With the Xmas holidays upon us many of us will be enjoying the holidays, and by the time boxing day rolls around Christmas eve will be a distant memory we'd rather forget. Someone pass the aspirin. Now.
It’s unrealistic to expect any of you to completely cut out the booze, we both enjoy a few, one of us more than the other ;). But there are ways to prepare your body and ready it for the battlefield that is boozing.
On the day:
- GET YOUR FRUIT AND VEG IN:
- Alcohol saps the body of vital minerals and vitamins, so the day of the booze bonanza make sure you’re getting plenty of fruit and veg, they will help with the subsequent hangover.
- Have a slightly lighter breakfast and lunch. Consider taking 50-100kcal off each meal, or if you don’t count calories a bit less potatoes, rice or pasta with lunch, or cut out the afternoon snack.
- Prioritise protein intake on these days and keep carbs & fats relatively low.
2. MOVE, WALK, DANCE, DO SOMETHING!
- Your weight comes down to a simple equation of ‘Calories in (what you consume) vs Calories out (energy you burn)’. At the end of each day if you take on more energy (food or alcohol) than your body burns, you put on weight, and vice versa. A lot of the calories people forget are in the mixers. If you have 3 x G&Ts, and opt for slimline tonic instead of the normal, you save yourself 100 calories right there.
- By burning some calories by doing some form of exercise, even just a lunch time power walk with your favourite podcast or a 30 min HIIT session, prior to a night out you start with the scales tipped towards weight loss and therefore you can enjoy a few drinks guilt free, knowing you’ll just be balancing out the scales. That doesn’t mean a 30 minute lunch time walk means you can go mental at the bar though.
3.DEFINITELY MIX YOUR DRINKS:
- Not in the sense of beer, cider, shot, mixer, jägerbomb, wine, sick, then home. Try and sneak in a few glasses of water here and there through the night. Even if you use a glass of water as chaser to your shot! It may seem lame but it’s a game changer for alleviating hangovers.
Here's a quick comparison for you to show that just a few simple, and not necessarily boring changes, can actually make a huge difference calorifically to your night(s) out (over 2,000kcal difference). People are likely to over-indulge on long weekends, it's part of human nature, but by making a few alterations you can limit the damage rather than putting yourself back to square one!
Have an AWESOME Christmas break everybody!
