The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5 ways to beat the summer heat
As the temperature flutters around 90, we get a little nostalgic for winter’s freeze, for hot chocolate and cold toes on linoleum. Ah, and remember spring? Daffodils and open windows and wondering whether long sleeves would keep us warm enough on morning jogs?
OK. Time to wipe away those wistful smiles (as well as the sweat beads such an effort created) and face reality: It’s hot.
Keeping your cool is no easy task in summer weather. For the sake of your mental health (as well as our own), we’ve cooked up a few ideas to get you started.
Eat something spicy
Perhaps better phrased: Don’t avoid spicy foods in the summer. Yes, they’ll make you sweat, but you’re sweating already. When all that sweat evaporates, you’re cooler.
“When you eat something spicy like a hot pepper, your blood vessels open to allow blood to flow more freely,” says Lona Sandon, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “You might feel flushed. What it does is bring body water from surface closest to skin. You might sweat a little more. Then
it evaporates off and helps the body to feel cool.”
The process may sound a bit counterproductive, but Sandon’s a big advocate of phytonutrients that make spicy foods spicy.
“Have at it,” she says. “Just carry a towel. And have a nice glass of water or lemonade. The best way to cool your body is to make sure you have enough fluid.”
Take a book around
Where does the temperature always seem sweater-over-your-shoulders comfy, the atmosphere cool and quiet? At the library, you can lose yourself in the shelves or connect with others who love reading.
Public library branches offer book clubs that meet various days and times. You can listen to what others have to say, as well as interject your own thoughts. You don’t even have to whisper.
Kick around an ice-cream idea
The members of Girl Scout Troop 1678 in Plano, Texas, are out of college now. Their leader, Patty Townsend, still recalls how much fun the troop had making coffee-can ice cream.
She shared the top-secret, can’t-find-anywhere-else-but-the-Internet recipe with us: Into a very clean one-pound coffee can, stir one cup each of milk and heavy cream; onehalf cup sugar; and one-half teaspoon vanilla. Add fruit, nuts or chocolate, if you’d like.
Put the lid on the can and seal with duct tape. Set the can into a three-pound coffee can. Pack ice around it. Pour at least 3/4 cup rock salt on top of the ice. Seal the can.
“The girls would stand in lines about 10 feet apart,” Townsend says. “They’d kick it back and forth and sing songs and giggle. It was a huge hit.”
After 30 or 40 minutes, unseal the various cans. Voila! Ice cream, three cold and creamy cups of the stuff. You’ve already had your workout, so indulge without (much) guilt.
Close your eyes and count to 10
Isn’t that what your mom told you to do when you get hot under the collar? We’ll take her thought a step further: Open them and count to diez. Or dix. Or zehn. What a fine time this would be to learn Spanish, French, German (we’re too hot to think of any more exotic ones). Or, if not to actually do homework, at least to sit in a cool classroom and listen to the rhythmic cadence of another language.
Make jokes
Not only will laughter take your mind off how miserably hot you are, it’s also (did you know this?) a good abs workout. With that in mind, we asked comedian Dave Little) for a bit of heat mirth. He dabbed cool compresses on his pulse points and offered this:
“The devil calls up his travel agent and says, ‘I’d like to go somewhere hot this summer.’ The travel agent says, ‘Have you ever been to Atlanta in July?’ The devil answers, ‘It’s a vacation, not work.’”