A holiday is a time for celebration and a great opportunity to enjoy yourself surrounded by your friends and loved ones. It's also a good excuse for extra indulgences.
As a result, holiday gatherings rarely go away without living its mark on our bodies.
It might be because we enjoy too much food, drink, sugar. Or decide not to spend too much time sleeping, lured by all of those fabulous conversations, board games and festive TV.
In this post, I've gathered some recommendations on how to recover from holidays as quickly as possible and help your body to regain its healthy demeanor.
We will cover how to deminish negative effects from eating a bit too much, drinking a tad more and neglecting healthy lifestyle pretty much altogether 🤭🫣
Alchohol
Pros
It's a good way to break the initial ice, especially if you haven't seen your friends or relatives for a while.
Alcohol also helps us to relax and become a tiny bit more social, which is exactly what we need during the holiday season.
Cons
But alcohol is a toxin, whether we like it not. Even a little is not good for us humans. And too much alcohol can leave a rather negative mark on our bodies and our wellbeing.
It has a high sugar content, so our waist line will not say thank you.
It's dehydrating so the skin might look dull and tired.
It might also affect our sleep.
And last, but not least, alcohol is known to create a disarray in our digestive system.
"The alcoholic drinks and the patterns of alcohol consumption we see today can overload our system's ability to metabolize the alcohol, resulting in intoxication and toxicity." - David Roger Clawson M.D.
To summarise, alcohol can affect our:
digestion
skin
sleep
wellbeing
liver
Things to do to take care of ourselves after drinking alcohol:
Drink a lot of water
Have an early night
Elevate your head by using two pillows to avoid puffy eyes and dark circles
Sleep on your back to avoid puffiness in one side of your face
Eat something healthy and nutritional
Drink a lot of water
As we know, alcohol dehydrates us because it's a diuretic, so to counteract its effect we should be drinking a lot of water afterwards. Think of all those trips to the loo when you are drinking. But the best advice is to mix drinking alcohol with drinking non-alcoholic drinks, such as water. By following this simple tip, you will help your body to recover faster.
"Drinking plenty of water while you’re drinking alcohol not only protects you against sunburn but also helps you avoid waking up to a terrible hangover." - elementalbottles.com
Have an early night
Give yourself plenty of time to rest and recover after enjoying your alcoholic drinks. Alcohol affects our sleep cycles. What that means is that we might miss REM (rapid eye movement) cycle. And even though we'd think we sleep for hours, in reality, our sleep was shallow and non-restorative. As a result, we might still feel groggy, suffer from headaches and be unable to function as usual.
Elevate your head
Apparently, putting two pillows instead of one after having a night of drinking, might help us avoid puffy eyes in the morning. This is due to our head being elevated and extra fluids cannot be pulled towards our eyes, giving them a panda like disguise.
Sleep on your back
Sleeping on your back instead of your front or sides might help you to avoid those post-drinking wrinkles. Remember waking up and looking like your grandma all of a sudden? This is because we don't move that much in our sleep after drinking alcohol. And as a result, the weight of our body and a pattern of our pillow might transfer itself onto our faces. Sleeping on your back is a good routine on any day, but especially after drinking alcohol.
Eat healthy foods
As mentioned previously, alcohol is a toxin. And our body works very hard to clear itself of it and minimise any consequence.
However, we often crave non-healthy foods after a night out. According to afterdrink.com, "alcohol disrupts your blood glucose balance and low blood glucose triggers your brain to search for the most calorie-dense food to re-energize." But eating greasy food would only add to the struggles our body is going through. Instead, we need to help it and only provide it with healthy foods.
Food
Pros
Food is one of the simplest joys in life. And holiday season provides myriads of opportunities to enjoy this decadent pleasure.
It makes conversations flow while people enjoy their meals. It sends feel good hormones to our brain which in turn, well, make us feel good.
Cons
But during holiday feast we might not even notice how we consume too much. Or how we overindulge in something that is not as good for us as some other things. Think of all of those cheeses and desserts that we can never say no to, especially if it's made using mom's special recipe.
