One more idea: if you get a lunch break where you can leave the job, get a cheap gym membership whether Planet Fitness. Crunch, the YMCA, whatever. If you have a rough morning where it’s hot early or you were up late etc, you can zip over and take a five minute cool shower and feel like a new man while drinking water on the way and eating a sandwich on the way back with a relaxed body and settled gut that won’t reject food.
When I was a bike messenger and it was ultra hot in the urban heat oasis of Manhattan I would fill a 1L Nalgene with water at the fountains in parks a few times and slowly pour it over each limb, one bottle for each limb and one over my head. The amount of heat that 5L of cool water can suck out of you in a few minutes is unbelievable
I wanted to reinforce the beef tallow and skate liver oil for sunburns again, because I don’t know how many people just buy the fake blue jelly aloe type stuff, and think that’s all you got to choose from.
99% aloe, followed by a balm with tallow and fish oil. They’re out there, don’t skimp. Your skin keeps cooking long after the burn.
@Dirt_Wizard is this anything that might be in your realm of wizdom?
'otsa water id say from my experience working rebar in 40deg celcius days in a hole no wind hot bars on the shoulders trapped in a radiant heat cage drink lots lots lots of water stay hydrated i never had issue and id work like a bulldozer hauling rebsr in this setup
I’m 45 and worked outside in georgia my whole life in construction the last 15 yr doing metal roofing and I can tell you that hat makes your body hold heat straw hat baseball caps mexican hat they all make you hotter. Best thing I can say is one of those rags that hd alot of water like a frog rag and light light color clothing and big a… fan on the jobive got a blower from a heating and air unit that blows toward us all day and more importantly get started early the early the better and your body temp will come up with the day temp making it alot easier if you don’t get started before 8 or 9 it makes it so much harder…and not ice cold water not hot water either just middle temp water you body will Absorb it better and stop you from feeling boaty from drinking to much
I don’t know about that combo specifically but yeah beef tallow from organic grass-fed cows, while still not FDA approved (BSE risk) is a great moisturizer. It’s a pretty common traditional, whole-animal butchery Southern skin care product along with quality lard, they’re both pretty close to human sebum (our natural skin moisturizing fat, the stuff your nose gets greasy with) and therefore work really well. I personally use a good face sunscreen and cover the rest up to avoid burns most of the time. And I moisturize in the morning and evenings, this is the stuff I use that’s not sunburn specific but helps protect and heal generally:
This or similar products from Neutragena or CeraVe, all make great sunscreen that doesn’t smell or mess up your skin:
Cetaphil Sheer Mineral Sunscreen Stick for Face & Body, 0.5oz, 100% Mineral Sunscreen: Zinc Oxide & Titanium Dioxide, Broad Spectrum SPF 50, For Sensitive Skin https://a.co/d/h4PhZPu
This is a handy one for the pocket or bag, it doesn’t melt:
Neutrogena Beach Defense Water-Resistant SPF 50+ Sunscreen Stick, Broad Spectrum UVA/UVB Protection, PABA- & Oxybenzone-Free Face & Body Sunscreen Stick, Hands-Free Application, 1.5 oz https://a.co/d/82FWV5X
This stuff is great:
And for moisturizing I use these two usually the Eucerin everywhere except my face though it’s fine there, the Ordinary is nicer tho:
Short hair, sunglasses, and breathable clothes are your friends. Water isn’t optional, and neither is sunscreen, they both will literally save your life.
Alot if it is mental. Learn to love it and you’ll hate it a little less.
Truer words were never spoken, I find this true with hot, cold, and rain equally. I’m extremely rational and evidence-based in my beliefs but one of the crunchier ones I have is that the Wim Hof method and similar ideas actually work. Biofeedback is real, and I think we probably have powerful evolutionary hot/cold tolerance abilities that we can learn to use in our bodies. I expose myself to the cold every fall and stay uncomfortable but not dangerously cold until my body starts burning brown fat to stay warm, and eat a very high fat diet all winter to keep the stove stoked. Similarly in hot weather I can stop sometimes and make myself pop sweat to cool off faster if I think about it hard enough.
But yeah all that’s a joke without lots of water, breathable clothes, and good sunscreen.
Best advice I ever got was “If you’re not sweating, you’re about to die” along with "If you’re still sweating, you’re still alive "
DIY electrolytes are easy too, it’s as simple as some powdered drink mix with sugar, some Morton’s Lite Salt, and lemon or lime juice. A great thing you can probably find in Texas at markets and restaurants and is easy to make is chia fresca, really popular with Mexican distance runners as an athletic drink. I also love a cold horchata or avena drink, or a tall agua fresca when it’s hot.
I use all kinds of tricks from focusing on the beauty of the clouds to convincing myself nobody on earth could handle the heat other than me, so I have to show motherfuckers up. Of course those are mental coping mechanisms, I don’t live that way.
Was working in a glass plant pulling 600s through a cable tray near the ceiling of the hall where the glass panels travel through to cool off. It was 145 on the ground level. I was wearing a cotton long sleeve T (touching the metal would cause burns) and denim overalls. Sweat through my clothes and caused my tools to rust. That is my benchmark for bad. If I could do that, then I can do anything. I’m sure the Texas heat will give OP a couple benchmarks over the years, but if he makes it through those, he can do anything!
First day after work, had a half day and it wasn’t so bad. It was hot but not HOT hot, and only had to spend 4 hours out there today. Tomorrow is another half day so Im not exactly worried. Monday is the first full day and Its supposed to be pretty busy. Yeah, I got this.
You’ll get used to it over time just remember to wear white long sleeves, UV sunglasses, sunscreen if you can, and water with electrolytes. My uncle who was in Vietnam said when he first got in country, he would sweat buckets and drink a gallon+ of water a day. By the end of his first tour, he was going out on 3 day patrols with only 2 rations (cans) of peaches and 2 canteens of water
Do not drink any Caffeine or Alcohol. Cut out processed foods and sugars from your diet and eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. Combinations of vitamin E and C offer protection against ultraviolet rays. Retinol is effective in rebuilding collagen to fight wrinkles and fade dark spots caused by sun damage.
It is best to be proactive in your diet to keep your body healthy so it can protect and repair itself.
Current look while I spend the first day of the season baking in an Adirondack chair: light synthetic cycling cap over a sheer cotton table napkin I took from work, long sleeves and pants, feels perfect:
Great advice so far. I wish I’d used sunglasses years ago, but my stubborn ass just squinted through the day. Getting older now remembering how many times my eyes felt like they’d been boiled at the end of the day.
Speaking of stubborn, am I the only sick SOB that drinks coffee or other hot drinks when working outside all day in the summer… like 100F plus outside? It is oddly refreshing… to me anyway.
Not only hot drinks by the way… definitely a lot of water too, and salt. Gotta get some salt.
