Tuesday Tipday: How To Stay Cool

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How To Stay Cool Outside When You'd Rather Be Riding Someone's A/C Unit

Now that we've had our unofficial start to summer it's time to consider summer's greatest challenge: enjoying our days without passing out from heat exhaustion.

I know what you're thinking, I've never gotten heat exhaustion, why would it hit me now. To that I say, you never know, friend. You just. Never. Know.

1) Nighttime is the right time: For that matter, so is the early morning. If you really must be outside, leave the comfort of your air conditioner as early or late as possible. Mornings around 5 or 6 am tend to be the coolest. An 102 degree night will still be unpleasant, but at least the blasted sun won't be slapping the shit out of you at the same time. This is why I'll spend the next few months watering and weeding my garden at increasing late hours. Citygirl ain't no fool.

2) You + Water = BFF: Even if you're not working outside (Hello, road crews!) you still need to stay hydrated. Unless you keep cool by panting like a dog, ingestible liquids are your best friend. Fill up a huge travel mug or thermos with ice and water, put it in the freezer a few minutes before take off and sip throughout your travels. Tired of water? Add lemon,limes or cucumber. Slip inside someplace cool and have a soda, Slurpee or Frosty. Just don't let yourself dry out. That's when things get dangerous.

3) Your car is an oven; don't stand for it: I don't have A/C in my car anymore. The single most important thing I've learned to do (other than bringing a frosty beverage)? Roll the windows down the morning I'm going somewhere. This will help even if you are blissfully supplied with cool, cool forced air to your vehicle. Letting air flow through your car will keep it cooler. Just roll the windows up and turn on the air when you're ready to roll. If you just can't bear the idea of leaving your unattended car with the windows open, I just read a cool tip on Lifehacker for getting the hot air outquickly.

4) The world is an oven; baste accordingly: I'm not talking about sunscreen, although applying a cooling one about 30 minutes before you head into the sun could certainly help. I'm talking about your choice of clothing. Please, for your own good, wear the lightest possible clothes you can. Light in weight and light in color. I've got some white linen pants that save my life every summer. And, don't be afraid to carry your own shade with you. Men! Get a lightly colored umbrella. Women! You have many parasol choices. Both! Wear an open weave hat already.

5) Stay out of the sun; that is all: If you don't know by now, keep to the shade and shadows when walking around on a hellishly hot day. I go out of my way on a regular basis to stay away from direct sunlight. This includes staying in the house when it's too hot for my delicate sensibilities. Whatever works, people!

There, now you're fully prepared for the summer. I'm going to continue sitting inside my A/C filled house. How about you?

A Nice Thought

Cough Drop Pep Talk

I told you that I've been sick for a couple of weeks. As part of my convalescence, I downed a couple of Halls per day to keep the cough monster at bay. Last week I noticed that the wrapper on my drops was covered in positive slogans.

Inspire envy.
Be unstoppable.
Conquer today.
Dust off and get up.

Sure, this is all nice stuff to hear that could perk you up on an average day. But, it still seems a bit odd. Are we so hell bent on ambition that we can't be left to illness in peace? Or, are we so filled with in-adequateness anxiety that we need constant pep talks, even from our cough drops? Do we really need constant reassurance?

Isn't there something to be said for not being forced positive thoughts when we're sick? Sometimes you need to curl up with a box of tissues, a well-lined trash can, your comfiest p.j.'s and blanket, a stack of magazines and the best bad T.V. show you can find. Sometimes you need to sleep all day and have fever dreams and let your mind wander and not be able to tell those dreams from the real stuff happening around you.

I love a good pep talk as much as anyone, but illness is human and natural. So are bad days, lazy days and blah feelings. I'm not offended by the cough drop pep talks, I just find it to be a bit much.

What do you guys think? Is the Cough Drop Pep Talk needed or an unnecessary bridge too far?

Tuesday Tipday: Losing Weight The Easier Way

Alright, I'm no more of an expert than your average always-thinking-about-losing-a-few-pounds person, but I have hit on a bit of a breakthrough. I think I may have gotten rid of my food guilt. Let me explain.

Last Thursday I ate like a pig. It may have been the period hormones, or maybe I was just feeling lazy and let my guard down, but either way I lost it. I spent the day filling my face with pizza, mixed nuts, trail mix, peanut butter, chips...I. Went. To. Town.

