The Christmas and New Year period is often a time to cut loose with your diet and indulge, but all that excessive eating, drinking and partying comes with a cost. It can leave you feeling sluggish, tired (and often) a couple of kilos heavier. After the festive season is done and dusted and the opportunity for indulgence is over, it’s time to detox and spring back to health.
Drink lots of water
Drink plenty of water during and after New Year’s partying. It hydrates your body and cleanses out the harmful toxins that linger after a binge session. You’ll feel re-energised and healthy. Peppermint tea has been found to aid digestion, bloating and gas, and the antioxidants in green tea may help with fat-burning, so drinking both of these are a great idea.
Eat light and fresh foods
After a binge of heavy food and alcohol, the very best thing you can do for your body is to refuel it with nutrients. Eat foods that are small and light to resize your stomach after days of it being over-filled, and avoid rich foods such as meat and dairy. The great thing about fruit and vegetables is that they’re low in calories, high in nutrients and vitamins and you don’t need to eat a lot to get the benefits.
Eat fruits such berries, oranges and apples the morning after a binge day. Try some Greek yoghurt with honey to boost your protein. The honey contains fructose, which will help your body burn away alcohol lingering in your system.
Sweat it out
When your body has become sluggish from too much rich, indulgent food, getting out into the fresh air and getting your blood pumping is a sure-fire way to cleanse it of that feeling. Exercising and sweating will help you burn off those extra calories that you’ve consumed and bring oxygen racing back into your bloodstream.
Even though it can be tempting on New Year’s Day to simply stay home on the couch, it’s a better idea to get out and take a brisk walk around the block. Detoxing in the days following any kind of extravagant indulgence means getting into a regular pattern of walking, running or playing a sport to work off the excess food and clear your mind.
First published as How to detox after Christmas
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