1) My tooth-brushing honeymoon is over. I got sick again this morning when I brushed. I think it’s the act of brushing, not the toothpaste.

An acquaintance recommended sticking my tongue out when I brush, which apparently helps suppress the gag reflex. It can’t hurt.

2) Yesterday, I went back to Prenatal Yoga for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was a new instructor, and I noticed that my "internal noise level" shot up.

I find gyms and other physical fitness type places intimidating, and I always think I should know what I’m doing, but I feel like I don’t. So I get in this weird mental space of "I *can* do this/This is too hard" — which both drives me crazy and is probably very hard for the instructor to coach me through.

Fortunately, I noticed it while it was happening, was able to mentally say "Oh! I’m doing that thing I do!" without beating myself up too much for it. I’ve noticed that when I beat myself up over things like that, I’m a lot more likely to start doing it again 5 minutes later when I quit beating myself up.

If I’m a little more compassionate with myself and remember that it is OK that I don’t know what I’m doing, and that pretending I do probably isn’t going to help me and Smudge get the most out of Prenatal Yoga, I can simmer down and pay attention more easily.

3) I saw some very interesting graffiti in a wealthy neighborhood that I drive through on my way to work. It said, in spray paint on a brick retaining wall:

3/4 of the world is starving

My first thought was "I don’t think that’s true." I’m sure the number is horrifying, but I just don’t believe that 75% of the world is starving.

Without any intent to belittle hunger or people who are fighting to reduce starvation and malnutrition, like the awesome people at The Hunger Site, I think it hurts the cause to exaggerate the numbers.

A little googling turns up some interesting information:

An undated page in the ThinkQuest library says: The World Health
Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed,
one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you’ve entered this
site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will
die this year.

Bread for the World also quotes the World Health Organization, but suggests a slightly less severe impact than ThinkQuest suggested: Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three people to die prematurely or have disabilities.

I couldn’t find hunger or starvation stats on the WHO site.

And in case anyone is worried, I am most definitely not starving. In fact, I am doing my "eating for two" with a vengeance*. Although Smudge weighed in at 11 oz, according to the ultrasound on Tuesday, I have gained approximately 13 lbs so far.

* Typepad’s spellchecker suggested "vegans" as a possible correct spelling for my original attempt to spell vengeance. I don’t think I could do my eating for two with vegans; I think 30-40% of my diet may be dairy.