Holiday Recovery Guide: Ease Into 2016!
8 tips to recover from the holidays
HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope 2016 is already feeling bright and beautiful!
Today we're welcoming back Allie White, Transformational Holistic Health Coach and all-around wealth of knowledge in all things healthy and happy. Her mantra is clear: Helping fun-loving women experience a whole new level of energy, beauty, and confidence so they can create the body and life they love with ease.
If you're feeling sluggish from the holiday's remember this - don't beat yourself up!
The holiday season is about celebrating with friends and family and enjoying each moment. It's ok to eat Christmas treats, more potatoes and gravy than you planned, or a little extra booze. Focus on all the connection, joy, and love you experienced, instead of what you "should" have done better.
If you gained a few pounds, feel sluggish, or you're not looking as glowing and vibrant as you'd like that's ok too. Let it go!
You are enough, you are worthy, just as you are.
Eating certain foods doesn't make you a "bad" or "good" person. You can't expect to live on a strict diet your entire life. As women, our bodies fluctuate throughout the month and that's totally normal. No need to panic!
Let the past go and recover with these eight easy tips:
Sleep: Get to bed early and let your body do what it does best - repair, rejuvenate, and heal. If you get to bed between 10-11pm you’re more likely to wake up feeling refreshed. A good night's sleep makes everything easier! When you awake feeling good it's much easier to reach for healthy meals all day long.
Do not eat for 14 hours between dinner and breakfast: Fasting overnight is one of the best things you can do to help your body heal after consuming excess amounts of alcohol, sugar, and processed food. By fasting overnight you’re giving your body a chance to heal (read tip #1) instead of working hard to digest. When you’re digesting, you’re not healing. This mean more sluggishness, under eye bags, weight gain, bloating, etc.
Drink enormous amounts of water: Every cell in your body and the majority of your blood is composed of water. Therefore, you absolutely need water to function properly. Most of us are dehydrated and we don't even know it. On top of that, alcohol and crappy food encourage dehydration. Drinking water encourages the transport of nutrients through the body, cellular healing, removal of toxins, metabolic function, and all bodily processes. Staying hydrated also helps prevent headaches, constipation, cravings, and binge-eating.
Green smoothie for breakfast: After fasting through the night, drink a delicious green smoothie! Smoothies are filled with tons of nutrients that your body is begging for. Plus, it’s already pre-digested, which means you’re body will be able to continue repairing and healing instead of focusing on digestion.
Green powder (bonus points!): For a boost of nutrients, immunity and detoxification, add green powder to your smoothie. You can also mix a scoop in water during the afternoon "3pm slump" for a quick boost of energy. My favourite brands are “Athletic Green” found here (this one tastes delicious!), "Green Vibrance" found here, "Vitamineral Green" found here, and "Tripow" a mix of spirulina and chlorella found locally at the Strathcona Farmer's Market or online here.
Salad and/or soup for lunch and dinner: The point here is to eat light meals for lunch and dinner. Eat until you’re satisfied, there’s no starving here, but keep it simple and easily digestible. At the same time make sure to eliminate all processed food including sugar, dairy, and gluten.
No snacks: This tips plays off #6. If you’re always snacking or grazing, your body is always digesting, which means it’s NOT healing. Stick to three daily meals if you can.
Sweat: Yoga or a hot epsom salt bath should do the trick! There’s no need to do an intense workout here. Working out too hard in this condition can actually have the opposite effect. Keep it gentle or have a bath. If you choose the bath (good choice!), scrub your skin vigorously when you’re done then rinse off. This will help open your pores and dispel toxins.
There you have it! Eight simple tips to recover (heal and detox) from the holidays. Use these tips anytime you drink too much alcohol or consume too much sugar/junk/processed food and you'll be flying!
These tips are a staple in my life - anytime I feel like I’m not in peak health I go through these 8 tips for a couple days until I feel like superwoman.
I hope you find the relief you’re looking for here. One day of this routine might do the trick, or you might want a full week of restoration. Listen to what your body needs.
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