Summer skin solutions

How to: battle a hangover

• Drink as much water as you can before bed, and pop a multi-vitamin to help restore your body overnight.
• In the morning, drink more water and also orange juice – the vitamin C helps your liver process the toxins from the alcohol.
• Going for a run will get the blood pumping and help your body get rid of the alcohol faster. If that sounds like living hell, try a few yoga moves to get things moving.
• Eat potassium-rich foods like spinach or bananas to replace missing electrolytes. Ginger or peppermint tea will help a nauseous stomach, and aid with dehydration.

How to: stay active when you’re time-poor

• A brisk 15-minute uphill walk, a 20-minute jog around the block, even five minutes of jumping with a skipping rope can keep your fitness up during the busy holiday period.
• Rope in your kids. Get a family game of volleyball, soccer or cricket happening, or go for a bike ride together.
• Get up half an hour earlier to fit in a workout. It won’t make a huge difference to your overall sleeping timetable but it will give you a head start on the day. If you’re feeling stressed, use that extra half an hour to do an activity that will also benefit your mind, like yoga, meditation, a solo walk or tai chi.

How to: keep your stress levels down

• Think back to previous summer holidays – what are your best memories, and what are your worst? Work out how you can recreate whatever was so magical about the good times, and what you’d do differently about the bad times.
• Ask for help. You aren’t a one-woman band, and delegating tasks is a good habit to get into.
• Keep your calendar up to date and have a notebook for to-do lists in your handbag. Also have another one by the bed if you’re the kind of person who wakes at 3am thinking, “I can’t forget to do a, b and c”. Write it down and go back to sleep.

How to: avoid mosquito bites

• The bitiest time of day for those pesky little buggers is dawn and dusk. So try to stay indoors during these times.
• Dress in light, bright colours and skip the perfume.
• Light a citronella candle and put citronella oil on your skin if you have it. Peppermint oil and lemon oil can also be effective.
• Manuka honey, lavender oil, tea tree oil and aloe vera can all help calm skin if you do get bitten.

How to: treat sunburn

• It can take between four and six hours for sunburn to fully develop. As soon as you start to notice your skin turning pink, get out of the sun.
• Drink lots of water. Sunburn is very dehydrating.
• If your sunburn looks like it might be a bad one, a couple of ibuprofen can help reduce swelling and redness.

How to: prevent car sickness

• Keep the inside of the car cold, with plenty of fresh air.
• Put whoever gets carsick in the front seat if you can.
• Watching a movie can help to distract car sick-prone passengers, but only if it’s on a fixed screen. Reading will also increase nausea, but listening to calming music on an iPod or mp3 player can help.
• Stick to light snacks and avoid heavy or greasy meals.
• Cut up lemon wedges and pop them in a snaplock bag for the trip. Sucking on a lemon can help reduce feelings of nausea for some people.