Tolerance to the weather

[BlueTrain]

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have time on my hands today, at least right now. So my mind was wandering.

I spent a few hours yesterday in the basement at home, doing chores and piddling around. The temperature, according to my Wal-Mart thermometer, was around 60 degrees, more or less. Keeping busy, I managed quite well, but I was certainly aware of the cool temperature. On Saturday, the day before, our power was out because of a day-long windstorm. I certainly noticed the temperatures then, too. But of course, the temperature in the basement is lower than in the rest of the house all year long. But mostly it's quite tolerable as long as I'm active.

Outside, it's a different story, what with the wind. Sixty degrees would usually be too cool unless the air were still. I've even seen photos of nude people standing around smiling at the camera and standing in snow or showing off their thermometer. I've never done that, nothing more than a brief foray into the night air when it was cold and sometimes snowy outside. That works like nothing else to turn up the draft on your internal heater, believe me. Except for a rainy day when I wore only a poncho and I expect the temperature was in the sixties, maybe lower, I've not had any extensive time outside nude in cool weather. Being nude outside when the weather is warm, toasty warm, or insufferably hot probably merits no comment as far as tolerating the weather.

So, what are others' experiences. How low can you go? Are you frequently nude when the temperature drops below room temperature? Any secrets to divulge? I have noticed that, although I might be comfortable if I'm active in cooler temperatures, my skin will feel cold to the touch. I never forget that it isn't warm.

[nuduke]

Well, I like it warm but as I've posted usually in How was your month for FRN thread, I have been 'dipping in' to the freezing weather in the night garden over winter.  I haven't done any 'tolerance trials'  - I usually go out for a minute to a few minutes just to see how my body reacts.  However I reckon half an hour in 32 - 25

deg F would be possible if you were occupied with something fairly physical so as not to notice the cold so much and generate some internal warmth.  Making a snowman would be hard because you get a lot of snow on the hands and body and this becomes painful and sucks heat out of the sensitive outer skin layer.

One thing I am sure of is that endurance and indeed sensual pleasure from being nude in the cold is greatly assisted by dry, frosty and very cold, still weather.  A breeze is always chilling and on a damp night with high humidity the experience is not so nice.

Oh Alf !  Where are you?  You would be able to comment no doubt, living in Canada but you are gone from our midst, o sage.

And Ian Milfmog - your secluded garden has no doubt led you to be out in the cold and early morning walks with Taz in the past have happened in all weathers, winter frost being one.  Where are you, matey?  Make comment please.

Also JOhn - there must be something in your vast range that informs the endurance to cold question.

With nostalgia

John

[Peter S]

To answer BlueTrain, I can cope outside in the snow and even enjoy the briskness of crispy cold, but indoor inactivity at cold temperatures soon becomes uncomfortable.

[jbeegoode]

In a basement, or indoors, at 60, I start getting uncomfortable. I confess that instead of putting on my thick terry robe, or a quilt, I indulge myself frequently by turning on the heat and swallowing any environmental green concern's guilt. This, I'm sure eats into the grand savings that I accumulate in the many warmer months. Living in a strawbale house with insulated two and a half foot thick walls, does cut down on the bill. I heat 'er up for an hour or two maybe twice a day, then the heat stays. I also use a portable heater, if I'm sitting in one place for a while. It is like a small fireplace. I'm naked at home all winter.

Outside, as long as there is no breeze, or there is some nice warm sunlight, I'm good. When there is even the slightest breeze it chills me. My only and best solution is to keep moving. I've been out a half an hour and more naked subfreezing walking a half mile from home in a snow storm and its aftermath in the still of the night.
https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2016/12/23/a-new-year/#more-2135

I know that I can tolerate greater extremes, but I prefer living in comfort. Cold is of interest, cold can be fun, cold is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I live in Arizona for a reason. Now, if you want to talk tolerance to heat, I'm your boy...tons of hours out and about honing my expertise!

