Forming Healthy Habits – Reflections on the Listerine 21 Day Challenge

I received LISTERINE^® Brand products and a Walgreens gift card from Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in theLISTERINE^®21-Day Challenge. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Brushing your teeth isn’t a new idea…..even being told to  brush your teeth twice a day is something we have heard since we were kids.  We also know we are supposed to floss on a regular basis.  However, when it comes to the idea of rinsing our mouths daily….it’s a foreign concept to many of us.  We see the sales for Listerine in the sales flyers, we walk past it on the store shelves, we consider purchasing it.  Sometimes we buy it, sometimes we don’t.  After pledging to swish every day for 21 days as part of the 21 Day Listerine Challenge (and even committing my kids to doing the same) I have a few reflections to share.

When I became a mom eight years ago I let some of my good habits slide.  Gasp!  Brushing my teeth in the morning was one of those things I stopped doing.  I know, I know.  GROSS.  When Little Sister was born 15 months and 3 weeks after Big Sister, I had zero energy.  I was a zombie for so long that something as easy as brushing my teeth in the morning was neglected.  My girls are 7 and 8 now and brushing my teeth in the morning was not a habit I had regained.  There really is no excuse.  Brushing my teeth in the morning, in addition to my regular right before bed routine, has made me pay more attention to myself and engrained this simple act back into my routine.

I feel cleaner when I brush my teeth in the morning. My teeth are so smooth and my mouth tastes so minty.  It’s refreshing.

I want to snack less since my mouth feels sparkly clean.  It’s a total win-win situation.  I don’t want to add anything sugary to my mouth to leave behind all that grainy residue.

Rinsing my mouth with Listerine has taught me that brushing and flossing aren’t a complete team.  Oral care needs to be a trio which includes flossing, brushing, and rinsing. The Listerine Ultraclean Flosser is my new favorite way to clean between my teeth in the back….and to use with my girls.  Those hard to reach places aren’t so hard with this tool!

Three weeks ago I posted that I wanted my girls to start rinsing in the morning too.  Sometimes good intentions don’t go as planned.  You would think that since my girls were home for 6 days for “inclement weather” (I am sure inclement weather in Atlanta would make most people laugh) that we would have mastered this task.  Nope, our mornings were so far off of our routine that I forgot all about the girls rinsing in the morning.  Life disrupted us from creating a new habit.  I created a 21 Days printable for the girls to use in the bathroom.  You can open/save/print this pdf to use at your house too!  My girls love putting smiley faces on charts, so this is going to be a big hit with them.

If you are ready to start your own 21 Day Challenge to better oral health, head to Walgreens this week.  You can purchase LISTERINE Antiseptic for only $4.49.   Walgreens offers a wide variety of wellness products to help you start and sticky with your healthy habit journeys!

Do you have a tip or trick for creating a new habit?

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