Practice Safe Sun!

I've read the horror stories in Glamour magazine and even have a grandfather that had melanoma 3 times (thankfully they caught it each time and he's ok). But growing up I never took it seriously that I should wear sunscreen when I was at the beach or laying out at the pool or even just simply playing outside in the sun. My mom was always good about making sure I was wearing sunscreen when I was little, but when I got into high school and college let's just say I was stupid. 

For my senior prom, I got a white dress so of course I thought I needed a tan. So I faked n' baked with a month of unlimited tanning so I wasn't as white as my dress. I continued fake tanning through college as well, not all the time, but my friends and I would sign up for unlimited months from time to time. Thankfully I never looked like Snooki, but it was definitely an unhealthy habit.

Fast forward through several years of laying out at the beach or the pool using tanning oil instead of sunblock, going on vacations where I'd get so burnt that it hurt and I'd end up a peeling mess. 

Exhibit A 

This was after our 1st day at sea on our Southern Caribbean Cruise in 2009. Yipes! 

Super dark at the end of our cruise last summer. Ok... maybe I did look like Snooki sometimes. But in my defense this was after a week in the Caribbean not from tanning beds.

Well, lately I've been breaking out like a teenager, and nothing was helping. Proactiv seemed to help, but then all of a sudden it stopped working. Then I got a Clarisonic last year which I was using with Philosphy's Purity which again seemed to help at first, but my skin only got worse later on. So, I finally decided to see a dermatologist. I also thought it was a good time to finally get a skin cancer screen since I've never had one. The doctor checked me and said everything was looking clear, but then she got to my back and took a picture of something in a spot right below where my bikini top strap would sit. She said she wanted to do a biopsy which kind of freaked me out. I've never had one of those before! I asked what she thought it looked like, and she said Basal Cell Carcinoma. Thankfully, this wouldn't be as serious as melanoma, but man was this a wake up call! I have to wait 3 weeks for the test results, but I have definitely been sobered up that it can happen to me and I need to continue to be more serious about protecting my skin from the sun. Especially now that we live in Florida and we have pool parties and beach outings coming up. 

Tomorrow I have a pool date with some of the girls while H and the guys attempt to play golf haha.. poor guys. They'll have fun I'm sure, but it'll probably be a hot mess. I'll make sure H has on plenty of sunscreen and is wearing a hat, and I'll be covered in sunscreen as well and wearing my hat that I purchased on our last cruise:

+

Since we smartened up the past few years, we're always well stocked with the spray and the lotion. 

Oh and we'll have some of these too:

Mimosas

and

Strawberry Daiquiris

How do you practice safe sun?