I’m hibernating for the summer. For most people with MS heat is very difficult.  It causes fatigue and muscle weakness, spasms and it basically exacerbates all your current symptoms. They make a cooling vest but let me explain what this thing is. First it’s a vest that comes up to your waist so if closed will nicely accentuate your hips not very flattering. Second it’s this light brown/tan color that is just plain ugly. Third the vest has something like 10 pockets in which you insert 10 frozen ice packs into thus cooling you of. Who thinks of these things? When the vest is fully loaded it’s like 7lb extra now hanging on your body and next issue the ice packs melt within 45 minutes to an hour and then what???  So now you have this ugly vest on with no cooling capability. Just silly. On the MS boards they have all these posts about stay cool so this is what I do…

A. Plan accordingly if someone is having an outside party and they have no pool or I can’t hang somewhere to stay cool. I politely decline the offer. However lucky for me no one has parties like this that I’m invited to.

B. My favorite thing to eat during the summer is frozen grapes.  I buy a big bag and throw them in the freezer. Never fails if I eat frozen grapes I get chills.  Last night I was in a sweatshirt. Plus they are a fruit low in calories win win. With weight watchers they are no points.

C. Stay on top of the weather. I’m a weather bug I always look and I try to plan accordingly. If it’s over 90 guess what maybe I really don’t need to go to my MS yoga class today. Sometimes you just need to be smart. Sounds boring but I read.  You don’t have to sit on the couch and watch tv.  It’s a great time to learn an inside hobby you can do when your home. You can clean your cabinets out…maybe not.

D. Took me a long time to wear sleeveless shirts I was embarrassed of my arms and finally one summer I said “f$$k this”. Dress appropriately don’t go wearing jeans to cover your legs and long sleeves shirts and complain your hot. You need to love who you are and that’s a whole other topic but you can see how feeling embarrassed about weight can literally affect how you end up feeling in hot weather.

ok that’s my food for thought today. Happy Friday to everyone. Go buy grapes if you like them you’ll love them frozen. Blueberries are good too. Oh and quick low cal recipe of my mom:

container low fat yogurt any flavor and container of cool whip lite mixed together. Put in cooked pie crust of your choice and freeze. Good too.