Christmas Overindulgence: Here’s What You Can Do To Recover

Christmas just flew by in a blink of an eye, didn’t it? We Filipinos celebrate this special occasion with such grand revelry. More often than not, we indulge ourselves all night long with treats considered sinful in excess. So now, with that over and a new year coming right up, let’s take a pause and look back on our festive habits. Get your health back on track with these holiday recovery tips.

Eat well-balanced meals

You can gain around 2,000 more calories when you feast on your typical Filipino holiday spreads, based on Esquire’s calorie estimate. After treating yourself and satiating your cravings for delectable Christmas staples, you might be considering eating so little or completely starving yourself by eating none. To balance out over-eating and maintain your weight, skipping meals seems like a good idea, but in reality, this will do you more bad than good.

According to the UK's National Health Service (NHS), meal skipping will likely result in tiredness and your body won’t get the nutrients it needs. More than that, extending your hunger can cause you to binge on food with high sugar and calorie content, which could cause your body to gain more weight.

A healthier way to manage your weight is eating well-balanced meals while decreasing your food intake. This way, you still get all the minerals and vitamins you need that are essential to keeping illnesses at bay. Aside from practicing post-Christmas healthy eating, there’s an even better solution: next year, try cooking up a healthy noche buena instead.

Work out

If you want to be more proactive in managing your weight and health, you can choose to sweat it out with physical activity. Regular exercise, aside from helping with your holiday recovery, will help your body in the long term. Aside from maintaining your weight as you age, getting the active can help lessen the risk of chronic illnesses.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults should do 150 minutes of physical activity per week. It sounds a lot but it’s not — you can spread it out by working out 30 minutes a day for five days.

If you’re opting to jog or bike outside, however, remember to practice social distancing at all times to keep safe. If not that, you can also try working out at home by following easy routines on YouTube.

Stay hydrated

Alcohol, when it enters your bloodstream, not only impairs your cognitive function, but also causes dehydration. Still, you often can’t remove drinking from making merry during the holiday season. So if you had a bit too much beer during your at-home Christmas celebration, perhaps it’s best that you have a glass of water on hand throughout the day after.

Drinking eight or more glasses of water a day can lessen dehydration-caused headaches and hangovers. Replenishing your fluids, along with a proper diet, and regular exercise can help bring your post-Christmas health back to its best.

Get good sleep

Most of us stay up late on Christmas Eve to greet the birth of Christ, celebrating until the wee hours of dawn, which, in the end, causes sleep deprivation. It may be a once-in-a-year tradition, but it may cause a shift to our body clocks, prompting us to continue sleeping at later times in the following days or weeks.

Lack of sleep affects our perception and function, and when it happens on a regular basis, it can also drastically affect our health. Harvard Medical School says that poor sleeping habits can put you more at risk for developing medical conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and poor immune function.

That’s why, after staying up late to celebrate, make sure to get your eight hours of sleep to regain your energy. And, as another holiday recovery tip, make sure to sleep early the following night in order to revert back to your old and healthier sleeping habits.

Commit to change

Take advantage of this lull between Christmas and the New Year to reflect on your health habits in the past year. Aside from remedying the excesses you’ve done this holiday season, consider adopting these new habits in the long run to further improve your health.

These might just be small changes to your lifestyle, but these will greatly boost your body to its top shape. For a more comprehensive review of your health, you can also reach out to a doctor to help you out. Book a consultation with licensed professionals at SeeYouDoc so you may welcome 2021 and the coming years in better health.

Sources: NHS, CDC, Harvard Medical School, Esquire