Get Ready to Welcome the Hottest Days of the Year

It’s summertime folks, gear up for the heat and sweat that the season brings with it. However, it’s also holiday time and time to bask in the sun, play outdoor games and hit the pool. Sometimes, though, you’ll want to stay indoors and chill inside in the air-conditioned rooms. There are many ways to beat the heat this summer, and we give you a few tips.

First, we’ll have a look at things to do indoors to keep the heat down. The first thing you should do is to give your air conditioner a check-up. Clean or replace the filter in room and central air conditioners about once a month during the summer. If you have central air-conditioning, have the ducts checked for leaks. Whether the air conditioner is on or off, keep windows and doors shut if the temperature outside is more than 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Choosing the right clothing for the hot weather is also crucial to stay cool. Wear one of the widely available synthetic fabrics designed to wick away sweat and that sticky feeling (examples include Coolmax and Nano-Tex); they're not just for athletes anymore. If you prefer cotton, make it thin, light colored, and, most of all, loose. The best thing for the sweat to move quickly from your skin to clothing and then evaporate.  Give your shoes a skip, as the sweat on your feet evaporates, it cools the skin and the blood in your feet. Blood vessels then whisk that blood to other parts of the body, so you get a greater sensation of coolness.

To keep off, it’s important to have the right food. Spicing up your food with some chili peppers will release a chemical called capsaicin which helps the body to perspire readily. Salads, frozen fruits, smoothies, and fruits and vegetables rich in water like watermelon, cucumber etc., should be the mainstay of your food.

Outdoor activities like hitting a beach or the pool and playing water sports such as parasailing, jet skiing, sailboat rides, eco tours, banana boating, and much more will make your summer feel worthwhile. If you’re an avid reader, psychiatry says reading books like A Winter's Tale, The Call of the Wild, Doctor Zhivago, or Smilla's Sense of Snow can take your mind off the thermometer, evoking one's own experience of ice and snow. Visiting a beach at night has its own pleasure, it’s romantic to begin with, and holding hands tighlty, you can steal a kiss when nobody’s watching!