 So, I know that coconut has been everywhere lately- Marc Jacobs new coconut makeup collection, coconut oil for everything, piña coladas... you get it. When I saw that this brand, Cocofloss, was making floss from coconuts, I laughed. And then I tried it. It's not some gimmicky bullshit — it really works, and works well. Cocofloss claims: At Cocofloss, we seek to make the world more beautiful with healthier smiles. We deliver superior floss – the softest and most-cleansing dental floss – to protect smiles. We believe we can control our destiny – teeth for life is possible – and flossing should be a relaxing, laid-back experience. First, there are a few flavors, coconut, strawberry, orange, and mint. They're all really good, to be honest. They don't taste artificial and they're fun. They add some slight element of fun to dental hygiene. The packaging is also gorgeous, but it goes beyond that, all the branding for Cocofloss is great. Everything is aesthetically appealing and equally functional — a perfect marriage between beauty and brawn. Most of all though it's actually really good floss. The texture is really cool, which I assume is from the coconut (??) but it does a really good job between teeth and I feel really clean when I'm done. I'd highly recommend Cocofloss to anyone looking to up their tooth game.
 Goby is one of those social media brands— you see them on Instagram and you wonder what the hell is that and why do i want it. I reached out to Goby and they were kind enough to send me a toothbrush to try out their system, and after using it for a few weeks now, I'm converted. First, Goby feels really nice in your hand- and I mean this in a way less weirdly phallic way than it's coming off... The handle is solid and grippy, but still smooth, aesthetically appealing, and comfortable, all while still being quite light. The brush has one button that does everything, which is definitely an asset. Design is kept streamlined and it's still totally brusher friendly. I love the orange, but it also comes in a few more colors, including black, blue, pink, and green. That's super nice for people buying more than one and who aren't trying to mix up their toothbrush with their skeevy younger brother ;). I like the orange because it puts me in a better mood almost first thing in the morning- keeping things fun but it's not like a g g r e s s i v e l y fun first thing in the morning. I think the thing that makes Goby stand out is the brush head. It's totally circular, rather than the standard oval pointed whatever that you always see. It sounds like a so what moment, but it's actually important and works in your favor— you're forced to actually focus on each tooth and not rush through and it gives you this unparalleled just came from the dentist type of clean. I'm not going to say you need to go run out buy a Goby and it'll change your live and you can't live without it, but it's one of those quality of life things. Like, those nice showerheads that turn a daily chore into a moment of relaxation, or pre-sliced bread, Goby is massively more convenient, efficient, and cool and isn't totally completely necessary, but sure as hell makes life a little more enjoyable. Goby says 'minimal effort, maximum clean' and it really rings true. According to Goby, they have: Rotationally oscillating brush heads are proven to clean better than other types of brushes. Goby cleans up everything in its path, you simply guide it along. All of this feels true while using Goby, and I'm really into it. My teeth feel cleaner, and I love that. I did some research, and Goby is actually a really cool company. Goby says: We also partner with NYU College of Dentistry's Global Student Outreach Program, donating a percentage of all sales to help provide dental services to people around the world as well as in our own backyard. I really love when company gives back. Look below for a quick photo unboxing of my Goby.  Just when we thought we’d seen it all in the last year, the University of Toronto officially created an anti-psychiatry scholarship.
The scholarship is named after and administered by Bonnie Burstow, an anti-psychiatry activist, to help students pursue a career in this field. Prior to stumbling across a Huffington Post article about the controversy of this fund, I had no idea there was an entire movement that dedicating to protesting mental health care. After spending time scouring the web for information on the movement, a part of me wishes I hadn’t come to find this all out. The term “anti-psychiatry” was coined in the 1960’s and has been heavily connected with the Church of Scientology. Activists work to exploit the negative aspects of mental health care systems, like the mistreatment of patients inside of mental facilities and the dangerous side effects of certain medications. It’s hard to disagree with the fact that there are issues with the way we diagnose and treat mental illnesses; what is hard to agree with is their strong core belief that mental illness does not exist at all. Just by visiting antipsychiatry.org, I clicked on one of their first links- “Does mental illness exist?” - and was sent to a page citing a 1974 book that calls the idea of mental illness “nonsensical.” One Facebook page that aligns themselves with the movement will not use the phrase mental illness without putting the latter part in quotation marks. They refer to anyone mentally ill as “claiming to have” the illness or disorder; one comment reads, “‘Mental illness’ is just like ‘I have a broken heart’. The heart is not broken you just feel sad. The mind is not the brain and you can only feel ill, you cannot be ill.” Reading the beliefs of this coalition is enough to make any educated person’s head spin. The administer behind this scholarship in Toronto has even said that she believes “there is not a single proof of a chemical imbalance of a single so-called mental illness.” This scholarship spreads this information like wildfire; any student researching college financial aid will read that the anti-psychiatry movement is legitimate because there is a scholarship for it. Despite the fact that this group’s beliefs are not based on a shred of scientific evidence, even being completely at odds with proven facts, it is still an actual field of study. How does an entire community of millions of mentally ill people react to this? As someone who has struggled with mental illness, I felt helpless when I realized there could be tens of thousands of people in the world that believe what I experience is not real and are convincing others to believe the same. In order to fight this movement that claims that psychiatrists and therapists are evil perpetrators of violence, it’s important to speak out about our mental health struggles as well as the help we have received for them. We need to continue donating our time, money, and attention to organizations such as To Write Love On Her Arms, The Buddy Project, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It’s more important now than ever to continue educating people on the physiological aspects of mental disorders, proving these diseases are just as much mental as they are physical. We need to stand together and break the stigma of mental health so we can stop letting people like Bonnie Burstow fill in the gaps of what mental health looks like and how it should be cared for. Living in Illinois my whole life has gotten me accustomed to the freezing cold winters that come and go every year. I love the beauty of a serene white blanket of snow across a field, but unfortunately with a pretty winter come a not so pretty flu season, which means the possibility of being sick during a holiday, and nobody wants that.
