I hate being cold. It’s not incredibly comfortable being overly hot either, but if I had to pick, I’d rather be hot. People debate this, I know. A lot of people tell me they’d rather be cold, because “you can always put more clothes on, but you can only take so much off.”

Today is the first day of spring. I’m ecstatic. The weather is quite erratic in my corner of the world (Norfolk, Virginia). We do see a little bit of everything – ridiculous summertime humidity, thunderstorms, Nor’Easters, hurricanes, wind, 30-degree temperature changes within a 12-hour period, occasional heavy snowfall, week-long stretches of rain, weeks of no rain. There’s something for everyone!

Right now, it’s about 40 degrees outside. I’m supposed to go out for a run. It’s a lot easier to get me out there when it’s 70 degrees. Yesterday’s weather was horrible – 30s, rain, and wind. I couldn’t bring myself to walk in it for a warm-up prior to my weight workout, so I opted for the marvel of the sauna. Not just any sauna, my home sauna that my wonderful husband built.

Our home sauna sits in our detached garage. It’s part of what we call our home gym, which is essay-worthy in itself. The sauna is a 6 ft x 3 ft walled-off room in the corner of the garage. It has a small door with a black knob for the handle. When the knob is turned and the sauna entered, there is a “squeeeaakkk” noise. Tranquility awaits on the other side of the door. Tan-colored wooden boards line the walls on all sides. A bench is to the left, adjoined to the wall and connecting one end of the sauna to the other, just long enough for me to stretch out on. Overtop the bench hang two infrared “Heat Fusion” heaters. They warm not just human skin and muscles, but the soul as well. If one tries to sit on the bench beneath these mini infernos, her head will start to feel fried. There’s a heater mounted on the wall opposite the door. The heater is electric and white; it barely sticks out from the wall. It is turned off and on by a mobile knob in the upper left hand corner. When it turns on it makes a “ssshhhh” sound. This heater heats the air, while the others above heat the skin and soul. It’s a perfect combination for getting toasty.

There’s no particular smell within the sauna. But, there is a small wooden shelf, about a foot long and 6 inches wide in the upper left corner that holds a little diffuser for essential oils. There are about eight little black bottles of them – lavender, eucalyptus, sweet orange, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, etc. Sweet orange is among my favorites. I know some people are really into the essential oils, but I’ve never gotten into them. It seems like too much work to hook up the diffuser / figure out how it works. Sometimes I will unscrew the tops of the little bottles and take a whiff of the oily aromas. It is relaxing.

I prep the sauna 15 or 20 minutes before I go into it. This consists of turning on all the heaters, the hanging ones by pulling the black strings and the wall one by turning the little knob. Once it’s primed, I go into the sauna and lay out a towel. I slide the little wooden strip across the inside of the door to lock it and then I strip down to my undergarments. I hop up onto the bench and lay on my back beneath the toasters overhead. I feel my dry, cold, pale skin absorb the invisible, wonderful rays of heat, like a sunbathing reptile, minus the sun. The air around me grows hotter and hotter. The mercury in the thermometer on the wall inches north. After about 10 minutes, my skin is sufficiently warm. The thermometer reads 100 degrees. I even get blotchy pink spots on my legs, so I start to look like an albino gecko. The heat is quite soothing. Beads of sweat start to form on my head, arms, face, legs, stomach. They soon mold into streaks of sweat. My face gets quite red and clammy. Sweat oozes from me like liquid stress. I try to breathe deeply and let my muscles relax. It’s lovely to feel warm. I bask in the sauna for about 20 minutes. It’s a great warm-up to my weight workout.

I turn the heaters off one by one once I’m ready to leave the sauna. I’m wet now. So is my underwear. I dry off with the towel. I unlock the sauna door and slide it open to begin the cool down. I put on my yoga pants and step out of the sauna and into the garage. It’s cold. I hear the rain coming down on the roof. I hear the wind howl. My body temperature starts to fall quickly. Brrrr. I think about going back to the sauna or back into the house. But, I still need to work out. I look to the bench and spot my hoodie. I chuckle. Though it’s cold, I can always put more clothing on. I grab the hoodie and pull it over my head. Time to get this workout on. Thank you, sauna. ~