PHOTO BY LISA RAY

As a magazine food editor, I celebrate Ice Cream for Breakfast Day every Feb. 1. This year’s morning brain freeze was followed by an Ice Bath & Beer Day bash at Allegheny City Brewing on the North Side.

I despise being cold (just ask the raggedy skull cardigan I wear every day). Hell must’ve frozen over because Pittsburgh TubClub founders Tyler Butler and Eric Tenpas convinced me to spend a Saturday afternoon submerged in 100 gallons of ice water … in the middle of winter … in public.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Insane? Indeed. Yet strangely invigorating!

Emboldened by a pint of beer, guided breathwork, a 25-minute sauna bonding session with fellow TubClubbers and my “Chiller Theater” T-shirt, I sat “on the rocks” for 5½ minutes. Butler had to tell me to get out because I had gone beyond the recommended limit. I’m now looking into a career as a professional cocktail garnish.

If, like me, you’re a perimenopausal woman who has a hot flash every five freakin’ seconds, ice baths are the new “Calgon, take me away.”

Long-time TubClub member Lisa Ray, owner of Hammajack Heat Co. and organizer of the inaugural Pittsburgh’s River of Fire Hot Sauce Festival, graciously filmed my self-inflicted deep freeze and gave me the confidence boost I needed. It also warmed my heart to know that Kilimanjaro Flavour, a Tanzanian food truck named after a volcano, was parked out back ready to dish out hot eats.

When I emerged from the frigid depths like the Kraken, onlookers, including passersby on East Ohio Street, cheered. With my mind clear and my skin refreshed, I stood by the firepit and drank an Easy Ryeder Rye Lager, the song “Born to be Wild” blaring in my head.

For the record, my mom does not approve of me taking ice baths at breweries.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

If goosebumps and beer aren’t your thing, Butler and Tenpas host regular yoga, sauna, and ice bath sessions at TubClub’s headquarters — an inactive funeral home in Spring Hill. I own a skull cardigan and Chilly Billy T-shirt, so this is right up my dark alley!

Hopefully, icy yinz guys there!