Trying Something New – Oil Pulling #PataksMom

One of the cool things about being a Patak’s ambassador is that they ask us to do some really fun stuff. They’ve asked us to try new restaurants, and to check out films and this month they asked us to try out something Indian we’ve never done before. I decided to try oil-pulling. What can I say? I’m a lemming going off the cliff with this month’s latest craze. I also decided to give meditation a go.

In case you haven’t heard, oil-pulling is the practice of swishing oil around in your mouth for 20 minutes before spitting it out. It’s an ancient Ayurvedic practice that claims to improve oral and body health. Before I started I investigated what type of oil to use and I couldn’t get past the suggestions of sesame or olive oil and decided to give organic, cold-pressed coconut oil a go. So what did I think? It certainly takes some getting used to but coconut oil dissolves very quickly in your mouth and takes on a watery consistency as opposed to a thicker oil. Do not, I repeat do not try this with coconut butter. Not the same. Trust me. *gag*

After three weeks of doing this almost every morning, I have to say I’m a complete convert to the oral health claims. My teeth are significantly whiter since I started oil-pulling and I like that I don’t have to use harmful peroxides to do that. My mouth just feels better too. Cleaner, I suppose. I remain skeptical about purported health claims on everything from allergies to migraines but frankly if I’m doing it for my teeth and other benefits happen to fall in to place behind it then so be it. If you’re on the fence about it, I think the bottom line on this is it can do you no harm. Many of the products we try for our teeth these days can’t say that.

So what of the meditation? This task was a complete and total bust my friends. There is simply no way I can quiet my mind. I tried, I really did, but every time I’d try to shut my mind down and just be my brain would be racing off to bills, and blog posts and dinner ideas and my grocery list. Maybe I need to go to India to really master it?

While I was off trying new things to make my life better, Patak’s was making it easier by taking dinner off my hands. My current love is their Butter Chicken Curry Paste. In under 30 minutes I can have a gourmet Indian meal on the table. I can’t emphasize how easy this makes my life, especially on nights that the girls need to be out the door to cheerleading before 4pm! Since the beginning of starting this ambassadorship with Patak’s their sauces and pastes have saved us from bad drive-thru food at least once a week. Have I mentioned how much I love being a #PataksMom? 🙂