It's hammered into our heads to be more active overall in life, but in Texas, that can be a big summer fail because it's too darned hot!  Hydrating with beer is also bad.  And there are several other things we should be doing differently during the summer months.  

The Top 5 Summer Fails in East Texas

1.  Skipping sunscreen or not reapplying it often enough.  It only takes about five minutes for some of us to start getting a sweet sunburn (high five, fair-skinned blonds and redheads!), and we've got to apply sunscreen before we head to the pool and every fifteen to thirty minutes while we're there.  It's a lot, but it's better to be safe than sorry because it feels like we're only a couple of feet from the sun sometimes and it will win.  My dermatologist has been regularly cutting moles from various places around my body for a few years now just to test them, and last summer a mole on my foot came back as abnormal with skin cells changing rapidly, but it wasn't cancerous, thank God. SPF is my BFF.

2.  Sitting too much.  We shouldn't let the heat scare us.  We've still got to get up off the couch and get some exercise during the summer months, and at the very least, we should be walking around cubicle land at the air-conditioned office for a lap or two.  Swimming is a slam dunk because it's great exercise and we don't have to feel the sweat.

3.  Being too active.  Sometimes we should let the heat scare us.  When it's 100 degrees and runners are sweating on hot asphalt, there is a real danger of overheating.  And if you're going to be walking around at an afternoon fair or festival, hydrate with something besides beer.

4.  Drinking too much.  Alcohol is a quick dehydrator, and so is the Texas heat.  Cranberry juice may be a good mixer for vodka, but a typical Texas heat index is not.  I had a couple of beers at a concert one afternoon when the temp was 102 with no wind, and I was tipsy in a hurry!  And the headache came shortly after that.  So water, water, water, and a little bit of alcohol if it's hot.

5.  Staying home.  If we stay at home, we'll miss the events and festivals!  We've got 4th of July fun coming up, road trips to Dallas and Houston for big concerts, and water parks to hit. It's always fun to be a Texan, and summer is one of the prime times to get out and make the most of it.  Getting off the couch is key.

The NY Post also offers some ideas about summer fails too, and those include watching too much TV, not wearing a hat in the sun, not sleeping enough, and staring at our phones all day.  Perhaps if we put the phones down we could sleep more.

The moral of the story?  Move around, but not too much.  Drink if you're so inclined, but not too much.  And don't stay at home.  Now, back to that great Texas summer!

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