I sent family on a hunt for this Hissyfit Vanilla Almond Orange Grapefruit scented SPF 30+ body lotion when they were in Australia. How could I not? I knew it would smell amazing (*it does) and is a body lotion sunscreen. I had to have it.

I also love Hissyfit’s motto that is printed on all of their products: “You should know by now that you are a goddess.” It’s true.

You don’t have to send anyone half way around the world to pick up this Australian gem – you can pick it up on Dermstore.com now.

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See, I went in for my long put off Well Woman Checkup last week and besides being told, “Hooray, you’re 40! You’ve earned a Mammogram!”, I was told that I was “extremely Vitamin D deficient”. As in, on a range of 30-80, with 50-70 being optimum, I have a 10. So, basically, almost none.

My doctor apologized and said “We’ve been telling you to take precaustions with the sun, but apparently we are doing *too* good of a job”. Of note, the American Association of Dermatology doesn’t want you getting your Vitamin D from the sun anyway. Shocking! Not so much. Anyway, it seems that Vitamin D deficiency is on the rise, too – to where possibly 70% – 80% of the population are deficient. Most scary is the large amount of children that could be affected and having issues growing up.

Personally, after reading about the variety of things that Vitamin D deficiency can affect (*aches, pains, hair loss, mood, etc) I think I can possibly attribute a lot of things that I thought were random & unrelated to this root cause. Like, hair loss? Easily explained away by all of the different products I try stressing it out. Difficulty remembering things? I multi-task like a fiend. Plus, my attention span has dwindled down to 140-character bytes. Dozing off to sleep at my desk in the afternoon? What? My job’s boring. Hip aches? I’m a big girl, duh, I’m going to be achy, right? Oh, one of the things is that Diabetes & Vitamin D deficiency have a link. “They” can’t determine which influences which the most, but the tie is there.

Well, my Dr has put me on a 50Kul/wk for 12 wk megadose regimen to jump start my absorption & prescribed me 1K/day FOREVER (<-her CAPS). Also, to help reduce any potential bone loss due to the lack of Calcium (*what little I take in) absorption with the deficiency, she wants me to start incorporating more activity in my lifestyle, which I am now doing by walking on a regular basis (*to help ward off that diabetes/vit d link, too). And when I walk, I tweet (*okay, really, when *don’t* I tweet?), so I’ve started using the hashtag #VitD4Me to kind of track my tweets having to do with what’s going on with this.

So, long story longer, I want you to make sure that when you go in for your annual Well Woman Checkup (*which I know you do faithfully), that you will get your Vitamin D levels tested. If only to reassure you that it’s all good, or maybe to try to explain away that mysterious “something” going on with you. I’ll tell you this – a month ago, I got tired at just the thought of walking a mile and yesterday I walked 3miles – *before work*. Who am I?!?

Now, tell me – have any of you been diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency? Did any of even realize that it was/could be an issue? I didn’t, but let me know if you did.

I know I sure hadn’t and I wondered if others were as oblivious as me. I asked my friend Nancy, from Beauty411, (*who happens to drive a hella stupid amount of miles each week – 1200!?) if she puts SPF on her arm. She told me, “No, but I put it on my face”, which is good, but not enough when driving so much, apparently. Even celebrity esthetician, Renée Rouleau, has tweeted about it (*she also rec’s wearing sunscreen when you’re in an airplane).

Okay, so that got me thinking that maybe my pale skin and I need some help. Problem is, it’s hard enough to get me to remember to put it on my face in the mornings, let alone on my arm while I am trying to get to my morning Rt. 44 Sweet Tea. Luckily, I was able to try something that was small enough to just throw in my console and could spray on when I am in the car: Kinesys Sunscreen. This little 1oz SPF30 bottle is great to keep handy for quick shots of protection. The one I have has a Light Mango scent, which is really mild, but they also offer an Unscented version, too. 

You can get the 1oz bottle for $6.99 and the larger 4oz size for $18.99. Since it dries so quickly and doesn’t need to be rubbed in due to the microspray, it’s great for sports players, as it doesn’t effect their grip, so you can find it locally at your more specific sports stores.