It’s important to remember to make sure to take extra care of yourself in the winter time so you don’t end up sick for the holiday seasons. To give you the optimal chance of not only having a happy holiday, but a healthy one, here are a couple tips to strengthen your immune system. First, you have to make sure you drink plenty of water. I know how good a hot cup of coffee tastes on a cold day but drinking the proper amount of water every day is key to any healthy lifestyle. Remember that eight glasses of water is the recommended amount for a regular day, but that may vary depending on your weight and height. Also, there is absolutely NO substitute for water, no matter how good coffee is. Another important thing to think about is stress. I definitely understand the stress of the holiday season, especially when still attending school and dealing with final exams, but stressing yourself out about testing can make you more susceptible to getting sick. Set aside at least one day every week to relax at home and just take a breath. In the long run it will definitely be worth it. Something that I personally have tons of trouble with during the holiday season is getting enough sleep. Getting distracted by studies or by deciding on the perfect gift for someone is very common and feels unavoidable. Setting an alarm for yourself to remind you that it’s time to get some sleep will help you feel fully rested and not be as likely to get sick. I’m not suggesting you go to sleep at 7 PM but the average person needs 6-8 hours of sleep each night and people who don’t get as much sleep tend to have a weaker immune system than someone who gets their full eight hours. These are just a few things you can do to help yourself stay healthy, but unfortunately sometimes getting sick is unavoidable. If you do end up sick it’s still very important to take care of yourself. Don’t ignore the fact that you’re sick. Take off work or school and get some rest. You won’t get anywhere overworking yourself. You’ll only end up even more sick. Keep these things in mind over the next couple of months and you’ll have a great chance of staying healthy. Happy Holidays! Our friends over at Monthly Gift sent us over some sample boxes of their foolproof period plan, and we were mega excited! Monthly Gift is a monthly subscription box that aligns with your period, providing you with customized supplies, plus emergency chocolate. Monthly Gift starts at $10 each month, but you can get your first box for just $5. First, I love the concept behind Monthly Gift. Your monthly annoyance becomes even worse when you run out of tampons or forget to pick up pads, but Monthly Gift lets you completely forget about your period and your package arrives at your door in a sleek black box. Not only is it very discrete for your privacy- your entire apartment building doesn't need to know you're gushing blood- but the box is super well designed aesthetically. When you first open the package, pads, pantyliners, tampons, and emergency chocolate are sectioned off, so you know exactly what you're grabbing. All your supplies are wrapped in Monthly Gift branded wrappers with cute black and pink designs. If period supplies could be punk rock, I think these would be it! I also love how quiet the wrappers are. It's the absolute worst when you're in a crowded bathroom and you unwrap a pad or tampon and it just about sounds like you're opening a family size bag of chips in the stall. All the rustling and scratching of some brands' wrappers just makes everyone uncomfortable, but rest assured, Monthly Gift has your back. No loud wrappers here! After unboxing my Monthly Gift boxes, I got excited. I wanted to see how they stacked up, absorbency-wise. Just call me scientist Susan, I was on a mission. I made a mini testing lab in my kitchen, and we were off! I colored some water and decided (with no basis for this decision) that tablespoons would be mu unit of measurement. Traditionally pad/tamp absorbency is measured in grams, and the classification ranges are as follows: Light: 6 grams or less Regular: 6-9 grams Super: 9-12 grams After some online conversion, after the fact, I found that translates to: Light: 0.4 or less tablespoons Regular: 0.4-0.6 tablespoons Super: 0.6-0.8 tablespoons So let's dive in!  Here's the set up, and below you can see the largest pad, tablespoon by tablespoon, all the way to 6 tablespoons. That's 90 grams. That's a lot. The average woman (according to Google) loses 30-40 grams of blood total. Even the heaviest bleeders only lose 60-80 grams monthly. So you're never going to have to worry about leakage here.
The pantyliner holds 1 tablespoon, as does the light tampon. The regular tampon holds about 1.5 tablespoons, and the super tampon holds 2 tablespoons.
 Overall, Monthly Gift is pretty sweet. You get to customize monthly packages to what you need for your period each month, it all comes in adorable packaging (WITH CHOCOLATE), and finally, they really are good products!
A recent article by Jane Brody for the New York Times entitled “Computer Vision Syndrome Affects Millions” outlines an illness more than 70 million people worldwide are at risk for; Computer Vision Syndrome. According to the article, symptoms include chronic headaches (among other mental/neurological symptoms) and musculoskeletal pain (in the neck, back, etc.). Between 70-90% of people who use computers frequently (for work or leisure) have reported one or more of these symptoms.
Are there any solutions for easing Computer Vision Syndrome? Brody suggests following the 20-20-20 rule, where you take a 20-second break every 20-minutes to look at something 20-feet away from you. Brody mentions other helpful tips you should check out if you experience Computer Vision Syndrome or think you’re at risk (which includes anyone who looks at a screen for more than three hours a day). Read the rest of her article here. I may or may not be obsessed with Vice documentaries, and recently I stumbled upon this one. I found it to be an incredibly interesting cautionary tale. Watch below. NYT covered this change below: The announcement on Wednesday came unexpectedly in the final stretch of the Obama administration and amid an election campaign in which both parties covet the women’s vote. Some abortion opponents charged that the new regimen was politically motivated. The F.D.A. said its actions were based strictly on medical science. This easing up on the limiting of access is good for women and should be considered a feminist victory. #RightToChoose. Read more here.
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