Bounce Back From Party Blowout
It’s not a scientific fact but it might as well be: at this time of year your chances of staying on your diet and avoiding hangovers are about the same as your chances of winning the lottery. And sleepless nights, smoking, drinking and eating too many sausage rolls all take their toll on your energy levels and can seriously affect your capacity to keep on partying. Help is at hand, though – ID your particular party blowout, then follow our experts’ tips to repair the damage and recreate that up-for-it, first-party feeling every night of the month.
ID YOUR BLOWOUT
Your boss opened champagne at 5pm and then took you all for drinks. You drank your body weight in alcohol, only ate chips and stumbled home late. You’re seeing double and have the worst hangover ever.
SOS Recovery: Revive
You’ve been to five parties in the past week alone but you’re in overload at work too, which means still have to get up at the crack of dawn. Now you’re so tired you want to cry. In fact, you do cry.
SOS Recovery: Energise
You went to a party and, though you normally have one or two cigarettes on a night out, you smoked at least 25. Your mouth feels dry, you feel toxic and you’re sure tar is oozing from your pores.
SOS Recovery: Detox
It was your boyfriend’s work do last night (read a stomach-stripping Indian food and vat of beer.) Now you have indigestion, a bloated stomach and you fear you’ll never leave the bathroom.
SOS Recovery: Soothe
Last night you ate three trays of canapés, a huge roast, apple crumble and after-dinner mints. Not only do you feel like a complete pig, you’re also worried you won’t fit into your LBD for tonight’s do.
SOS Recovery: Slim
REVIVE
Hangover symptoms strike because your body is dehydrated and your liver is working overtime to get rid of alcohol toxins. Eating chips alone means low blood-sugar levels and, in turn, slumping energy levels.
Best breakfast
‘Alcohol depletes vitamin C and the bacteria in your intestines, so a glass of orange juice and a probiotic drink, such as Yakult, will top up levels,’ says naturopath Michael van Straten. Then have poached eggs, which are rich in the amino acid cysteine, to counteract the toxic effects of alcohol, and wholegrain toast to stabilise blood-sugar levels. If you’re too ill to cook, a breakfast-style baguette from a coffee shop is a good alternative.
Body boosters
Sip water throughout the day to rehydrate. After breakfast, take a milk thistle supplement, then again after lunch to support the liver. Eat every three hours to keep blood sugar on an even level and opt for a light lunch, such as tuna salad. Include celery, as it helps cancel out the fermentation process of alcohol still in your system, and tomatoes, to help reduce liver inflammation.
ENERGISE
It’s estimated that you need eight hours of sleep a night and for every hour of sleep you miss, you feel 8% less positive about your day. Plus, a lack of sleep results in dull skin, puffy eyes and sunken cheeks, and no one wants to look like Edwina Scissorhands this long after Halloween.
Best breakfast
Nutritionist Patrick Holford recommends lifting low energy levels with a nutrient-packed smoothie made with berries and low-fat natural live yoghurt. Simply throw the ingredients into a blender and whiz until smooth. Protein in the yoghurt provides slow-releasing energy and antioxidants in the berries boost vitality. Don’t drink endless cups of coffee, though, as caffeine disrupts blood-sugar balance, disturbs sleep patterns and will have you in the bathroom all day.
Body boosters
Exercise can greatly improve energy levels by oxygenating the tissues, so aim to squeeze in a 15-minute walk before work. This is doubly mood-lifting because sunlight helps increase the amount of serotonin, known as the happy hormone, produced in the brain. Again, sip water throughout the day, or try Vitamin Water.
DETOX
Cigarette smoke contains 4 000 chemicals, many of which are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Binge-smoking wreaks havoc on the body, depleting levels of vitamin C, carotenoids and collagen, the clever substances that help keep skin smooth and, most importantly, wrinkle-free.
Best breakfast
Nutritionist Ian Marber, co-author of The Food Doctor (Collins & Brown), suggests a nutrient-packed fruit salad to replace nutrients. Try mango, melon, cherries or berries. Add a handful of nuts and seeds to slow down the absorption of the fruit’s sugar, fructose, into the bloodstream and keep blood sugar stable.
Body boosters
Start the day with half a lemon squeezed in a cup of warm water and drink lots of water throughout the day to help flush toxins out of your system. For an extra boost of vitamin C, try a sachet of Emergen-C, a water-soluble antioxidant blend to counteract the ill effects of toxins. If the nicotine rush has got to you and you’re tempted to smoke a lot again, try a nicotine-replacement gum.
SOOTHE
Spicy foods and alcohol are acid-forming, which can bloat the gut and cause a burning pain behind the breastbone, as well as giving you wind, constipation and diarrhoea.
Best breakfast
To soothe your stomach, Marber suggests fresh pineapple. It neutralises acid build-up and is rich in bromelain, which speeds up digestion and reduces swelling. Also, papaya contains a protein-digesting enzyme, papain, to help eliminate last night’s excesses, and cranberry juice helps reduce inflammation.
Body boosters
If your stomach is still unsettled, try sipping water laced with the herbal remedy, gentian angelica bitters tincture. ‘Ginger root is widely used as a digestive aid for mild stomach upsets,’ says holistic GP Dr Deborah McManners, so drink herbal tea with ginger. For lunch, tuck into carbohydrate-loaded root vegetables, like potatoes, carrots, turnips and parsnips – all stomach soothers.
SLIM
Recent research from the Glasgow Weight Management Service shows we gain, on average, 2.5kg over the Christmas period and a blowout can notch up a whopping 6 000 calories in one go – the equivalent of walking for 24 hours, or 12 hours on a stair climber.
Best breakfast
Don’t be tempted to go nil by mouth as your body will go into starvation mode, your digestion will slow down and you could end up bingeing again. Instead, have a fresh grapefruit as it contains only 84 calories as well as a fat-burning enzyme. Sprinkle it with cinnamon, which improve the body’s ability to utilise its blood sugar.
Body boosters
Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice in warm water and drink throughout the day to help speed up the digestion process. Take a pill to aid digestion after each meal. Dandelion root, kelp and boldo herbs help reduce water retention and shrink a bloated tummy. Have a light, low-calorie lunch with carbohydrates such as wholemeal bread or brown rice, and a little protein (lean meat, eggs, fish, pulses, avocado, low-fat dairy products or nuts) and you should be slipping into that dress, no problem.