windcalling:
roachpatrol:
so you guys are facing down yet another global warming summer and as an american i feel entitled to barge over and give you a lot of advice about how to live your life. also i’m used to surviving 90-110 degree summers (32—43 celsius) with no ac. so here we go.
- you need to drink a lot of water. on average you should be drinking about two liters. on hot days, double that.
- fill plastic water bottles halfway up and stick them in your freezer. take them out once they’ve frozen and fill the rest up with water, drink the water, fill it up again, and carry it around with you until it’s time to get the next ice bottle. also you can put the icy end against your throat or over your chest for maximum refreshment.
- consider making a lot of sun tea. get big glass jars or a pitcher. put a bunch of your preferred teabags in it with some sugar. if you want to be an american southerner, your tea should be green or black and your sugar amount should be enough to kill a child. if you want to be sane, put in as little sugar as you can get away with so it’s not dehydrating, and stick with herbal teas because the last thing you want during the heat of the day is a caffeine boost. leave your tea on a windowsill. after a few hours it’s steeped and you can put it in the fridge. tadaaa.
- fruit juice, soda pop, beer, and a lot of sports drinks like gatorade all dehydrate you, and in really hot weather they’re dangerous because people will drink them instead of water. drink an equal amount of water as anything with sugar. see prior point about sun tea.
- when you sweat you lose salt. so don’t feel bad about eating some junk food.
- freeze grapes. eat the grapes. repeat.
- get a hat with a brim. baseball caps are ok but wide brimmed hats are better because they shadow the back of your neck and that’s one less thing to have to worry about.
- don’t wear knit caps. just… no.
- you don’t get more sunburned because it’s hot, you get more sunburned because when it’s hot you wear less clothes. so don’t freak out.
- if you don’t have AC you can put a bowl of ice behind a fan. this creates a swamp cooler, by pulling the air over the ice. also, put on a wet t-shirt and sit in front of it, and you’ll cool further by evaporation.
- speaking of evaporation, watch out if it’s humid. you don’t cool down from sweating as much when the air’s already saturated. drink more water, have more salt, and change your shirt a lot.
- heatstroke is serious shit, and kids and the elderly are prone to it. but whatever your age, if you feel nauseous, headachy, or short of breath, the heat’s getting to you. pour your water bottle over your head and go sit in the shade. keep an eye on friends and family as well.
- if someone stops sweating when they’re still out in the heat, that’s serious business and get them medical treatment as soon as possible. it’s a case of dehydration and/or heatstroke.
Other things that freeze really well, a short list:
- Orange juice! Other fruit juices too, but I tend to have best results with oj or cider. Pour some into an empty ice-cube tray, let them freeze, and the result is slightly-flaky frozen goodness. This is also an easy way to make homemade popsicles–put a sheet of aluminum foil over top of the tray and stick toothpick/popsicle sticks in so the juice freezes around them.
- Grapes were mentioned. Grapes are TRUE.
- NOT SODAS. Do not freeze sodas! They explode.
- Strawberries! These can be hard to find cheap, especially outside of strawberry season, and I don’t know about their availability outside of my part of the US, but if you can get them they’re great frozen in your water. Freeze-dry strawberries by laying them out on a tray or sth in the freezer, and then when they’re frozen just put them in a bag to conserve space.
Other general tips:
- Fruit in water is amazing when you’re someone like me who doesn’t like water’s lack of taste. Strawberries and mint leaves are fairly traditional, but basically anything you like will work. there are lots of combos online.
- If you have a blender or a food processor, smoothies are a good way to eat something when you’re too hot to function. Fruit+ice+milk+yogurt is pretty traditional.
- Have sunscreen. Make sure you don’t have any skin reactions to the sunscreen. If your sunscreen has fragrance, make sure you can deal with the fragrance when it’s constantly on your face in heat.
- Speaking off: sunscreen is not just for arms/shoulders. Put sunscreen on your face, especially nose/cheekbones/forehead. Put sunscreen on the tops of your ears! If your hair has a tight part, try to put sunscreen there if you don’t wear a hat (scalp burns are PAINFUL). Put sunscreen on your legs, especially the backs of your calves. Put sunscreen on any visible parts of your feet.
- Wear loose clothing if you can, especially if you’re wearing long sleeves. Any constrictions on your breathing feel much worse in the heat.
If you need to cool down quick, run cold water over your wrists (or put ice cubes on them maybe?). This is a trick they taught us in gymnastics class but it works just as well on hot days.
When you start getting that feeling like you’ve adapted to the heat, like it’s not bad, like you could just stay where you are for hours and hours, even get a blanket, and maybe you feel like you’re zoning out a little, it’s time to reconsider, move around, have something cool to drink.
And it can be hard to remember to eat when it’s so hot, for some reason. Cold food in small portions is generally easiest to manage. But remember to eat food with a lot of salt, a lot of potassium, a lot of vitamins. I can’t believe bananas aren’t on this post. My god, get your potassium, you’ll feel SO much better. If you’re eating something salty and it tastes unusually, amazingly good, it’s because you’re running low on salt, so keep eating it.
and seriously yeah keep an eye on people like kids and the elderly and anyone who’s under your care. ask them how they’re feeling if they’re able to tell you, and if not, try to see if they’re looking unusually unfocused, breathing too hard, haven’t had anything to drink in a while, etc.
If you bind, be even more careful about how long you bind and pay even more attention to your binder’s effects on your body.
sometimes there’s nothing else for it but to just fill a bathtub with cool water and get in. Seriously, it can be so helpful. Also, showers. Showers are good.
also take care of your dogs I don’t know anything about dogs but be careful for them! maybe look up some tips.
also could anyone who even thinks about reblogging this from me to make fun of brits, pls stop?? when it gets hot here it’s kind of awful bc A/C is rare and they’re really not used to this kind of heat. if you add any sort of teasing if u reblog this for me i will find u and push you