[BlueTrain]

People who like to be nude never seem to complain about the heat but conditions vary. In the places I go hiking, the trails are probably 90% in the shade. The Appalachian Trail is not called a green tunnel for nothing. So I don't have to worry about the sun so much. I do wonder sometimes if I drink enough water in hot weather. On my more memorable nude hikes, I don't recall doing much perspiring, and most of the time it has been very humid. Anyway, still wondering when to make my first nude hike of the season.

[Greenbare Woods]

In a basement, or indoors, at 60, I start getting uncomfortable. I confess that instead of putting on my thick terry robe, or a quilt, I indulge myself

Sitting still does not produce body heat.  I keep my home close to 70F and need a jacket or something while sitting by my PC or TV. 

Outside, as long as there is no breeze, or there is some nice warm sunlight, I'm good. When there is even the slightest breeze it chills me.

Outside we are moving about so we produce body heat.  When hiking in the sunshine at 60F I start to sweat.  I'm glad when there is a breeze.   I get cold around 50F even when moving. 

I've found that 80F is needed to sit in a wind without cover.  Naked convertible car or motorcycle needs 80F. 

Bob

[eyesup]

I do wonder sometimes if I drink enough water in hot weather. On my more memorable nude hikes, I don't recall doing much perspiring, and most of the time it has been very humid.

If you dig into this forum far enough, you will eventually run across comments from Jbee and myself regarding water and hydration. We both live in deserts, Jbee – the Sonoran, and Me – the Mojave. I live near Las Vegas which gets an average rainfall of about 4.25” per year. Jbee, I believe, is near Tucson which gets an average of 11.5” per year. The Sonoran is hotter than the Mojave but gets more rain.

In 1986, when I moved here, the humidity averaged around 4%. It has slowly increased due to over development and the use of pools and irrigation of landscapes, but is still lower than most folks are accustomed to, in the low teens. I was out in the desert on an astronomy event one Saturday evening in 1987 when I suddenly became very lightheaded. The people in the club that had lived here the longest immediately asked if I had been drinking water. I had not. I wasn’t in the habit of constantly sipping water. That was my 1st and only brush with de-hydration. It was enough to get my attention.

The fact you don’t remember perspiring is due to your not wearing clothes not that you aren’t perspiring. If you are like me, I don’t drip sweat, it evaporates too fast to notice. There are no clothes to absorb the sweat. You are always perspiring. The rate just fluctuates. The less humid it is the less you notice that. When it’s dry enough here, I don’t notice that I’m sweating even if I am wearing clothes. That’s what got me in a dangerous spot on my astronomy outing. I had moved from Houston, avg. rainfall of 50” and avg. humidity of 75%. Big change.

The easiest way to monitor your hydration is to keep an eye on the color of your pee. Clearer, hydrated. Darker, dehydrated. Adjust as required. YMMV.

Duane (the other desert rat)

[eyesup]

I’ve gone naked hiking in 40° F. Even if it’s early morning, with no clouds or wind it is very comfortable once I get moving and generate body heat. Once the sun is up it keeps me warm when I stop.

Cold, cloudy and windy is definitely not pleasant.

Duane

[JOhnGw]

The fact you don’t remember perspiring is due to your not wearing clothes not that you aren’t perspiring. If you are like me, I don’t drip sweat, it evaporates too fast to notice. There are no clothes to absorb the sweat.

[most of a good post snipped]

Duane (the other desert rat)

That explains why I don't get nagged so much about smelling sweaty when I've been naked all day.

[BlueTrain]

Sometimes I literally drip perspiration. Sometimes, like when mowing the lawn, I sweat faster than it evaporates, if it evaporates at all. It's usually way too humid to evaporate, even more so when there is no breeze. Up to a point, the perspiration keeps you cooler when it's hot. The point is when it runs into your eyes. This part of Virginia is supposedly sub-tropical. A friend who served in Vietnam (I went to Germany) said you were always wet. Not to get too technical but it's true that you're always perspiring. One kind is to keep your skin supple, the other to cool you off. In the winter, when it's below freezing, my skin dries out in places (back of my hands, mainly) and cracks open and I have to use lots of various kinds of skin ointments. They're all a little different but one works about as well as another.