How too much food might affect us:
Slow down our digestion
Introduce grogginess due to full belly
Decrease motivation/general wellbeing
Things we can do to help our body after consuming too much food:
Reduce calories intake
Eat healthy and nutrient full food
Exercise
Go for a walk
Reduce calories intake
Calories are not as evil as they are painted in nowadays media. However, after eating too much, it might not be a bad idea to watch your calory intake only to help your tummy to recover. We are not talking about fasting here. Fasting could actually reduce your metabolism, what might make you overeat again in the near future. Instead, it's a good idea to avoid sugary and greasy foods that are full of fat and calories, but carry little or no health benefits.
Eat healthy and nutrient full food
Or avoid foods that are considered 'naughty'. For a few days after holidays, try watching your diet and only consuming foods that are high in nutrients and vitamins. I suspect you might be more hungry after overeating. It's because you would have stretched your tummy a little. So try to stay away from sugary snacks and snack on something guilt-free instead.
Exercise
Exercise might be the very last thing on your mind, but it's a good idea to get back into the fitness routine after overindulging on all the lovely festive food. Do not force yourself to exercise the minute you finish eating. But starting with simple and easy stretches as early as the next morning might do your body a lot of good. The slowly introduce more exercises, such as yoga or plank or even a lazy jog.
Go for a walk
Going for a walk might be the easiest way to get back into shape and help your body to recover. Even a short walk after a heavy meal might help to kick-start your digestive system. We need to make sure we take our personal circumstances into account and increase or decrease the intensity levels and length of the walk.
"A short walk after eating helps manage a person’s blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels. Moderate daily exercise can also reduce gas and bloating, improve sleep, and boost heart health." - Zia Sherrell, MPH
Wellbeing
Another thing that is affected by holiday indulgence is our overall wellbeing.
Quite often we neglect our sleep, spend too much time playing computer games or are simply glued to our gadgets for no particular reason.
So what can you do to ensure you get over holiday without much damage to your wellbeing?
I have collated a few simple ideas on how to help and increase general wellbeing without feeling like now that's holidays are gone, life will be boring and dull.
Because holidays cannot last forever. It would be too tiresome and less magical.
But turning every simple day into something special is not a bad idea even after the taste and smell of festive season is truly vanished.
Have an early night - might sound boring, but going to bed earlier than during holiday might help you to get back to your usual routine without feeling like you are missing out on something exciting.
Enjoy a relaxing bath - treating yourself to a hot bubble bath - what could be more indulgent? And it won't affect your weight or sugar levels!
Open windows and get some fresh air flowing in - fresh air will make you more energetic, whether you are recovering from holiday or not. Breathe in and out!
Drink camomile tea - this tea is a gem! It has a sweet-ish taste but it also helps to calm our nervous system. What a better way to get over those post-holiday blues.
No phone or other gadgets a few hours before bed - you should have this rule on holiday or no holiday. But it's especially good to go on a digital detox after holidays not to become too reliant on digital technology to spice up your life.
Listen to a guided meditation - have you practiced one before? If not, it's good time to star. Guided meditation will help you feel less sad and disconnected from the world as you recover from post-holiday excitement. If guided meditation is not your thing, try practicing mindfulness. I have a few book recommendations just for you.
Choose a relaxing playlist - enjoy some music, but better to choose something relaxing not to overload your already overexcited senses.
Darkened room and reduce lights a few hours before bed - holidays and overall jolliness might have left your body struggling to decide when the night starts and when the morning comes. To reintroduce your body to a standard sleeping- waking cycle, reduce or dim lights at least an hour before bed. Your body and melatonin will thank you.
Read a heartwarming book - remind yourself that magic has not disappeared with the last piece of a celebratory cake. Re-introduce those butterflies with a help of a good book. And who knows, maybe you won't be relying on holiday season as much when you have such a companion as a book.