These hot days of summer...

Hi Everyone!

I first want to send out my apologies for my little blog hiatus I have been on the last few weeks. This is turning out to be one crazy busy year, complete with a new job and event after event to plan for our wedding in November.

121 days to go...

I hope everyone is keeping cool in these last few heat wave days, but I wanted to share some tips with you to keep cool while staying green this summer:

1. Whether you have an air conditioner or not, try and keep your blinds and curtains closed during those peak sun hours of the day. As the sun shines in through the windows it is making your air conditioners and fans work double time to keep your house cool. This will help with energy consumption in these vital times when the power grid is working extra hard risking wide spread outages. 

2. Try and stay indoors wherever possible, but if you have to go outside keep hydrated. Water is your best friend on heat waves like this. A new study has found that if you keep your palms cool it will help your body from over heating meanwhile delaying fatigue and improving performance during strenuous activities. What I always try and do is have a nice cold ice filled water bottle with me, that way I am carrying in my palms to keep my body cool and I have cold water at my fingertips to stay hydrated. 

3. For those of you that don't like to drink a lot of water, how about a refreshing alternative to keep you cool. With my training well under way for Tough Mudder in a couple weeks, I am trying to keep those unnecessary sugars out of my diet without losing flavour. This is so easily done by just flavouring water and no I don't mean using a powdered drink mix. Try reading the ingredients list on one of those and see if you recognize anything. 

I was thinking the more natural way. So here is the recipe for our latest creation:

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of fresh basil chopped

1/4 cup of lemon juice or juice of one lemon

6-10 slices of cucumber

1/4 cup of blueberries or raspberries

Directions: 

Combine all ingredients in a one litre container with cold water. If you need some sugar to sweeten it, add agave nectar. 

Stay cool this summer!