Heat Advisory

Wherever you are this summer, it’s HOT out! (If it’s not, count yourself lucky.) Even if you’re you faring well, we can always benefit from new ideas and be reminded of common sense cooling ways.

Boketto Founder, Jelena Nikolajevic, shares tools & tips on how to keep cool now— including dog care. 

Foods that help keep the body cool

The physical temperature of a particular food isn’t what makes it heating or cooling. For example: Ice cream isn’t always cooling, and spicy foods are aren’t necessarily warming.

Cooling foods work by lowering your body temperature, and helping you manage stressors— also by promoting hydration, supporting digestive processes and also encouraging sweating/perspiration, they include:

1. Water-rich vegetables, like cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, zucchini and radishes
2. Tropical fruits, like papaya, pineapple and mangoes
3. Melons, like watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe
4. Herbs, like mint, lemongrass, chamomile, lavender, dill and rosemary
5. Spicy foods, like cayenne and other peppers, cause your body to turn on the cooling mechanism known as sweating

 

Drinking to keep the body cool

It’s common sense that hydrating is preventative and well as curative act. But not everyone likes drinking water, or for those that do, gets ounces in enough. Jel’s favorite tip is to refill her cup as soon as it’s empty. Seeing a full glass of water serves as a reminder to drink throughout the day.

She also keep it pure by adding Binchotan Charcoal Sticks to a carafe of water. The thousands of microscopic cavities left in the wood remove unwanted toxins and impurities, while softening and improving the water's taste. Another tip is infusing a pitcher of water with fruit or herbs for more flavorful & fun. Try uncommon combos like: strawberry and basil, cucumber and mint, grapefruit and thyme. Or choose the cooling Lullaby Herbal Tonic Bag. It’s a done-for you mix of TCM herbs you can steep like sun tea.

Jel also suggests a cap-full of 100% Pure Bulgarian Rosewater in a glass as it’s cooling + adds a delightful flavor. Mint Tea, too, is especially cooling and invigorating. Imagine how refreshing mint and rose tea would be! 

A shot of Hypertonic Seawater, or a dropper of Trace Minerals are nutritional supplements that act like electrolytes. Their many benefits go beyond keeping you cool— Jel takes them daily as a preventative and curative tools.

 

Keep cool when in direct sunlight

Common sense says to limit your time outdoors on hot days, especially midday when the sun is at its hottest. (We’re all about making space for a siesta.) But when you’re outside on a very hot day, for sure wear a hat, and have a plan to find shade and use it!

Jel and her partner, Pete, are athletes who train outdoor, and schedule their workouts earlier or later in the day when there are cooler temperatures. Packing this Skin Support Soothing Spray does double duty— the mist is cooling on contact, while the ingredients strengthen your body’s barrier layer (aka: skin).

 

On Pets and keeping them cool

Heat stroke and over-heating affects dogs, too, so the same rules above apply to our pets. Additionally:

1. Never leave home without a water bottle specifically for your dogs
2. Walk them as early in the day you can… and as late at night possible
3. Hot asphalt and sidewalks are painful, take them for walks in grassy areas
4. Keep an eye out for sore paws and when tender treat them with Pet Balm

 

Stay in an Air-Conditioned Building

If you don’t have access to an air conditioner, or yours is on the brink, you can find relief at a movie theater or restaurant. Libraries and community centers are free and welcoming options. Sharing this information with the most vulnerable in your neighborhood is not only a kindness but potentially life-saving.