Collaborative Post
For most people, the holiday season is a time to let yourself go a bit. Technically, it’s best to stick to being good. In reality, as long as you don’t overdo it too much, you should get over the excesses fairly easily. Here are some tips to help.
Go easy on the alcohol
Alcohol is full of sugar. That means even a little of it can do a lot of damage. In fact, short drinks often do the most damage because they tend to be very potent. You don’t need to give it up completely (although it wouldn’t hurt). Just understand and respect your limits and try to stick to longer drinks like beer. If you want shorter ones try having them with a mixer, preferably a sugar-free one.
Keep well hydrated
Many “treat” drinks are actually quite hard for your body to process effectively. Even if they’re not alcoholic, there’s a good chance that they’ll still be full of sugar and possibly fat too. They may also have a lot of caffeine and other chemicals. It’s therefore important to keep flushing your body with healthy liquids to minimize the damage these festive treats can cause.
In principle, the best form of hydration is pure water. In practice, not everyone wants to drink plain water all the time. Green, white and fruit teas are all good alternatives. Milks (dairy and plant) and fruit juices can also be good too. With that said, you do need to be a bit careful with fruit juices as some can be full of sugar.
If there’s one fruit juice that stands out over all others for the festive season, it’s cranberry juice. Cranberries are rich in antioxidants so they help the liver process and remove toxins. In other words, they help the body detox after you’ve been eating junk food. They also boost your immune system.
Be aware that drinking cranberry juice can make you want to go to the toilet more often. This in itself isn’t a cause for concern. If, however, you notice anything else unusual, or you’re worried for another reason, then, even at Christmas, you can just search on “urologist specialist doctor near me”. Book yourself a consultation and set your mind at rest.
Eat plenty of fibre
If you keep well hydrated and eat a decent amount of fibre, then your post-holiday slump should be kept to a minimum. The challenge here is that a lot of the foods everyone likes to eat around holiday time have little to no fibre. At the start of the festive season, you might not notice the difference in how you feel but by the end, you almost certainly will.
Fortunately, there is a way to make sure that you do get a decent amount of fibre without giving up on festive foods. Basically, you need to make a point of eating foods that are really high in fibre at least once a day. The good news is that there are a lot of options here. Possibly the most practical one is chia seeds. A tiny helping of them once a day provides a whole lot of fibre as well as other nutrients.