ETERNAL VIGILANCE

I was somewhere in my mid-30’s when I realized that I was on the wrong side of the slope.  You know the slope, the one that finds you getting weaker every day.  It happened while I was hefting a sail out of the forward hatch on LUCKY PUFF, my racing sailboat, and found myself huffing and puffing like an overworked fireplace bellows.  “That’s it,” I thought, “I’m going to join a health club.”

This was back in the day when gyms were called ‘health clubs’ and were few and far between.  The only one in the Newport area was an out of the way place on a side street called SUPERBODIES.  I had always avoided lifting weights because Coach Lustig and Coach Martinian had warned us we would get ‘muscle bound.’  SUPERBODIES was the kind of place where the rush of testosterone hits you as soon as you walk in and most of the members look like they belonged on the cover of MUSCLE AND FITNESS and guys with average builds, like me, were a rarity.   

I tackled it anyway and have been pretty consistent over the years even though my DNA was against me.  You know what I look like.  I could never be mistaken for a body builder.  But I consoled myself with the thought that I was hanging on to that slope by my nails and wouldn’t go without kicking and screaming.

I also started to  look into the pros and cons of vitamin supplementation even though my professors in med school had always poo poohed the thought and were adamant in saying: “Just eat a balanced diet, doctors.  You don’t need vitamins.” (They had a way of calling med students ‘doctors’ that was not complimentary.  I got over that.  I also started to take vitamins.)

My epiphany came one evening when I was changing out of my scrub suit into my workout shorts and I was next to two body builder types who looked as though they had been born that way.  They were exchanging fitness tips and saying things like I never eat after 7 o’clock, and I make this special shake with raw eggs and tofu and I suddenly realized that what I was looking at was the result of a lot of hard work.

It’s the same way with your skin.  If someone has great skin our tendency is to write that off to DNA.  We all think the Christie Brinkleys of the world wake up every morning looking just like that but the truth is you are seeing a lot of maintenance.  I can almost guarantee you that Christie Brinkley eats right, gets enough sleep, takes supplements and is conscientious about the products she uses.

Here’s where ETERNAL VIGILANCE comes in.  There is no such thing as the quick fix.  Having great skin involves doing something for it every day and I hear that all the time from my patients.  Taking supplements, drinking enough pure water, getting enough sleep, eating right, are critical ingredients.  The patients who take the time to wash their face after sleep (do you know how many germs are on your pillow?) and before they go to bed (take that makeup off), who use an anti-oxidant serum and a great moisturizer, and who use an effective sunscreen always tell me how happy they are with their skin.

The temptation to go back to that Dove bar or Cetaphil when your Sanctuary Daily Gel Wash runs out can be too much.  Don’t give in to temptation.  The fact is that the natural and organic bio-element ingredients in our products are effective.  And cost effective.

Wherever we go, at least once a day, someone asks JoAnn what she uses on her skin.  If you know her, you know there’s a reason for that and you know what it is.