We all love the feeling of walking ON sunshine but it turns out that walking IN sunshine is really what matters.

According to a study on sunshine and health presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2012, there is a link between sunlight exposure and stroke.

That’s right.

A University of Alabama study looked at 16,000 adults over five years and used software developed by NASA to calculate each participant’s monthly sun exposure, taking into account things like cloud cover and smog at each participant’s latitude and longitude.

The conclusion?

After taking all other stroke risk factors into account, the people living in locations with less than average sun exposure had a 60% higher risk of stroke!

Now I’m not campaigning for everyone to pack their bags and head out here to the Golden State with me.

But a conversation with your doctor about your Vitamin D levels on your next visit might be a good idea. After all, Vitamin D levels are affected by your exposure to sunlight, are often low in adults and have been associated in various studies to heart and blood vessel health.

And for this important dialogue about the importance of walking IN sunshine, you may want to dress AS walking sunshine in this vintage 1970s set by Christian Dior Pret-a-Porter.

The two separate pieces will serve double duty all summer long as you pair the bright top with shorts and the flouncy skirt with tees or dazzle’em by wearing the set together.

It’s a sunny fashion find for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Bustown Modern.

(To receive the VPOD via email along with detailed size, price and purchase information, sign up for my growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time. | Source: Reallyworks.org)

While all my friends were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year, I was attending a movement workshop with the renowned Jean-Louis Rodrigue. You’ve heard me mention Jean-Louis before. He’s a genius “movement coach to the stars” but in this particular class he was working with a group of public speakers like myself.

We did plenty of exercises to reconnect with our bodies (anybody else out there always in your head?). Then we had an opportunity to apply what we learned up on stage.

While coaching speakers on that stage, Jean-Louis used two catchphrases that have stayed with me and that I’ve been coming back to again and again since I left the workshop. I wanted to share both of them with you because I believe they can be helpful even if you NEVER get up on a stage.

(Today, in Part I, I’ll share the first expression and on Wednesday, in Part II, I’ll share the second.)

First, IMAX IT.

When a speaker was on stage making small gestures to illustrate her point, Jean-Louis suggested that she think of an IMAX screen. It stretches from floor to ceiling and from one end of the theater to the other. It takes up the ENTIRE space on the theater wall. And he wanted her to the same thing on stage. He wanted her to fill up the entire stage with her body.

“IMAX it!” he said.

How I love this expression!

Because how many of us play small in our daily lives?

We think small, we feel small, we act small, we do small things.

Some part of us feels big, grand, and extraordinary but that part somehow gets lost between here and there while we’re spending time on mundane tasks, caught in traffic, or doing another load of laundry.

But what if, just like a speaker or performer on stage, you IMAX-ed yourself in one area of your daily life?

What if you dug as deep and reached as high and stretched as far as you could in just this one area?

For instance, what if you IMAX-ed your diet? Or what if you IMAX-ed your relationship with your surly teenager? Or what if you IMAX-ed that nagging pull you’ve had recently to learn graphic design?

Imagine what might happen.

Jean-Louis helped me realize that, as a speaker on stage, I have to constantly remind myself to IMAX it and make bigger, grander gestures. But certainly the world needs all of us, me included, to IMAX it off the stage, too, by making bigger, grander gestures to our fellow man.

Not only do we need to IMAX our own lives, but we should constantly be looking for ways to IMAX the lives of others as well.

Then when all that’s taken care of, you may even want to IMAX your fashion. This spring you can do that by selecting a bigger, grander statement necklace like today’s VPOD, a vintage 1970s copper beauty.

It’s a real IMAX fashion find for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Nomade Exquis.

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Sure it can be hard to keep a secret, but our computer passwords are secrets worth keeping.

When I used to audit companies back in the day, I was always surprised to see how many people kept their passwords posted at their desks or taped inside their top drawers or written on index cards that were tucked underneath their desk blotters.

I always thought these folks were playing with fire and I swore I would NEVER make that mistake. Still, in the last year, I’ve been the victim of cyber-crime not once, but twice.

