Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Swimming in Bleach

In my pursuit of health, I'm finding a terrible inconsistency in what I say and what I do.

With some recent joint pain and weight gain, I have turned over to swimming as a great way to do my cardio workouts and still relieve the muscle soreness associated with such heavy pounding on the joints. However, I have to swim through chlorine. It is completely inadvertent, but I am finding with so many laps (at least 1500 meters), I am taking in quite a bit of water through my mouth, nose and on my skin. I swam last night and I still smell like that horrid chemical. I am noting my hair becoming more brittle, my skin drying out more rapidly, my throat hurting substantially in the morning and I am dry as a camel throughout the day. I am loving the exercise, but I need to pull away from the pool, else I fall victim to perhaps some serious damage.

For my throat, after my swims I am immediately drinking Throat Coat tea as well as half a liter of water to help flush the harmful fluids from my body. For my hair, I have started placing a thick organic conditioner on my hair prior to placing on my swim cap to help save my hair from the damage of the pool and then only rinsing my hair once I am back in the locker room after my laps. For my skin, I am also attempting to rinse off more thoroughly after I swim, but somehow I can not shake the smell. It's rather unprofessional to be sitting in the office at my desk and smell like a can of bleach and tooting the "all-natural" horn.

Any suggestions to help my skin while I pursue this short-term interest?

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