No one would recommend the Broken-Tooth diet, because it sucks.
But I’m writing about it because, after having dental surgery to extract two broken teeth (WTF?), I’m reminded of how wonderful it is to have a pain-free mouth and to eat whatever you want without (much of) a care.
So this is a post about gratitude, and appreciating the simple delights of being well in your body.
You know how when you get a cold and you’re all congested and suddenly you realize how amazing it is to just breathe unencumbered? You’re lying down to fall asleep and your sinuses are clogged completely and all you want is to take a deep inhale through your nose.
Or like when I excitedly started weight-lifting a few weeks ago and immediately hurt my shoulder while doing a 10-minute “Tank-Top Arms” video. My right side was messed up for more than two weeks and I cursed myself for not being more appreciative of pain-free movement before that.
And now that I have what feels like a million stitches in my mouth, limiting my diet to lukewarm (or cold) liquids and purees (yum!), I have new gratitude for the simple pleasure of eating a variety of foods.
Even though I think about gratitude a lot — I journal, I reflect, I practice noticing and being thankful for every day things like the dog’s drooly face or palm trees outside — my current dental situation, and my shoulder before that, reminds me that I could practice even more.
Oprah and Geneen Roth have talked about awakening to each new day by asking, “What’s not wrong right now?” or “What is going right right now?” It’s easy to say and hard to do. I forget to be thankful for my healthy teeth until I’m on Broken Tooth Island. I never even noticed my rhomboids (I learned the name for the muscle I injured on last night’s Jeopardy) until I overextended my right one using 5-pound dumbbells.
So today, and hopefully more often, I will thank my body for being well and keep gratitude around me for the simple ability to move with ease. In that way, I have to be thankful to the Broken Tooth Diet for teaching me this painful lesson.