at room temperature OR, I choose to stick mine in the fridge for about an hour (don't keep it in there too long, it becomes too hard).
I doubled this recipe, I went on a limb. I started with a small amount then said, lets go for it, it will be one less needed trip to the grocery if I need more.
Cost analysis-- approximate:
Coconut Oil- had in my cupboard and a friend bought some. I do buy the $20.00 BIG container of Nutiva Naturals from Costco
Bentonite Clay- 3-5 TBS, I think it was less then $2.00 and I clearly had more than I needed.
Baking Soda- this was in my cupboard too so essentially nothing, but the brand I buy is 6.00.
Stevia- this was in my fridge, from gosh knows when! I haven't bought it in ages, and don't usually use it, so I have no clue.
I didn't weigh it but you can see, I got a lot more than you get in a tube for essentially less than $2.00. You can find a full cost analysis of something similar on www.dyinatural.com!
Although I didn't do this, I plan to play with it next time. You can add:
Sea Salt- supposedly good for your gums
Peppermint/Spearmint essential oils or extract- again I haven't ventured into the whole essential oils thing but know if you have food grade organic this might add a nice little zing!
Okay, time to get moving again. However, I am excited that I just took an hour to myself (while a kiddo canceled) and instead of doing paperwork, did something else I enjoy today! The sun in shining, the weather is warm, and I'm chipper!!!
It's a good day! :)