Five Ways To Beat That Holiday Food Hangover

We all do it, just about every year. We eat until we can eat no more. And then we eat some more... One of my favourite websites, theoatmeal.com published a great comic about Thanksgiving, but the idea generally extends itself into the new year... the print is a little small, if you can't make it out, click the picture and it'll take you to the page, trust me it's worth the second it takes.

So... onto the five ways that I think are best for beating that holiday food hangover:

1. Probiotics: 

-Actually it's best if you just take these all month. We buy these in pill form, and they just seem to keep everything on track. We take them with breakfast and dinner.

2. Bump up that Fibre: 

-Chances are, you're not going to eat out for all three meals a day. I am not for a second trying to suggest you replace holiday goodies with leafy greens or bran muffins... I mean, if you want to, go for it... I am of the opinion, though, that the week between Christmas and New Years is the one week that I am not going to miss out on food. Even if it means a couple of pounds to work off at the end of it, which buy the way if you follow rule number 5, this doesn't really become a problem. But, there's nothing wrong with adding in some Mini Wheats to your breakfast, making sure you stick some fruit into your day, or checking out some new recipes at places like allbran.ca, where they pretty much put bran in everything. I always find having a nice greek salad for lunch also makes me feel refreshed too.. If you want my recipe, check out the pic below.

-By the way, ideal consumption of fibre per day is something like 25-30 grams per day. Not many of that get that, but now's not the time to try! Add that to the dozen sausage rolls and 3 cups of gravy you already ingested, and talk about plumbing problems! Try fitting in an additional 5-10 grams, and make sure you get plenty of water with that (see number 3!).

3. Drink Plenty of Water:

- I've heard that we may not actually need 6-8 glasses of water per day. I happen to be a fan of water, I just think it makes you feel better. But even if you don't, around this time it's important to flush all that pie dough out and avoid it sticking to your ribs... Not to mention all of the additional salt we take in at this time of year.. Water will just make you feel better, plain and simple.

4. Walk it off

-I know most of us will not even dream of going for a walk right after a huge meal...If you can, more power to you. Do it. Even if it's 20 minutes. And if that's really not going to happen for you, go the next day. Chances are, one day through the holiday season you'll wake up feeling like you have rocks in your stomach, and taking a walk really helps things settle. You can read about it at livestrong.com, but essentially it helps digestion and speeds up metabolism.

5. Eat Slowly, stop when you're full. Wait till everyone else is served.

-This is honestly one week out of the year that I have a hard time practicing what I preach. The French are able to eat everything they want, and they don't usually have such horrible digestive problems. That is because they follow the above principles. It really does work.

Hope your holiday season is full of good food, good wine and good times.
Have a great day!