When at war…turn up the heat

I am at war every day.  I am at war with the mosquitoes that inhabit the Wah Lum Temple.  I’m at war wiaedes-aegypti-1351001_960_720th
the heat.  I know some people may not believe that the earth is truly warmer than it was a hundred years ago, or that 1.53 degrees does not seem like very much… for those that think that, come to Orlando in August.  Today as I entered the Temple it felt like I was crossing the Sahara desert.  Ok, I’m being dramatic, but we do not train with air conditioning, and the summers are brutal.  Between the mosquitoes and the heat, it can be very difficult to stay motivated to train.

Since I complain about winter being too cold, I try to embrace summer so I say: turn up the heat!  I welcome the challenge, but I try to be smart about it.  I hydrate like crazy.  Pure h20 does the trick.  I know advertisers would have you insert their candy colored sports drink here, but really water is the best. I do also love coconut water, and discuss more of this on our Kung Fu Pod episode on Hydration. Something I didn’t discuss on the podcast is Sole. (pronounced Solay) I drink that every morning and it gives me natural electrolytes without the high fructose corn syrup.

As for the mosquitoes, I have done everything from making my own repellant of essential oil mixtures, creams, etc. and recently bought a LOT of citronella, lemon grass, and basil plants for my war these blood suckers.  I ‘think‘ they have all helped in combination, but one of the kids here described them as ‘kung fu’ mosquitoes, so they are tough.  Even the chemical products with deet and picaridin I tried never worked. So why overdose on the toxins if they don’t help?  At least with the essential oils you smell nice.  If anyone has any ideas for mosquito prevention – share!

So during the war of the summer, I opt to turn up the heat!