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5 Simple Tips to Start Feeling Better After a Holiday Indulgence

Good Morning!

I hope you had a good Christmas (or maybe are still having Christmas!).  

The holidays tend to bring on times of indulgence and feeling a little lethargic, so today I have a few tips to help with that 🙂

Before that though, I wanted to mention that we are announcing our ever successful 2023 Nutrition Kickstart ASAP – stay tuned!  

SO many people learned so much from the last one and each year we try to make it a little better and we have some awesome things planned this year to make it even better for you! 

This is the Kickstart I used last year to launch my successful year and I am SO excited to get at it again! I hope you join me =)

A few tips to help you start feeling better post holiday indulging:

1. Drink water: Start pounding it, wake up and chug, refill and drink as much as you can each time you see that bottle/glass.  Don’t have a sip, have a guzzle.  Keep this up all day, keep filling glasses or bottles and have them near you so every time you see it, you chug. 

You will likely feel full and water logged, but it’s going to help you feel much better tomorrow.  You are likely very dehydrated due to consuming a lot of salt, carbs, alcohol, and coffee and not enough water.

Water will help you feel more energized, feel stronger in your workouts so they are more effective (a hydrated muscle is a strong muscle), will help you reduce the bloat, fill you up so you feel less need to snack all day, and will help your digestion when you start eating more fibre, which leads me to number 2…

2. Eat fibre:  Choose foods that are high in fibre: vegetables, some fruits (berries are really high), oats, chia seeds, beans, whole grains, beans, bran, high fibre cereal, protein bars.  

Your fibre intake is likely at an all time low due and will have your digestion system feeling slow and maybe a little uncomfortable.  Water and fibre will be your friend.  Even supplementing with a fibre supplement can be helpful – but you HAVE to drink water too. 

A chicken or shrimp stir fry loaded with veg sounds like a perfect meal!

3. Eat lean protein.  I know your protein has been nearly non-existent; protein from peanut butter bars, sausage and bacon does not count 😉.  Create meals around chicken breast, shrimp, fish, pork tenderloin or lean pork chops, leftover turkey, lean cuts of beef like extra lean ground beef or sirloin, and egg whites. 

Create snacks from greek yogurt, cottage cheese, protein waffles or protein pancakes. 

Have a good serving of protein at least 3x today.

4.  Move your body. It does not need to be anything intense or heavy, but get moving.  

If you have a piece of cardio equipment at home and want something to follow here is an idea:

16 Rounds:

45 sec work and 45 sec rest.  Up it to 20 rounds if your level of “work” is not very intense today. 

Here is a workout idea you can do at home with no equipment:

21-15-9-6-3 reps of each:

Burpees

Tuck Ups (or leg raises)

Air Squats

Push Ups

Sit Ups

Lunges

How it works: You do 21 burpees, then 21 Tuck Ups, 21 air squats, etc. Once you are done 21 lunges, you start at the top doing 15 burpees, and so on.

*If you want to make it longer, start at 27-21-…etc.

**If you want to scale it back, start at the reps of 15, then go to 9-6-3.

5. Give your digestion a rest.  Do a little fast.  Skip eating until lunch or have your first meal when you start to feel a pang of hunger.  Your stomach will thank you and your body will tell you when it wants food, and when it does, please feed it some fibre and protein 😉.  

Don’t be dogmatic about it: it doesn’t need to be exactly X hours  or if you have a bite of something in the meantime that doesn’t mean you screwed up and you should just start chowing down, rather just seeing it as a time to consume less food in and get water in so your digestive system can get back on track.  Maybe you get hungry at 11, maybe you get hungry at 3 or maybe not until 6pm, that’s okay!

Lastly, if you feel any guilt or regret, just let it go and move on. The holidays are special and should be enjoyed, but if you went a little overboard, learn and adjust for the next meal.  Food guilt is unnecessary and not helpful, instead, think about what choices you made that did not serve you and learn for the future to change those behaviours.  If it was just a one time thing but you enjoyed the day, it’s OK!

It only takes ONE day of following the tips above to feel A LOT better and only about 3-4 days on track to feeling almost back to normal, but the problem is people tend to keep smashing it until they feel SO done they need a huge reset. Let’s be smarter and just start implementing some better choices today or whenever works for you and you will be feeling better.  Then on Jan 9th you will be ready to hit the ground running with our super, awesome Level Up Nutrition Kickstart 🤗💪!

I hope these tips help and you start feeling a little better!

-Coach Lindsey

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