Post-Holiday Health

Are you feeling bloated? Tired? Hungover?

Christmas and New Year celebrations are a great opportunity to enjoy festive favourite foods and drinks. The problem is they may not be in line with the healthy habits you’ve worked to maintain over the last year.

For most people – except for those with severe allergies or other chronic health issues - that’s OK. We don’t need to eat like a saint for 365 days a year.

How do you start the year without the guilt or feeling daunted by the idea of diet restrictions? The answer is to start with small steps and small goals. Take an interest in your health and be prepared to approach it as a gradual change in your perception, beliefs and habits about your diet and lifestyle choices.

Nourishing your body with fresh foods can provide the nutrients to support the foundation of your health and wellbeing. Then the next step is a focus on digestion, to enable the absorption of those nutrients into your cells, organs and body, to provide the energy needed to function, think and enjoy life.

Start with these five steps, for just a week, and see how you feel

1. Avoid alcohol for a week. Alcohol converts to acetaldehyde, which is toxic to the body. Alcohol may also damage the gut wall, and reduce the absorption of nutrients.
2. Add colourful vegetables to at least half your plate. The greater the variety, the more important nutrients your body receives.
3. Do 30 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise a day, such a walking, cycling, yoga or swimming. Exercise can support your digestive health, mental health and immune system.
4. Avoid sugar for a week to start changing you taste for sweet foods. Substitute with nuts, crackers and nut butters, fruit, vegetable sticks and smoothies. Sugar highs and lows are stressful to the body, and may lead to irregular carbohydrate metabolism and fatigue.
5. Aim for eight hours of sleep, to give your body time to rest, renew and regenerate.

While these steps may seem obvious, they can lead to powerful changes. These are just a few of the many choices you can make every day - to start changing your past habit patterns that have accumulated over the years and that might have resulted in how you feel today.

If you want to make a significant leap in how you feel, you may want to go even beyond these five steps. You can contact us to discover how personalised nutritional guidance can help you, or book a free 15-minute chat.