How Do YOU Water Your Body?

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

The drawing is closed, and the winner has been chosen. Thank you ALL for participating, and congratulations to Thorne.

As I write these lines, I am resting in my lounge chair my back porch. I’m sipping cool drinks and trying to stay properly hydrated. That’s essential when the temperature is already in the triple digits in June! Do you have any tips on how you stay hydrated and fresh in the summer heat? If you leave me a comment to tell me about it, you’ve got a chance to win a $100 Visa Card from Crystal Light.

If my Daddy were sitting here with me, he would say, “It’s hotter’n a two dollar pistol!” I have no idea what that phrase means, but doesn’t it roll off the tongue nicely? I can tell you that it is so hot that my grandmother would remark that I have begun to “dew.” That’s what Mamaw called perspiring. She said, “Ladies don’t sweat! They either dew or glisten.” Between you and me and the gatepost … I’m sweating like a pig!

I hear some of you thinking, “Well, quit whining and go inside to the air conditioning!” But, I can’t go inside (I can’t quit whining either, because that goes against my nature). I have to stay acclimated to the heat so I can work in my yard. If I step inside and feel cool air, I will be done for the day, and I can’t afford to quit. I have too much yard work to do.

Do you see that mess? I’m embarrassed to show it to you, but hope that by doing so I can shame myself into cleaning it up. My beautiful purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are about to blossom, but nobody will be able to see it for all the monkey grass and vines! I want to get that cleaned up in time to see the blooms, and I want to be able to appreciate my Great-Grandfather’s hand plow and his woodstove. That isn’t just junk that I’ve thrown in my yard … it’s decoration. There’s a fine line between the two.

For months, I have been trying to clear out the vines and underbrush that threaten to overtake the house. All in the world I want is to be able to walk through the yard and see where my foot is going to land. We have snakes, poison ivy, fire ants, and Heaven knows what else lurking under the leaves. There are no lions and tigers and bears (Oh, my!), but I’m thinking there are plenty of places for them to hide.

So, I’m staying outside to work, and that means I’m going to sweat. Now y’all know the truth: I’m not the least bit ladylike, but perspiration is a good thing. It means that I’m getting enough fluid in this unseasonable warm Texas weather. If I weren’t sweating, that could be a sign of heat stroke coming on. According to Medicine.net, other signs include strange behavior, hallucinations, confusion, agitation, and disorientation. The only way anyone will recognize that I am about to have a heat stroke is if I stop sweating. Heck, those other symptoms apply to me all the time!

I surely don’t want to have a stroke while working in my back yard. Nobody would find me for hours, and by then the fire ants would have carried me off to the lair to be food for the Queen. That wasn’t how I planned to “go out.”

I am not making light of heat stroke. It’s a serious and life threatening medical condition. I’m doing what I can to avoid it. I try not to overexert myself in the heat of the day AND I drink a lot of fluids. Sometimes I get so busy working that I have to put the timer on to remind me to sit down and drink something!

I’m told that caffeinated drinks aren’t the best choice to stay hydrated, but I’m not fond of the taste of our city water straight from the tap. My solution is to add Crystal Light to our tap water so that I’ll be sure to drink enough liquid. I also drink through a straw, because a friend told me that by drinking through a straw you take in much less air (and feel less bloated). Without the excess air, you can drink up to four times more liquid before feeling full.

That’s how I stay hydrated during these hot summer days … well, that and running through the sprinkler half nekkid (but that’s another story). Now it’s your turn. Leave me a comment and answer my question:

You can comment once a week, for four entries in the drawing and you can get additional entries by:

• Mentioning the posts on Twitter or Facebook (pick one). If on Twitter, just hit the “retweet” button.
• Writing a post linking back to mine on your own blog.

Now, if you choose to earn those additional entries, be sure to come tell me about them, so that I don’t miss them! You could conceivably enter twelve times!

But, that’s not all! There are six of us giving away $100! AND, there is a grand prize of $1,000! Holy Cow, you could have a summer getaway with that cash! Go to the BlogHer round up page to learn more and be sure to check out the Official Rules Page.

Watch for new posts each week at my list of Crystal Light posts.