Sawubona! The sprint and marathon continue. Today is #11 in the đŻ Stories in đŻ Days Series. In case you missed it, yesterdayâs was-
Manage Energy Not Time âłÂ  Today, we are diving intoâŠ
The Theory of Localized Vitamin D đ
This focus is different from the other stories. Sometimes creating requires creativity! Yes, itâs a âtheory.â That only means itâs a conjecture of mine based on empirical data- the data of me. Now, my fellow scientists, you can experiment as well! If we do this and get the same result enough times, itâll be a law. đ
I want to keep the same vibe but shift topics. Iâve been getting marketing advice to âniche downâ. If youâre unfamiliar, the basic idea is that since the internet is so huge, everyone is world-class at something. Find what youâre world-class at, and you can make a living off of that.
I am terrified of this. I donât want to spend my life writing about
Keto For Dogs đ I received some advice from
Paul Smalera, a big dog editor (honestly, that pun wasnât intended). A niche doesnât have to be a topic. It can be an approach. You can replicate that approach across a variety of topics.
My kind of dude! This comforts me.
I used to think no one would give a shit about what I have to say. This turns out to be wrong. Yay :) Quite the contrary, when I share direct experience, it resonates more than when I pretend to be a professor. Often, the how is much more important than the what anyway.
AnywhoâŠletâs get that good D
I was recently paddle sailing with my buddy Werner. We were on a lake with paddleboards with sails on them. I was wearing a speedo. I wanted to get some sun.
Iâm pasty as hell.
My relationship with the sun has changed. Itâs common knowledge in my hippie circles that most sunblock on the market today
would be banned by the FDA if it were invented right now. Again, changing old stuff is hard. Instead, we sell this crap at scale.
A few more things helped turn me away from standard sunblock.
- First, my friend Karl told me that it is often bad for the ocean, especially the coral reefs. He has battled skin cancer, so I listen to himâ literal skin in the game. He is âthe man in the arenaâ to give some credit to Roosevelt.
- This caused companies to create sunblock that is âreef safe.â Itâs a concept called greenwashing- pretending to be eco-friendly to boost the bottom line. They care only about the perception of eco-friendliness. It doesnât come from the heart. Corporations donât have hearts anyway, so thatâs a misnomer. Just because sunblock is reef safe doesnât mean itâs human safe.
- Reading Health And Light by John Ott. The book is short and written in the 70s. Please read it. John cured many health conditions thanks to the sun, including his arthritis. This is not a joke. My NOTES
- Realizing that clothing works excellent as a sunblock, and I can easily take it on and off. Itâs hard to take sunblock on and off, and it feels oily and grimy.
Finally, two little rules that I use for whether or not to put something in my body.
- If you wouldnât put it in your mouth, donât put it on your skin! The skin is the biggest organ. It is a giant permeable membrane, great at absorbing stuff. Great when we put good stuff on it. Not so great when we put chemicals on it.
- If the bottle has words on it that would kick my ass in Hangman (the classic spelling game), donât use it! Hair products are a great example. I have a decent vocabulary, yet when I read shampoo bottles, I feel like I donât know English worth a damn.
Itâs similar to a rule for buying food. Buy foods that donât have labels. A tomato is only a tomato đ
. The moment things get combined is the moment extras step in. They obfuscate things, adding complexity rather than reducing it.
Ok, so I ditched the sunblock. đ
What next?
The next step was to stop binging. I was binging on the sun. Iâd spend most of my time indoors and then have these outdoor sun marathons. This fails to recognize one of my favorite ideas-
hormesis, which in simple terms means âprogressive overloadingâ- stressing a system a little bit, a lot of times, to get strong. Stressing a system a lotta bit a single time is a recipe for injury.
With Casperâs skin tone đ» for me, this involved going outside frequently and building up my resilience. For example, almost everything here in Brazil is walkable, so I often go shirtless. I put my shirt back on right before entering a store. Depending on how much I go out in a day, this quickly adds up to an hour of sun time. 2 round trips that are 15 minutes one way gets the job done.
In America, I couldnât quickly walk to stores and appointments. I would journal outside, take calls outside, and take work breaks outside. Each of these sun snacks adds up. I gained awareness and found the sweet spot. I became aware of that moment where I go from cooking to burning. Then, I could cover myself up or go in the shade just in time. This helps me maintain a sunny disposition.
Back to paddle sailingâŠ
Iâd already been bonding with the sun for months, the good old buddy that facilitates all life on our planet. I donât usually wear speedos. Despite all the sun snacking Iâd been doing, I wasnât getting sun on my upper thighs.
After a day on the water, they were fried. Crispy. đ
I hadnât noticed. There was a breeze and my body felt fine.
It was fine.
I didnât get burned anywhere else. My legs werenât getting more sun than the rest of my body. Often when I burn, my neck and shoulders get it the worst. They had no issues.
What the hell!
This isnât fair. It doesnât make sense.
So, I came up with The Theory Of Localized Vitamin D âïž. Itâs simple. The sun gives us Vitamin D. Our body does its best to distribute it. But it doesnât do a perfect job. The parts of the skin that receive local exposure get more resilience than the parts that donât. Over time, this adds up and creates an imbalance. The imbalance is only to the degree of imbalance in your exposure.
For example, on long drives, sometimes my left arm gets burned. Itâs in the sunny part of the car, but my right arm is fine. Damage works the same as the resilience building. This is because itâs a spectrum. Damage only occurs when I get too much sun.
This intuitively makes sense to me. Iâd love to hear your thoughts about it. Am I missing something? Am I wrong? Why? The theory comes from my experience. But, I suspect it is true for other people.
Lessons Learned:
- Get a little sun, a lot of times. Think of those jacked crossfitters that do MetCons and WODs throughout the day, rather than a single long workout.
- Get sun everywhere.
- Donât put poison in your body. â ïž
- I used to think of stuff on my skin as âonâ my body but now I donât. The real question is, to what extent does the skin absorb it? This depends on a lotâ solid/liquid, how long itâs on the skin, etc.
As always, thank you for reading. Tomorrow we are diving into Butthole Sunning. âïž đ Itâs a foray into getting the sun everywhere.
Warmly,
Drew
PS- I also made my own natural sunblock. Natural to me means without chemicals, especially ones I canât even pronounce. Holler at me if you want the recipe! I donât use it unless Iâm getting many hours of sun, and cant be sure that Iâll be able to cover up or get in the shade.