What Confidence Has to Do With Living a Healthy Life [+ My Teeth Whitening Experience!]

I know, I know, the title of this post may be throwing you off a bit, but I promise it’ll make sense soon 🙂

I think about 99% of the time, people immediately think food and fitness when they think about what the word “healthy” means, myself included. In the past year though, I’ve started to realize that health is also about the way you treat yourself and the words you say. It may be a little out there, but I honestly think there may even be a connection between being kind (again, to yourself but also to others) and your actual “health.” Does that make any sense? Like, let’s say every morning we looked in the mirror and thought “I hate my hair and my face is breaking out, I’m fat and this shirt looks terrible on me,” I don’t think we’d be setting ourselves up to be healthy (or happy) at all. We’d probably spend our day self-loathing, may choose to do something we don’t love because we’re too insecure to stand up for ourselves (been there!), potentially be rude to someone else because we’re in a bad mood, and maybe even force ourselves to go to the gym (because we hate the way our bodies look) or the opposite, shovel in a bunch of greasy food because we’re emotionally eating.

Now let’s flip that around – say we started the day instead by looking in the same mirror, but this time we think, “I love my smile and my hair looks awesome today. This outfit is everything and today is going to kick a$$.” To me, that sounds like the PERFECT way to start a day and one that’s most likely to be filled with what makes us happy, that unfolds with us being good to ourselves and our bodies. Sure, we may go to the gym, but to celebrate our health this time. Maybe we’d even treat ourselves to our favorite foods because hell, but because we know we deserve them…is it starting to make sense now?

I used to work in entertainment, as an entertainer, so my self-confidence wasn’t exactly at an all-time high with people telling me NO six times a day for one reason or another (too tall, too curvy, not pretty enough, etc.). Now that I’m not in that world, I’m actually starting to love myself again, which feels pretty damn great. And let me tell you, I treat my body (and my heart/mind) with more kindness, too. One of the things that constantly bothered me back in those days was how yellow my teeth were because, let’s face it, homegirl generally needs two cups of coffee a day. I seriously used to hate smiling with my teeth, which I needed to do alllll the time for headshots and auditions. Even after I stopped doing those things, I was so used to be self-conscious about my smile that I kind of just continued to feel weird about it in the back of my mind.

An easy fix for this was teeth whitening obviously, but we all know this blog is for #BabesOnABudget, aka this coffee-obsessed millenial has neither the funds nor the loose purse strings to splurge for a teeth cleaning in a dentist’s office! The good news? I was recently able to whiten my teeth, at home, for waaaaaaay less thanks to Smile Brilliant. Their at-home teeth whitening kits could not be easier – you create the mold yourself (which is, by the way, dummy proof), send it back, receive your custom trays, and do your thing with their super easy applicators. For the last couple of months, I’ve been whitening my teeth before bed while watching This Is Us and browsing Pinterest, often with a face mask on…And now? I can drink (and eat) what I want without feeling like I need to hide my smile. So believe me when I tell you that this process could not be easier, and it WORKS. So much so that I’ve actually started drinking my coffee with a Koffie Straw to keep them white because I’ve been feeling so much better about smiling when meeting new people or taking photos. Good thing Smile Brilliant gives you plenty of whitening and de-sensitizing gel so that you can do routine touch-ups whenever you feel necessary!

One more thing I want to note is how incredible their customer service is. First of all, the entire process from the moment you receive your package, to creating your molds and then getting your custom trays is super speedy, and you’re updated every step of the way. Second of all, if you have any questions, or are experiencing sensitivity (enter their amazing de-sensitizing gel!), they are more than happy to help guide you. I always appreciate a company that legitimately cares about its customers! So, if you’d like to start feeling more confident, aka starting your day off with that second scenario where you smile in the mirror thinking “DAMN I look good,” I highly recommend a kit from Smile Brilliant. Do something for yourself, take care of your body, your heart, your mind, whatever it is you may need to live your healthy and happy life.

If you’d like, you can enter to win your very own Smile Brilliant teeth whitening kit here,? ?since they’ve been kind enough to offer a kit to one of my readers! I know we all love coupons too though, so you can get 10% off your kit with code dancingfordonuts10 🙂

Now I wanna know: have you overcome any insecurities from your past? How did you shift your mindset?

xo Jordan