Sunburn Remedies: Final Day 7

DAY 7: REBIRTH
I've tolerated all kinds of pain in my life, but nothing prepared me for the day my stomach would start molting to a new layer of skin. I'm finally back to wearing pants and a normal seat belt, but my stomach is ready for new challenges as it brings a fresh layer to life.

Image from GIFER.

PAIN LEVEL (1-5 SCALE):
1. I wish I could say no pain, but peeling skin always causes some sort of discomfort.

REMEDY:
I had to start flaking this stuff off! I changed into a bathing suit for the first time in a week and saw a white layer of skin slowly separating. What did I do? Naturally, I let it flake off like crazy!

Sunburn Remedies: Day 4

Day 4: I FEEL HUMAN AGAIN

via GIPHY- Damon slips into his old vamp ways in The Vampire Diaries.

Today is the first day my stomach is not looking like the inside of an under-cooked chicken! I'm less pink and there is some sort of brown edging forming, almost like a bad tanning lotion application.

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
Still hanging at a 2 today. More than anything, I feel a little dehydrated. I've been drinking tons of tea and water all week.

Remedy:
Aside from a daily application of aloe, I'm letting this day go by without any new pain relieving methods. My new method, aside from hydration, is to do nothing. I even managed to wear a skirt that loosely came near my stomach today!

Sunburn Remedies: Day 3

DAY 3: I Wear My Sunglasses at Night

Today, I woke up as a functioning sunburn victim! After two nights of pain, I was forgetting what normal looked like. To follow up on yesterday's methods of treatment, the oatmeal bath was  a disaster. The oatmeal was nice and calming, but I added what was left in the can, which was over a half a cup, and my tub was still draining oatmeal this morning.

Howie D in as a vampire in The Backstreet Boys'
"Backstreet's Back" video, from GIPHY.

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
A very normal 2.
I wore a loose-fitting cotton skirt today to keep my skin happy. I went to yoga class at night and was only in pain when I stretched my core and bent into cobra/upward dog, which require your stomach to be on the mat.

Remedy 1: Ice
In any pain relief treatment, the second thing to try (in the RICE) method) is rest. After being a bit restless in bed, I got a cold ice pack from the freezer and threw it on my stomach. I was instantly comforted into sleep.

Remedy 2: Tea Bags
I'm about to make some green tea, and the cooled tea bags will be gently placed on my red skin for anti-oxidants. I'll update on this tomorrow.

Sunburn Remedies: Day 2

Day 2: BURN BABY, BURN
Yesterday's sunburn has taken full control of my delicate stomach epidermis. Tonight, it's time to test some new remedies. Welcome to my first work day with a terrible stomach sunburn! Remember, just because I'm not sparkling like a vampire in the light on the outside doesn't mean I don't feel it on the inside. I generally feel like I have a new layer of aloe-smothered skin.

Edward in the Light- TWILIGHT - Tenor GIF

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
A solid 4. 
Wearing a dress helped keep anything from touching my skin, but I'm taking breaks to apply extra aloe to my red spot. Laying on my stomach at the chiropractor's office was a few steps above torture by soccer stadium vuvuzelas.

 Remedy 1: Keep all fabric off the burn

Today, I wore a loose fitting dress to work to keep my stomach as far from exposure as possible. I'm sure it fixed anything, but I felt a little more comfortable.

Remedy 2: Cool Bath with Oatmeal

I first took an oatmeal bath when I had the chicken pox. It's still  great option for any type of skin irritation. This is relaxing so regardless I'm having fun!

Sunburn Remedies: Day 1

Today, I went on a trip to the beach. It was great, except for a pesky sunburn on my stomach. I'll spare the photographic evidence and the story of my pink stomach, but just image sitting through a concert with a searing pain in your abdomen. I can't go back in time and re apply on my midriff, but I 'm sharing my diary of this week's sunburn remedies.

DAY 1: FEELING THE (SUN)BURN 
About four hours after the beach, the pain set in. What I first attributed to an irritation too-tight pants was eventually revealed to be sunburn.

ANGEL enjoying an alt. dimension where he can't 
be burned by the sun. Image from Mythcreants blog. 

