Bug Bites and Boot Camps

I’m covered in mosquito bites this morning. My feet, my legs, my elbows, my back — the mosquitoes went to town on me this weekend.

I even have three on my face. I’m in my office this morning, covered in vinegar to make the itching stop. The vinegar works but I’m not convinced it’s worth the smell. Here’s my itchy, vinegary foot:

(Hmmm…I should’ve thought about that photo a little bit more before I took it. Note to self: makeup required before blog photos.)

I’m looking for tips — any recommendations for natural mosquito repellants/itch remedies that work?

I’ve yet to find a natural repellant that’s effective. I’ve read that eating a clove or two of garlic daily deters mosquitoes, and quite possibly deters husbands, friends and co-workers.

I got all these mosquito bites from new workout I tried and highly recommend, as long as you’re wearing mosquito repellant. Remember when we talked about tabata training and I thought my arms would fall off? Until now, I haven’t really been able to do a tabata workout properly without a trainer. The 20-seconds-on are too intense for me to monitor the timer properly. I end up cheating a lot.

The team at MotionTraxx came out with a new and free boot camp workout that’s based on tabata. It’s the first of three planned boot camp workouts. This one mixes squats, burpees, push-ups, planks and other forms of torture for a 45-minute workout.

It is a sponsored podcast so they do plug Gatorade G Series but that’s fine with me. It’s far cheaper than a trainer and almost as good.

The workout in itself isn’t super-intense so I kicked it off with six rounds of the stairs at Crescent Heights. That was overkill. I recommend combining the boot camp with easy to moderate cardio.

And, of course, bug spray.

~Chris