how to beat the heat

In summer, how do most of you deal with the heat, aside from turning on the fan or aircon and taking cold drinks and showers of course. How do you keep your cool, when even wearing a hat or taking an umbrella helps, but you still wish there was more you could do? For one, I just water the plants and wet the cement/garage about twice a day, and imagine the evaporation to contribute to some feeling of comfort.

Any other ideas or unique things you do?

You water the cement? Don't you have water restrictions over there? Even in "cold" Norway we can't waste our water on the concrete mid summer.

Thankfully, our "Help, it's way too hot!" isn't as hot as many parts of the world. So I just go for lots of cold mineral water,
and sometimes I soak a hat or t- shirt that I wear.

PS: This is something I've only read about and never tried:
Soaking a sheet in water and hanging in on the curtain rail at the open windows supposedly cools the air.

It gets hot out here too. Sometimes over 100 degrees F (38 celcius). If I'm too hot I take a towel, soak it in very cold water and then place it around my neck. It really works!

You can also put the towel in the freezer first if you want it to be really cold. I've done it before and its so cold it might even be too cold lol.

If it gets to the 80s in the Uk we melt.

Here is a good one if you have trouble sleeping.
Get a hot water bottle but fill it with chilled water and take it to bed with you.


Freeze those plastic ice packs you can buy, wrap a clothe around them so you don't
get freezer burn and use them to cool yourself down.

Watering the garden path outside definately helps, we don't often have water shortages
in this part of the world. If we do it only lasts a few weeks and we just get a hose pipe
ban or something like that.


Play with the neighbours kids on the pretence of being a good neighbour, when really
you just want to use their paddling pool.


If in a hot crowded place, start scratching and itching or something and people will
give you more space.


Run freezing cold water over your wrists.

lol, I'll have to remember those Miri

I over hydrate in the morning before going to work.

Something cold on the wrists. Loose clothing, light colors.

This next part may not be feasible for some people. Start eating more fruits and raw or lightly steamed veggies. Less fats, less cooked foods, less starches. Cooked food raises radiant body temperature. Studies show that people who have a lower ambient body temperature live longer. Animal foods are especially acidic and cause inflammation, which causes radiant body heat. They also take up to 6 hours to digest, as opposed to fruit, which takes about 20 minutes. The body uses energy for the process of digestion, which again generates heat. Also, most people will experience at least a little weight loss, or a percentage redistribution of fat cells as opposed to to cells that contribute to lean body weight. Having more lean body weight allows the body to cool off more efficiently. Eating lots of watermelon helps, and for those so inclined, it boosts libido too. Eating at least 50% to 60% raw foods will not only help you keep cool, but is also a great gift to your body, pre Christmas. Two for the price of one.

From my own experience it works; I know it works. When it was in the high 80's, to even the mid 90's, I would be comfortable, have energy, while most people were struggling, sometimes even running between 5 and 7 or 8 miles if I was training, or I just wanted to get out on the boardwalk and see the sights. And this was when I was in my mid to late forties, so I know it is not applicable to only younger people.

Temps hovering near 90, Florida is starting to bake. Going to be another hot one this summer. I drink lots of Gatorade and try to stay indoors in the afternoon with the A/C running. I used to look forward to hotter temperatures during my years in Maine but the summers there are short, overcast skies, and frequent rain. It would rarely even come close to 90. By mid August temps start to drop once again in preparation for another cold, windy, wet, dark winter. Very depressing. It is a wasteland. Bleak.

I hang out in the swimming pool and then run from the air conditioned car to the air conditioned buildings....

At night I have taken a wet washcloth and wiped off my face, back of my neck and arms to cool off and I have found a cooling lotion that I will apply to places like the back of my neck, inside wrists, behind my ears, forehead just to help keep me cool long enough to go to sleep. Have ceiling fans going in the summer to help keep air moving... Florida living got to love it.

Better save that bottle to pee in. The restrooms are getting very strange these days.

Temps barely got to 50 up here in PA. Dark and windy most of the day. Hard to find a happy medium.

Frost warning tonight.

But never the less, your will be done.
Hey Tourist, anyway you can say a pray for me about maybe leaving this winter wonder land in northern VT any sooner then around 2019? You can relate, having lived in Maine, and your a mature Christian, you must hear from Him. I am sure God has told me to stay about another three years or so, to help evangelized this den of agnostics and atheism inequity. But like Jonah, I don't want to be here. Just as I was getting set to start looking in other southern states, I hear God tell I need to stay a while longer. So of course I'll stay. But it's under protest...
But maybe you can put in a word?
Or at least ask Him if he can make the climate something closer to the Carolina's here while I am stuck here?

I will put in a good word for you, my friend. It has been my experience and observation that the older you get the more you appreciate a warmer climate. It's like I have told my wife about my experience and hardship in my years in Maine, I have served my time in hell.

I can't beat it I am defeated by the heat no matter what I do, last night I took a freezing cold shower because I woke up drenched in sweat even with fans blowing right on me and I made it as freezing cold as it can possibly get no heat and was cold enough make ice I bet lol jk but even so I wasn't in the least bit cold it felt wonderful but the second I got out my body heated up again I just cant win

Hello zeroturbulence
I was curious as to how long does the cold towel on your neck keep your temperature down after you remove the towel?
It sounds like a good Idea.I might try that out.

Thanks wwjd and everyone. I read the first replies yest., but was too busy trying t beat the heat hopefuly by buying some ice cream-). I had errands but missed to bring water bottle wc I knew should be in my bag. Since I had to walk a little in the sun too, by the time I got to the haus, I really really had to drink a pitcher and rest because I felt dehydrated.

Our cemented area isn't that big, and I do drip irrigation or recycle water from a basin for that most of the time. Besides just seeing wilting or scorched leaves will make u look again for the hose or dipper to help make things look and feel better, even the plants.

The children I sometimes see lingering in front of the ref when 'looking for something' wc I remember also doing as a child.

It lasts quite awhile. It depends on how cold the water is of course but if its cold enough it can last a good hour or so.

Good lord, Blain where are you? Near the equator?