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So, the holidays are here and you’re probably feeling bloated, tired and a little heavier than usual? Dr Kizito Lubano tells us how to cleanse our system as we usher in the New Year
The holiday was wonderful. Yes, you have overdone it, but you enjoyed every moment. You have eaten too much, and to wash it down, you drank too much. Now you’re back home and wondering if this bacchanalian excess was really such a good idea.
Instead of going on a crash diet or thinking that you have to go to the gym for hours on end to start feeling like your pre-holiday self, follow these five tips to post-holiday detox in a healthy way:
• Break the sugar and salt habit. If you feel especially bloated, cutting out the extra sugar, refined carbohydrates and salt you’ve been having at holiday gatherings is the first step to getting back to your usual self. Do this for at least three days to get back on track, and give your system time to reset.
• Load up on veggies. Detoxing is all about getting the bad out and the good back in. So after the holidays, challenge yourself to eat seven to 12 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, and make clean food the bulk of your diet. Get a variety of produce to ensure that you’re getting all those vitamins and minerals you probably skimped on over holiday break.
Try the ‘vegetarian for a week’ challenge, or give ‘meatless Monday’ a try!
• Start off easy at the gym. You’re probably gung-ho about working out right now and think a killer workout is what will get you back on track. Ease back into the gym. It’s better to do a little bit everyday than pushing it hard.
• Make water your new best friend forever. Hydration is the name of the game when it comes to post-holiday detoxing. Guzzle that water throughout the day, trying to get at least 64 ounces. Water helps flush out toxins and helps your body eliminate waste.
• Ignore the scale for a few days. Because of all the extra holiday goodies, which included added sugar, salt and fat, you’re probably a few pounds heavier than normal. Instead of stepping on the scale and feeling down about the number, just forgo the scale. You’ll probably be back to your normal size!
Extreme detoxes aren’t necessary to get back on track after the holidays, nor are they any kind of healthy for your body. It’s also not healthy to beat yourself up over what you ate and those workouts you may have missed. Today is a new day — so appreciate the holidays for what they are (or were) and get back on the healthy track!
Eco-friendly strategies for making the holidays healthier
Instead of tidings of comfort and joy, Christmas often brings mostly stress and excesses such as — too much food, too much drink, too much spending, and too much waste.
Environmentalists advocate an ‘eco-friendly’ holiday season that will result in a “green Christmas” that will put less strain on mother Earth, but some of the same choices they suggest can produce a more people-friendly holiday as well, leading to better health for all. While a truly organic Christmas in this day and age may be hard to imagine, it may be possible to take some steps in that direction.
Consider gift giving, a major feature of the modern-day Christmas celebration. Manufacturing gifts requires consuming resources in the form of raw materials and energy. Shopping for them uses gasoline, and once given, the gifts generate mountains of wrapping paper, ribbons, and cards. Then there are all those trips back to the store to exchange unwanted items, which require more gasoline. All this generates plenty of emotional and financial stress for humans, as well.
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