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
This is a 5-alarm issue.
When the pain from a sunburn is so bad and you have to change your clothes, it's as severe as it can get. I even had to cushion my the lap part of my seat belt for the drive home.

Remedy 1: Drinking Water

-Sunburn usually makes me overly warm and sweaty (thanks to inflammation). I took a fresh bottle of ice cold H20 to help replenish foods in my body during the concert. This definitely prevented me from further hydration, so I consider it a win. 

Remedy 2: Loose Fitting Clothing

Once I ruled out stomach pain, I decided I had to get my stomach free of any restrictive fabric. This meant buying an oversized concert t-shirt so my pants could be open across my stomach. This helped a lot!

Remedy 3: Aloe

I grabbed some chilled aloe out of my fridge at home and slathered it on my stomach for an instant cooling sensation. The relief is temporary, but always appreciated. 

Remedy 4: Advil

Since sunburn is an inflammatory body response, I took an anti-inflammatory before bed. I think this helped take a little of the heat off my sensitive stomach because I fell asleep (on my back) almost instantly.

Remedy 5: Modify My Seat Belt
This pain is so intense, I had to use my shoulder strap for my seat belt and wrap it around my lap to keep the belt off of my stomach!

Yoga Week! - Let's Twist Again

The Pose: Seated Spinal Twist

How Its Done:
You begin crossing one leg flat (left) out in front of you. The next step is bend the opposite leg (right) at the knee and cross over the flat leg. The bent knee should reach toward your opposite hip. The arms will then support and tighten your form. Now the right knee is bent and you rest your left elbow on the outer side of the knee at a 90 degree angle. The right hand goes on the floor, on your right side and behind your body. You turn your torso and head toward the right also. It resembles what I like to call a "reclined Cleopatra."

What I Learned:
Sometimes when I do twists, I feel my body caving in to get more of a twist. This is the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do to make a twist work! The key to making this pose work is to keep youe body open. Your shoulders  need to be open (think shoulder blades touching). In order to keep the form and strong stomach,  I realized I need to keep my flutes (butt cheeks) flat against the floor. This will establish a stronger base and help you twist much further.

Yoga Week! - The Squat Problem

The Pose: Goddess Squat

What I Learned:
I am good at many poses, but I squat like a hippo. I will never be successful at "getting low" as the great Flo Rida would say. I can get into a  hovering position, but my body can't commit fully because I have tight hips. I tragically have come to terms that I will never be a sumo wrestler. The pose reminds me of a sumo pose because you stand with legs squatted to each side and arms turned up like balancing the scales of justice.

Self-Reflection: In all seriousness, I'm now going to talk about what I learned in doing the pose. I've learned a lot about myself. One of the tenants of yoga is not to compare what you're doing to what anyone else is doing. I firmly believe that. I also know that my hips are extremely tight and a little observation (of my fellow yogis) helps me greatly. I am a visual learner and adapt well to and something about modeling my movement after someone else's is very helpful. This comes from my background in theater. Any actor worth their movement class has learned from sitting on a bench and watched others.

In the Pose: What have I learned from squatting? I learned first that my calves are pretty strong. For someone with 5 feet of total length, my calves take up decent real estate on my body. They also get easily knotted up. My solution for this has become to foam roll my entire legs after class. The foam roller helps to break up little cranky muscles. In essence, the more I squat, the more my muscles will build strength.

Yoga Week! -Making Triangles

The Pose: Triangle (Trikonasana)

What I Learned:
Triangle pose is a great stretch for the back, legs and when done properly, the arms.  With legs wide open, you bend from the waist to one side (the right, then left). Your right arm reaches for your ankle and your left arm extends into the air. I always thought my lower arm supported my body. A recent adjustment by my instructor changed my view of this pose.

The teacher told me to release my ankle-grabbing hand to see if I was still in the form. I began to cave slightly. She tapped on my abdominal muscle, indicating that should be used to keep the form. This is really a core workout! For the last few weeks, I go into triangle and immediately dangle my lower arm to make sure my stomach is supporting my weight.

Yoga Week!- Pose and Learn

Hello and Happy New Year! I'm kicking off 2018 with posts about yoga poses. It's time for a new focus in my practice. Please note, these are not just my favorite poses, but they are definitely ones that have taught me a lot.