First, imagine my surprise when I was showing my parents Zuburbia.com for the first time and discovered that every catalog page was displaying Google Ads! Some enterprising crook had somehow hacked in to my site and placed very unattractive Google ads on all the e-commerce pages so he could pocket pennies and dimes from the clickthroughs.

Then a few months ago my server company contacted me because I was exceeding my file capacity. A little investigation quickly revealed that all those files didn’t belong to me. They belonged to some other company who had hacked in and parked them on my server thinking I wouldn’t notice.

As you can imagine, I’ve since become much more savvy about my computer passwords.

Here are a few tricky tips I’ve implemented to create more secure passwords that you might also find helpful:

* Since you shouldn’t use personal information or easily obtained data for your passwords (like names of family members, pets, license plate numbers, etc.) try using a mnemonic itstead. The password Mhall is easy to remember since it’s the first letter of each word in the phrase Mary had a little lamb.

* To make your password even more secure, be sure to include a few capital letters so Mhall becomes MhAlL.

* Then, since this password is still too short for some sites, tack on a numerical extension or integrate numbers within the password itself. MhAlL could become 8MhAlL4 or MhAlL84.

* Since you should change your passwords frequently but NOT write them down, it’s helpful to use a consistent naming convention. For instance, next month I might change my password to FfOsRtS84 or 8FfOsRtS4 (for Fashion fades only style remains the same).

Of course, we don’t just need to protect our internet assets like unauthorized access to our Facebook pages or online checking accounts.

Remember I told you recently about my neighbors’ break-in on January 30?

Well they were dismayed to discover that the wedding ring that was stolen wouldn’t be covered by their insurance because it exceeded the $1,000 limit for jewelry on their Renters Policy.

Should you be the lucky recipient of a glitzy Valentine’s Day gift like today’s VPOD, a pair of gorgeous ruby and seed pearl dangle earrings from the 1970s, be sure to thank the gift-giver and then call your insurance agent pronto to make sure they’ll be protected from loss or theft.

These are just smart moves to protect the assets of Vintage Crusaders!

Available at Beladora.

(To receive the VPOD via email along with detailed size, price and purchase information, sign up for my growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

Going, Going, GONE!

CLICK IMAGE TO GO TO EBAY AUCTION

(Auctions all end within the next 5 days.)

Vintage 1970s Lace Mini Dress (hellhoundvintageclothing) | Vintage Hattie Carnegie Elephant Brooch (vtg_treasure_hunters) | Vintage 1950s Beaded Sweater (paris.vintage) | Vintage 1960s Fringe Cropped Pants (thriftwares) | Vintage 1950s Ostrich Handbag (badger201143) | Vintage 1970s Icelandic Wool Sweater Coat (ttlg2quit) | Vintage 1950s Rhinestone Belt (badger201143) | Vintage 1950s Silk Dress (weatitsatvintage) | Vintage 1950s Lace Cocktail Dress (peeweekatz) | Vintage Italian Figural Tomato Purse (just-a-dab) | Vintage 1950s Romper (nhal6856) | Vintage 1960s Malcolm Starr Evening Gown (divinefinds) | Antique Petit Point Purse (2c2bid) | Vintage 1950s Brocade Evening Coat (thriftwares) | Vintage 1970s Trifari Lucite Necklace (sugapea) | Vintage 1970s Tooled Leather Handbag (vintage317) | Vintage Trifari Matsumoto Lucite Bracelet (getreadygo2) | Vintage 1940s Crochet Clutch (stencilwoman) | Vintage 1970s Alfred Shaheen Jumpsuit (thekissingtreevintage) | Vintage 1960s Leather and Brass Belt (beltsandbling) | (Disclosure: Editorial selections are made by Zuburbia without direct promotional consideration from Bay sellers. Zuburbia is an affiliate member of the eBay Partner Network).

PLEASE NOTE that Zuburbia does not endorse the use of fur, feathers, leather or animal skins in fashion. These selections are offered only as more thoughtful and eco-friendly alternatives for contemporary fashionistas who have not yet eliminated animal products from their wardrobes.

