Survival Guide for the Holiday Season
‘Tis the season for celebration! But how can we help our bodies recover from the good times? Check out the tips below.
1 Enjoy it. Enjoy every minute of your holiday season, just not at the expense of your sanity and your health. I know this sounds impossible but it can be done!
2 Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate. The average adult needs 2 litres of pure, clean water per day just to maintain our body’s hydration under the best of circumstances. Include other good choices like coconut water, herbal teas or cold pressed juices. Change it up. Try something new. Just keep hydrating.
3 Eat good, healthy, whole food meals as often as you can during this season, and on a regular basis in general. This is by far your best defence. So what does “healthy whole food” look like? It doesn’t come in a bag, box or can that is ready to eat and requires no effort to prepare. Think of how our grandparents ate. What would they make themselves for dinner? That should help guide you.
4 Fat. Yes, I said fat — but good quality fat. Most of the holiday party foods we eat are high in fat, unfortunately not the good kind. So why would I advise to eat more fat? Simple. Our bodies are brilliant. When faced with a choice of nutrients, even within fats, it always takes the best it can find to keep our cells healthy and satisfied. Add some avocado, coconut or olives to your daily diet. We will need to add some fibre to ensure we get rid of all that extra bad fat...that’s next.
5 Fibre. If we choose to indulge in high sugar, high fat foods we are going to need ensure we have enough fibre. By simply adding flaxseed meal, aka ground flax to your diet it can aid in digestion and help control both cholesterol and diabetes. It captures any excess roaming around so it can’t stick around to cause us any trouble later.
6 Support your liver. With every party comes drinks — alcoholic drinks. We enjoy, we indulge but we have to admit that we don’t always feel so great afterwards. Simple way to mitigate the after effects? Support the liver. It will thank you and you it. It will make the next day much easier on you.
7 Sleep. This can elude us at the best of times so we’re going to have to find a way to not make it any worse. Reducing coffee consumption and screen time can all help to improve night sleep. Herbal teas, exercise and meditation are great ways to encourage better sleep.
8 Exercise. Don’t stop exercising during this busy month. Keep moving. You will thank yourself for it.
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