Outdoor Summer Health Tips
Summer heat is here and we have some health safety tips for you!
1. Hydrate
You may hear it all the time but you need to drink water! Half your body weight in ounces is a great place to start. If you weigh 100 pounds, drink at least 50 ounces of water every day. Then, if you are outside, drink a little more. If you are doing manually labor in direct sunlight, drink even more. Need something slightly more than just water to get you started? Check out our line of JuicePlus+ products! They are great for adults and kids.
2. Wear Sunscreen
We know. One more thing to do before going outside. But it beats getting cancer 20 years down the road. Anything with SPF 30 or above is great! Get behind those ears and on the backs of the knees. Don’t forget to get chapstick with SPF in it as well. We can’t stand chapped lips. If you have very fair skin, there are even clothes at outdoor stores like Cabella’s that sell clothes with SPF in them. It might be a good idea to look into that if you are in the sun for hours at a time.
3. Protect Your Eyes
We all might forget about this one. Wearing sunglasses that protect your eyes is very important. The sunrays can react havoc on our corneas and can cause eye problems later in life. We recommend getting polarized sunglass that fit the sides of your eyes too to prevent direct sun rays from going into the sides of your eyes. Other ways to protect your eyes include:
- Wearing hats like baseball hats, cowboy hats with brims, and gardening hats
- Taking eye breaks from the sun just like you do with your computer
- Eating foods high in vitamin K
4. Check Yourself For Ticks
Is that a freckle or a tick? Good questions. If you are outside, particularly in wooded areas, please make sure to check yourself all over to make sure you don’t have any critters finding homes in your skin.
5. Limit Sugary Food Consumption
This might be a new one you haven’t heard before but limiting your sugary food consumption in the summer can be a big benefit of beating summer heat. Sugary foods, particularly simple sugar foods, cause us to be hungrier, heavier, and some times cause us to become cranky. When we have excess amounts of sugar on our bodies we don’t want to move causing us to be lazier then normal. We might not go get up to go get a fresh glass of water and instead ignore our body telling us we are becoming dehydrated. Sugar also makes us hungrier in the end making us want to eat more which ultimately weighs us down. Who wants to be weighed down in the summer? So try to avoid high sugar foods and drinks like baked goods, pastas, sodas, and the big gulp drinks. Need a little more help with sugar? Consider joining our Whole30 online course that will teach you all about eating healthy.