Hello and welcome to God’s Gym, the podcast where we consider how we can reach our full potential as human beings, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Jesus said he had come that we might have life in abundance, and we ask, what is abundant life and how can we live it?
I am Mark, and Army Chaplain and with me is Paul, an Army Scripture reader and today we are talking about how to keep cool. And not just street cred cool but actually cool. We have just seen some temperature records smashed in the UK and there is the promise of more to come.
The problem in the UK is our weather is so changeable and can be extreme hot and cold in the same year. So we are not always geared up to survive those extremes.
We moan all winter about the cold and wet but as soon as a heatwave comes, we moan that it's too hot. But, to be fair, it is too hot at the moment and with Global Warming the future is certainly more extreme. So today we want to get practical with some simple ways to cope with the hot weather:
1. Make a homemade air con unit
It cracks me up when Americans give us a hard time when we complain about the temperature and to be sure, when you live in a country that has Death Valley and Tropical swamps we cannot compare. But the UK does not have air conditioning in private accommodation! Although most public places in the UK have air conditioning, almost nobody has a system running in their own house. Part of the reason is that AC units are expensive, and there's no point in investing in one if it's going to sit unused for 11 months of the year.
However, you can make your own budget air-con by freezing a bottle of water and placing it in front of a fan.
Another thing about UK homes is fitted carpet. We love it but it does trap heat! I am not suggesting you rip that up either because again when the weather does turn and travels from Russia you will appreciate all the help you can get.
2. Wear light, loose clothing in a heatwave
You know dark colours absorb more heat than light colours! Well, the rule still applies indoors as well for some reason, you'll feel a lot cooler if you stick to light coloured garments.
'Light' is also the way to go in terms of fitting and material. Looser fitting t-shirts, shorts and dresses made out of cotton or linen will feel a lot airier than something that's tight and made of heavy denim or tweed! (no matter how good it may look).
3. Don't sleep naked
As tempting as it might be to strip off when your room feels like a sauna, sleeping naked is actually no good because clothes will draw the sweat off your body, keeping you from feeling sticky and muggy. Again, light baggy pyjamas or shorts might feel counter-intuitive, but it works!
4. Swap your duvet for a sheet
For the same reasons as above, get rid of your duvet and just sleep under the duvet cover instead or some light bedsheet! Again, sheets or duvet covers with superheroes on them are proven to be cooler than those with flowers or patterns on. Trust me. And when I say cooler I might not actually mean temperature but hey give it a go.
Oh and heat rises, so sleeping downstairs if you are in a two story house is a good idea!
5. Drink hot drinks and soup
First, we tell you that sleeping naked will make you warmer, and now we're saying hot drinks will cool you down. But science proves us right on this one.
Drinking a hot drink causes you to sweat so much that it outweighs the fact that the drink will initially raise your internal temperature slightly.
As your sweat evaporates, energy is also lost into the air as part of the reaction thus cooling the body. However, this only works when the humidity is low. If it's a humid day the whole thing a bit pointless.
Also, shift to decaffeinated drinks if you must, as caffeine dehydrates the body, and that's a bad move in any weather, let alone during a heatwave.
6. Open your windows and doors, close the curtains
Flooding your room with sunlight is all well and good – but remember the sun is like a giant microwave oven but with UV and infrared instead and that sunlight is heating everything up! So, by closing your curtains you're blocking off the infrared rays.
Your next step should be to open up your windows to allow the air in your home to circulate especially if there's a cool breeze outside.
Finally, to aid the airflow, keep the internal doors of your house open.
7. Soak a towel, t-shirt or sheet in cold water
If you watched the cycling on the Olympics, you may have noticed the riders stuffing frozen water bottles down their shirts and behind their necks.
Take a towel or a t-shirt, run it under some cold water. Wring it out to get rid of the excess water, and then either drape it over your shoulders or wear it as normal, or over your forehead. Bliss!
8. Put your clothes in the freezer
Whatever you're putting in the freezer, always make sure it's in a plastic bag or some kind of container – otherwise, it could absorb the smell of anything else that's in there but putting on cold pyjamas or a cold t-shirt will give a bit of relief. The other thing is using the ice blocks you freeze and put in cool boxes. You can refreeze these over and over but my children loved them during the recent hot weather. Just wrap them in something to avoid getting frostbite or a cold injury! That would be ironic and annoying as you explain to the Nurse in your local hospital.
Oh, and do not, absolutely never, climb in the freezer yourself or even in the fridge. Again, if you do not lock yourself in a suffocate you will get hypothermia and maybe die. I knew a guy in Iraq do that in a main operating base and he went home in a body bag. Clothes but not humans in the freezer.
9. Point your fan out of the window
This last tip is a great conversation starter. Should you aim the fan on your body and help evaporation take place, thereby cooling you but doing little for the room?
Or should you aim your fan out of the window, and blow hot air out of the room and replace it with cold air from outside? Science suggests the latter but this only works when the air outside is colder than inside your house, like when the temperature drops at night but your bedroom is still toasty.
Heat exhaustion and heatstroke
On a serious note, if we are too hot for too long and don’t drink enough or we do too much work in the heat, we can experience heat exhaustion and even heat stroke. Heat exhaustion is not usually serious if you can cool down within 30 minutes. If it turns into heatstroke, it needs to be treated as an emergency. Call for help immediately and put the person in the recovery position if they lose consciousness while you're waiting for help.
It shows how seriously we need to take the temperature. Again the problem for the UK is that the weather changes so much and the really hot weather doesn’t last long, but when it does, it can kill.
To help prevent heat exhaustion or heatstroke:
· drink plenty, especially when exercising
· avoid the sun
· avoid extreme exercise
Last top tip, when it is really hot and you are caught outside,
10. Go to church
Seriously, especially some of the older churches. These grand old stone buildings can be pretty cool inside and a great place to sit and be still for a while. Some of the inner city churches are really interesting places to explore. More churches should be open, I think, and not locked up and Jesus did say offering a glass of water to someone was a godly thing to do! So lets finish on that: if it is really hot, stop thinking about yourself and offer someone else a glass of cold water. You will feel better anyway and you did something good!
There is so much more we could say about this and all the subjects we discuss. If you are listening and want to think let us know what you think then do get in contact via twitter or Instagram or leave a message on the podcast webpage. If there are topics or issues you would like us to address, we are always open to suggestions.
Until next time, thank you for listening and remember that you are never on your own, there are lots of people around you and you just need to reach out and connect with them. So keep working on your relational fitness as you reach your full potential as God made you.
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