I came up with a theory for why 'the hottest day of the year so far' didn't seem so hot to me yesterday. First off, let me clarify. In April and May when the temps were in the high 90's to low 100's I was DYING from the heat. I've not lost much weight, if any, since then, yet it's hotter now than it was then and I felt rather comfortable while everyone else was sweltering ... so what's the scientific explanation for that? Now I am normally the FIRST person to bitch about the heat. I've never, ever done well with it despite the fact that I prefer it and that I've lived in a desert almost my entire life. I look forward to summer and the heat but then I am usually one of the first people to get heat stroke once it arrives. But aside from a brief and drastic blood sugar drop when I was trimming hedges last week, I've not had a single bout of heat stroke all year and I've been out in it quite a lot!
So, either my night sweats and hot flashes are just making summer heat seem like a walk in the park, or it has something to do with all the water I drink. Ok I'm sure option 3 is at least partly responsible, I weigh less this summer and, therefore, have less insulation ... but there's something more to it because skinnier people than I are still struggling with the heat this week.
Now, silly as it might sound, I'm starting to put some stock in my 'walking swamp cooler theory'. You 'back-Eastern-ers' might not know what a swamp cooler is so I'll give a brief explanation. It's an air conditioning unit popular in the west and the deep south that soaks filtration panels in constantly running water and then blows air over them. The water cools the air which is then pumped into the house. Ok, now back to my theory.
I've been out walking in the sun now for the last four days in a row and haven't even gotten a mild burn on my shoulders. Is it possible, that drinking a gallon + of water per day can actually make the heat seem less hot or make skin less likely to burn? Our bodies ARE what, like 80% water right? So if most people aren't getting nearly the amount of daily water that's recommended (they say minimum 8, 8oz glasses per-person per-day but they also say the ideal would be more like 1 gallon per-person per-day) then most people are probably walking around in a state of constant dehydration through most of their lives. I'm not talking, dying of thirst need a drink dehydrated, but subtle unaware dehydrated. Wouldn't it stand to reason that the slow, gradual dehydration that many American's subject themselves to would also make them more susceptible to the sun and heat?
Think about it this way, take a damp sponge and a saturated sponge and put them both out in the sun and see which one shrivels up and gets hard as a rock first. Put a half-full bottle of cold water and a totally full bottle of cold water in the sun and see which one gets hot first. I sweat, a lot, don't get me wrong ... maybe that's part of the cooling effect too since sweating is our human natural defense against heat (like dogs and panting) but I've always been 'a sweater' (haha, pull this thread as I walk away lol) and something is definitely different this year. Test my theory. Drink a gallon of water a day for three or four days and see if the heat doesn't seem just a little less hot to you. Let me know what you experienced!
Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 homemade chicken veggie wrap
>>w/o the tortilla
1 serving pasta figioli soup
1 serving stuffed shells
1 glass reisling
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,327
Activity:
Minimal walking at the dog park. Snackers and I decided to finally celebrate closing on the house. When we got the keys we dove straight into cleaning and painting and then moving and unpacking and, until tonight, we hadn't had a glass of wine/champagne and really toasted the closing. So we went to our favorite Sicilian / fine dining restaurant and indulged a little. Thankfully my calories for the rest of the day were low or the count would have been terrible. When we left we took the dogs to the dog park for the first time since the move but I was so full on pasta and three glasses of water that I could not muster the energy to walk much so I just kind of waddled around for a little while.
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