[eyesup]

That explains why I don't get nagged so much about smelling sweaty when I've been naked all day.

Two excellent reasons for naked living, JOhn.
Not as much a need for deodorant, sunlight and wind allows our bodies to function naturally.
Less laundry to do, using less water and putting less phosphates into the environment.

Duane

[BlueTrain]

It's a closed system. You take water out of the ground or out of the river and when you're done using it, it goes back where it came from. So does everything else, including us. The laundry isn't hard to do. The machine does all the work.

I'd rather not smell natural.

[Greenbare Woods]

It's a closed system. You take water out of the ground or out of the river and when you're done using it, it goes back where it came from. So does everything else, including us. The laundry isn't hard to do. The machine does all the work.
I'd rather not smell natural.

The laundry takes a huge portion of fresh water in many cities, and fresh clean water is getting to be hard to find in many places. 

I'm not sure that a healthy natural smell is bad.  What is bad is unhealthy smells. 

Bob
 

[jbeegoode]

Here water is sparse, it comes from the ground, or is treated sewer water, or comes hundreds of miles (Central Arizona Project) to be put into the ground and then pumped out. Mine goes into a septic, which messes up the environment in many ways, and laundry pollutants are a bad thing. It doesn't leach that well. The stuff builds up.

Water is expensive. Laundry and showers are the prime users. I take my car to a car wash because water is not abundant. We have desert plants natural, not a fake environment. We live in a desert.

I used to live in Ft. Eustis, Newport News, Falls Church. My dad had to move the family because too much water in the environment was affecting his health. So, you see, two very different stories. We don't have a lawn to mow on Saturday morning, here.

It seems that the less that I do laundry, the more effort it seems to be. It eats time. If it eats time for no reason, like unnecessary clothing. A towel here and there, one outfit a week if ya gotta. It makes a big difference.

Smell? Human body smell is a wonderful wonderful thing that we are wired to respond to. It is just too much of that good thing that causes problems. I have two spots that gather smell when nude. I wash them and there is little or no smell. I sweat and scrape the rest and rinse with water. Some aroma therapy essences make some fun scents, but I prefer natural, generally.

I can mow a lawn, sweat, get sticky stuff on me, then rinse it off. Why wash clothes, too?
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Here water is sparse, it comes from the ground, or is treated sewer water, or comes hundreds of miles (Central Arizona Project) to be put into the ground and then pumped out. Mine goes into a septic, which messes up the environment in many ways, and laundry pollutants are a bad thing. It doesn't leach that well. The stuff builds up.

Water is expensive. Laundry and showers are the prime users. I take my car to a car wash because water is not abundant. We have desert plants natural, not a fake environment. We live in a desert.

Flushing toilets is another big water waster.   If people would pee on their yard or garden it would save billions of gallons that cities have to provide.  And, its a boon for their plants.

Smell? Human body smell is a wonderful wonderful thing that we are wired to respond to. It is just too much of that good thing that causes problems. I have two spots that gather smell when nude. I wash them and there is little or no smell. I sweat and scrape the rest and rinse with water. Some aroma therapy essences make some fun scents, but I prefer natural, generally.

I can mow a lawn, sweat, get sticky stuff on me, then rinse it off. Why wash clothes, too?
Jbee

Over washing is unhealthy.  Our overly sterile western culture is a big cause of rapidly increasing civilization diseases from autism to alzheimer's, and many others.   A quick water rinse ever two or three days is more healthy than a soap wash every day.  Clothes trap body odors and make us offensive in smell and other ways. 

Bob