What Your Mother Never Told You: Simple Things for a Great Sex Life

If your mother was like my mother, you would have heard constant rumblings of how to keep your “cootchie” clean and healthy. As I grew up, I was the one telling the other girls to go bare-bottomed at sleepovers to prevent yeast infections, an issue I didn’t fully understand at the time, and that thongs dragged bacteria from your anus to your vagina. I was the girl using the words “vagina” and “uterus” when the other girls said “tummy” and “down-there.”
 
Tirelessly, my mom worked to educate my sister and I on what was required to minimize yeast and urinary tract infections, and no matter what a vagina looked like, its appearance was normal and beautiful. To my knowledge, most moms aren’t as ardent in their hygiene practices as my mother was with her daughters. Maybe her desires came from her own mother being a nurse and her forward-thinking attitude.
 
Today, I find multitudes of women who don’t know what proper intimate care constitutes—and it starts with a proper diet and hygiene.
 

You Knew You Loved Fro-Yo for a Reason

If you contract yeast infections often, look at your diet as a possible culprit. Your diet--the management of diabetes and the consumption of birth control and sugar--has the potential to elevate the proclivity for bacterial infections. All of these dietary contributions provide extra sugar for yeast to eat and cultivate.
 
I love sugar; I eat a lot of it. To balance that out, I eat yogurt. Yogurt contains the anti-venom to the sugary goodness because yogurt increases the “good” bacteria in your vagina. A diet with lots of yogurt will provide a life with minimal bacterial infections.
 

No Butts!

Don’t smoke! The nicotine in cigarettes is a vasoconstrictor, which cramps the blood vessels throughout your body. The cramping damages the ability of the brain to send chemical signals, such as arousal and desire, to your reproductive organs; your reproductive organs, meanwhile, experience difficulty in engorgement, a problem that causes a much-diminished sense of pleasure.
 

Chug, Chug, Chug!

Drinking plenty of water is imperative to sexual health, too. Water flushes out any toxins that can negatively affect your sexual responses, toxins that cause a hormone buildup from birth control or a presence of alcohol from the night before. You also need water to form vaginal lubrication, and no H20 makes sex a no-go.
 

Solid Gold

Each day, your body needs a bit of sunlight to process vitamins and minerals, such as calcium. Sunlight helps the skin activate melanin, a chemical that affects sleep, depression and arousal. A stroll in the sun will pay off later with a fun time in bed and a relaxing sleep afterward.
 

Runners High

Ok, so you don’t have to run; I hate running. But endorphins from exercise can increase feelings of desire and sexual pleasure. Exercise also improves circulation, which helps your body become aroused. Yes, dancing at a club will work just as well as time spent at the gym. Just don’t workout too closely to bedtime because the endorphins won’t allow you to fall asleep for several hours.
 

Show, Don’t Tell

Besides physically advice, you should also consider your mental state of your sexual behavior. Do you feel satisfied in bed or do things get stale? Rather than correcting, try encouraging things that do feel good, and don’t be afraid to demonstrate to your partner what you enjoy. Everyone loves a visual how-to, and praise makes everyone feel better—not irritated.