Holiday Recovery
Once the holidays are over and the New Year begins, we’re often faced with disappointment, frustration, and eventually broken resolutions. With the promise of good intentions and New Year’s resolutions, the previous holiday season became a spiral of too much sugar. It’s hard to get back on the healthy eating wagon overnight when the clock strikes midnight with healthy diet plans in Springfield Missouri. Knowing how sugar affects your body can help you get back on track.
Just because the calendar started over blank, fresh, and clean, does not mean that your body and brain did the same. You start off the month of January with a body that is still dealing with what happened in the month of December. Lots of holiday sugar leaves you with a hangover, just like alcohol. You can have an upset stomach, a headache, brain fog, skin issues, chronic pain, mood swings, allergy symptoms, lethargy, and self-loathing. Steps for recovering from a sugar hangover include:
No sugar: All of those Christmas and New Year’s Eve treats and desserts shot your blood sugar up and down. This taxes the immune system, imbalances brain chemistry, and skews hormones. To stabilize blood sugar, eat protein every two to three hours, never skip breakfast, and avoid sweet and starchy foods. Focus on proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats.
Too much sugar throws off the PH balance of your body, leaving it with an increase level of acidity and inflammation. Dark leafy greens, along with other alkalizing vegetables, will help restore your healthy balance. Load your plate up with them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Eliminate: Up your fiber intake throughout the next several days after a sugar binge. Consume plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to support your body’s elimination. For a little extra boost, pour yourself a nice tall glass of CALM, a drinkable magnesium supplement.
Hydrate: Staying hydrated with filtered water will help flush toxins from your body
Support your liver: Help your liver flush toxins with compounds such as N-Acetyl Cysteine and milk thistle found in Silymarin Forte. Both of these supplements are available at Kare Health and Wellness; drop in as soon as possible to find out more information on these liver supports. If you mention this blog post at checkout, you’ll receive 5% of off N-Acetyl Cysteine and Silymarin Forte.
Heal your gut: Unstable blood sugar inflames the gut and promotes yeast and bacterial overgrowth. In addition to stabilizing blood sugar, follow the autoimmune paleo diet that eliminates common immune triggers (such as gluten), and use gut support compounds like probiotics.
Exercise: If you’ve been morphing into the couch, go easy initially to avoid more inflammation. Appropriate exercise will help tame inflammation, improve brain function, and help flush toxins.
Sleep: When it’s time for bed, make sure you’re allowing yourself to get the amount of sleep your body needs. Caffeine can help your stay awake during the day, but it will not help your body’s recovery process.
The New Year is a great time to not focus on unrealistic goals, but rather on simple daily strategies to not only recover from holiday excesses, but also improve how you feel and function all year. If you need help getting back on track with your weight loss goals as you recover from the holidays, please schedule an appointment with our office.
