Day 24

When I first got here, Tom gave me a funny looking white plastic gadget. I asked what it was and he told me that it was a tongue scraper. He told me to scrape my tongue with it several times first thing in the morning before having anything to eat or drink. Like the good, obliging sister that I am, I happily agreed.

Before you read any further, put down the cookie you are eating because I'm about to ruin it for you...

The next morning I popped out of bed, went into the bathroom and proceeded to rake the device across my tongue. Upon examination of the scraper, I discovered the grossest, most disgusting grey/brown paste matter that had ever come out of my mouth. And it wasn't a small amount. The edge of the scraper was at capacity. I rinsed it off in the sink, watched the mass float in the sink water, said a big "Yuck!!!" and went in for round two. After half a dozen swipes, I felt confident that I had done all I could. I was immediately impressed with how clean my mouth felt even though I hadn't yet brushed my teeth. This disgusting ritual is now something I look forward to doing every morning.

Check out what wikipedia had to say about tongue scrapers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_cleaner

So, here's the deal. When we go to sleep at night, our wonderful bodies go to work. Their biggest job is correcting all the damage we have done to it during the day. Some of the toxins are removed through the skin and some through the colon. But our tongue is another one of those toxin exit points. How many of us get up in the morning, do a quick once-over with our tooth brush and head out the door. Most of the toxins that our body worked all night to get rid of are swallowed and put back into the system when we eat breakfast. Then that night our bodies have to work to remove the same garbage again instead of clearing out new gross stuff. We need to start holding up our end in this partnership and clean up the garbage our body is working so hard to remove. We could also help by not putting so much garbage in. Now there's a thought!

One site I looked at said to brush your teeth first, scrape and then rinse your mouth really well. This is literally toxic waste you are removing so rinse really, really well afterward.