(To receive Going, Going, GONE or any of Zuburbia’s other Vintage Roundups for FREE via email, sign up here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with Ugg Australia hammering them with questions about where they source their sheepskins and what standards they have in place for the ethical treatment of animals.

Why?

Because a dear, dear friend gave me a pair of Ugg boots for Christmas.

Yep, Uggs. Made from sheepskin. And as you all know by now, I don’t wear fur.

Since my friend knows I don’t wear fur, what was he thinking?

Well, being a guy, I think he knows that Uggs are a part of LA culture and, as an Ugg-lover himself (he literally wore out a pair of their slippers) he knows that even I can’t deny that they are comfy and cozy.

Plus he insisted that wearing Uggs is no different than wearing leather. Hmmm. Really?

I wanted to keep them — even if I only plan to wear them at home — but could I live with myself if I did?

If you’re gonna talk the talk then you better walk the walk, right?

So I Googled and sorted through the unsubstantiated and confusing claims about Uggs on the web until I found articles by respected journalists including the Wall Street Journal. I reached out to the company itself and to its American distributor to clarify and confirm what I needed to know to feel okay about wearing their product. I even digested an article about how kundalini yogis use sheepskins to enhance their meditation practices. Yes, yogis.

And it turns out my friend was right. If you wear leather, wearing a pair of Uggs is no different.

The sheepskins used to make Ugg boots are a by-product of the food industry. Just like leather.

Still, I try very, very hard to only buy vintage leather, so does this mean I should refuse this gift from my dear friend?

I must confess that I struggle so hard with this animal products in fashion issue. I’m a vegetarian, not a vegan, and there’s still an ongoing war that goes on inside of me because of that.

The intelligent, rational, evolved side of my brain says we don’t need animal products in our lives today. But there is something buried in my DNA that sees them and remembers how an animal hide kept my Cro-magnon sister from freezing. How learning to fashion and use tools and gadgets and products from animals fostered our evolution.

So while I hate that Hermes raises crocodiles to make handbags, I hate even more that seeing their craftsmanship makes me swoon. In a survival-of-the-fittest way, I’m proud to be part of the species that survived to fashion these items and yet I despise that my species still fashions these items in the 20th century and that some deep part of me can still view them as beautiful or useful.

So I struggle with whether to feature any more fur, feather, leather, snakeskin, alligator, crocodile, sharkskin, suede or coral items here at Zuburbia. And I wonder where to draw the line. I mean, according to PETA, 3,000 silk worms die to make a pound of silk, too. Cashmere production is creating major environmental problems.

If you look at the Buddhist idea of ahimsa (non-harm) does it mean we should give more weight to animals than to the good of the planet? Shouldn’t our overall footprint count more than each individual step? And what’s better? To purchase a new leather or vintage handbag today that will last another decade or a vegan version from a discount store that will far apart in six months?

What I learned from this Ugg experience is that these types of ethical dilemmas are very personal and very, very complicated. And while I believe that it’s fine to share our stories and our thinking, as I’m doing here, I don’t believe it’s right for me, or any of us, to judge anyone else for their personal choices. The more I learn the more I realize that moral, green, ethical decisions almost always involve some sort of trade-off and there usually isn’t one single answer that’s best for everyone.

That’s why each of us needs to honestly assess where we are in our individual personal development right now and make the choice that feels right for us right now. And if we want to change our choices in the future, we can. And we certainly will as our awareness and consciousness grows. As Oprah says, when you know better you do better.

And part of knowing better is actually knowing better. So I encourage everyone to reach out as I did and learn what you need to learn to make the best decisions for you. Get educated. Seek out answers to your questions. Then reconcile all the competing issues and voices and reach for that place of deep knowing in yourself that will tell you exactly what is right and best for you and your life now.

That’s why I’m going to accept my friend’s gift and will take a moment to pause, remember the sheep who have provided me this warmth and send out blessings to animals everywhere whenever I slip them on.

And that’s why (at least for now) I’ll continue to feature items like today’s VPOD, a rad pair of c. 1970 Edouard Jerrold suede boots.

Because any thoughtful, conscious fashion choice is the right choice for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at ilovetrash.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)