High-Caloric Foods, Booze, Late Nights… What Can You Do To Have A Fighting Chance?
The holiday season is upon us! Although, some of you are looking forward to the mulled wine, egg nog and the turkey dinners, most of us are probably dreading the aftermath of over-indulging through the holiday season. I’m re-posting an article I wrote for TimeOut Shanghai on how you can best prepare yourself for the inevitable onslaught that is to come. Hope this post helps to tip the scales (no pun intended)!
Question #1 – If readers are having a few heavy nights, what can they eat or drink to fortify them if they’ve not had enough sleep, or to give them energy for a long night ahead?
1. So they will be heading into a ‘perfect storm’ of unhealthy behaviours that will seriously weaken their immune system and cause havoc in the body. The combination of heavy drinking and lack of sleep may even result in them getting sick. It is then paramount that they do everything else right around those times to ensure you can charge the body and give it a fighting chance. I know readers are looking for a clear and simple solution like: “eat more carrots”, or “drink a Bloody Mary”, but the reality isn’t as simple as that; and the answer isn’t as simple to take-away either. Having said that, it is still a simple answer. Just be as healthy as you can leading up to the binge-ing and around the binge-ing events. This means the usual behaviours that any healthy individual will do such as:
i. Get plenty of sleep (average person needs 7-8 hours per night);
ii. Drink plenty of water or coconut water (no other substitutes – especially fruit juices as they contain too much sugar);
iii. Eat properly (lots of fresh vegetables, some fruit, some good quality meat, I can elaborate in more detail if needed);
iv. Exercise (build muscle by lifting weights, do some high intensity conditioning).
Building more muscle will really help you through the holiday season because it acts as a reservoir for all the sugars you will be consuming. Sugars come in many forms: sugars from drinks, sugars from desserts, sugars from starchy carbohydrates. So when you exercise properly (high intensity), you A) aggressively deplete all glycogen from your liver and muscles; and B) build a bigger reservoir to contain all the sugars you eat so they won’t go to your fat cells.
Having said that, some tips that still will help you along the way is to remember to eat a meal (preferably a nutritious meal) before a heavy night of drinking. It will make you more full so you may not have the ‘room’ to drink as much and it will also slow down the rate of absorption of alcohol.
To give you an analogy, when you know you will use up your mobile phone’s battery throughout the day, you fully charge the battery overnight. You need to metaphorically do the same with your body. This really is the best way to fortify the body for the upcoming onslaught of the holiday season. It is the holidays, so enjoy yourself but think about your body and give it the necessary fuel it needs to carry you through.
Question #2 – If they do find themselves on the wrong side of a hangover, what can they eat/drink/do to alleviate the pain? Anything to avoid?
2. In a hangover, your body is already dehydrated so you will need to focus on rehydration. Drink lots of water, and coconut water which has electrolytes that you have urinated out the previous night. Eat eggs for its natural high concentration of cysteine which helps to reduce the damage to the liver from drinking. Cysteine is present in lots of food (not just eggs – but there is higher concentrations in eggs) usually in foods that are non-processed, whole foods as mentioned above in point (iii). Do not take Tylenol as acetaminophen depletes glutathione in the liver which is where cysteine is most needed. Make some ginger tea to help with nausea and black coffee for headaches as it helps to reduce swelling in the blood vessels. Lastly, if you can handle it, do high intensity training to sweat out the toxins and to maintain your routine of staying fit. The idea is to ride out the holidays with minimal impact to your healthy habits so you can start the new year with momentum and not go through the same old ritual of setting New Year’s resolution of getting into shape!
Happy Holidays and don’t forget to RSVP to reserve your spot in the group classes this week!