Now, I've been using a program on my smart phone, My Fitness Pal, to track what I eat since I got the phone in July. At the end of the day when I saw that I'd gone way over every dietary limit I'd set for myself, do you know what happened? Nothing. Not only was there not an ounce of guilt or beating myself up or internal bad-mouthing, but I actually remember looking at the numbers and thinking Wow, I don't feel bad about that at all.

And, before you go telling me I'm setting a bad example, you should know that I was back to normal the next day. It was fascinating. There was no crying or begging God to help me lose weight or binging-because-I-screwed-up-Thursday-so-I-might-as-well-say-fuck-it-and-give-up. I remained calm and did what I needed to do. Suddenly, I was free.



You can be free, too. Though I admit that I'm not sure how I beat the cycle* I think it mostly involves not putting all my focus on food, weight loss, exercise or diets.

I now weigh 234, which I know would just kill a lot of people. But, it's much better than 254, so I'm ok with it until I lose even more weight (Or even, really, if I don't). My ultimate goal is to get at or just under 200. I realize that still sounds like a lot, but I wear a very comfortable size 14/16 at that weight and feel quite light.

Here's what I think has helped me:

1) Track that food. I know it sounds boring, but you'd be amazed how much it helps to see exactly what you're eating and what kind of calories/fat/sodium/vitamins/etc. you're taking in. Instead of making me obsessed with the numbers, it's just made me more informed. And information feels good.

2) It's all exercise. We need to stop only thinking in terms of running five miles or spending hours at the gym. Clean your house, walk in place while you watch your favorite TV show, garden, do squats when you're brushing your teeth, park as far away from the store as possible so you have to walk more...It's all exercise. Every step is better than no steps.

Get a good pedometer and keep track. They say 10,000 steps should be the goal, but even when I do a good amount of walking the most I usually muster is a bit over 6,000. That's better than 0, so I'm cool with it.



3) Stop being afraid. You will have good days and bad, stop letting the threat of less than healthy days scare the holy bejesus outta you. Food is not the enemy, we need it to live. It's fear that keeps us trapped in these odd food patterns that make us do stuff we know we shouldn't on a regular basis.

I used to read a lot of Geneen Roth back in the day when I was trying to figure out how to stop binging. One of the things she says is to buy all the stuff you're not allowing yourself to have and let yourself enjoy those foods. Eventually, you won't feel like you need to have gobs of them any more. I think this is what's happened to me with fast food. We've had so much of it in the past two and a half months that I can't really stand the idea of burgers/fries/onion rings/fried chicken now.

4) Pay attention. I haven't had seconds in months. I used to have the hardest time stopping when I was full. There were times where I'd actually eat until I felt like I was going to throw up because I'd eaten so much I'd made myself sick. The whys behind that are many, to be sure, but the important thing is to eat slowly enough to realize when you've had enough and stop. It might not be easy, but it's a major factor in enjoying what you eat.



5) Smaller portions made easy. If you're not getting the hang of #4, try forcing yourself to eat less by using smaller plates. This will trick you into thinking you're eating a full plate, when it's really not.

6) Stop demonizing certain foods. Barring anything you're actually allergic to or not allowed to have for health reasons, you should be able to eat whatever you want, whenever you want as long as you pay attention to your body and stop eating when you get full. Chocolate frosting by the spoonful? Ok. Pie and ice cream? Yes. Pizza with everything? Why not. Stop when you get that tightness in your tummy and you'll be alright.

7) Dear God, think about something else! It's possible that because so much of my mental space in the past couple of years has been taken up with family deaths, money problems and joblessness that I was able to think about losing weight without letting it take over my every thought process and that that was what allowed me to actually lose weight.

I'm not suggesting you stress out to lose a few pounds, but I am suggesting that you get in the habit of doing things you enjoy and talking to people you have fun with about non-dietary stuff. Don't let this take over your life. Remember, you are more than a dress size! Especially if you're taking all the right steps.



*You know how it goes: you eat too much of the supposed wrong thing then punish yourself by skipping meals and next thing you know, you're binging on giant bagels because you haven't allowed yourself a single thing to eat all day. Then you punish and binge and punish and binge into infinity. Blah, right?