Let’s face it, yesterday hit you hard. Any ordinary Monday is hard, but the Monday after Thanksgiving is extra hard. Not only are you recovering from four days full of amazing food and drinks, but your coworkers bringing in leftover pies and sweets doesn’t help either. With it being so close to the end of the year, it’s really easy to let go of your fitness and wellness goals.
You absolutely should not feel ashamed of indulging yourself with food. You deserve it and there’s nothing wrong with it all. The holidays are for giving thanks, spending quality time with family and friends, and getting much-needed time away from work. This celebration is accompanied by delicious treats, boozy drinks, and oversized meals. But, the problem comes in when you feel overly bloated and lethargic. You owe it to yourself to treat your body well, and keep yourself healthy. You’d want to enjoy those upcoming holiday parties without feeling sick to your stomach.
On this ‘Giving Tuesday’, not only should you give to charities and organizations, but also to yourself. It’s easy to get lost in the holiday madness and not give any time to yourself. But, taking care of yourself is good for your well-being, both physically and mentally. You want to end 2018 in the best way possible, so make the most out of the remaining five weeks. And, yes, shockingly there are only five weeks left until the new year!
Here are simple tips to get yourself back on track and end the year strong.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
Chances are that you didn’t drink enough water over the holiday weekend. I, myself, am guilty of this. All I drank is mostly wine and champagne, as well as coffee to make myself feel less groggy in the mornings. Maybe I drank two glasses of water over the four days? And, this is exactly why I felt really bloated by midday Sunday.
Sorry for the graphic image, but your Thanksgiving dinner and its subsequent leftover meals might still be stuck halfway in between your mouth and the toilet bowl—somewhere in between your small intestines and colon, to be exact. By drinking water, you’re literally washing it through, and ultimately out of your system. As a rule of thumb, you should divide your body weight (LBs) in half, and that number is how many fluid ounces of water you should drink in a given day.
See Also: What to Wear to the Thanksgiving Table
Do not skip meals, especially not breakfast.
You should never think you should skip a meal just because you ate a lot the day before. Skipping meals will really confuse your metabolism. It’d be hard to get used to getting a lot of food one day, and none the next day. Stock up on lean proteins and fiber, since those will help move things in your body and eliminate the bloating. Also, bananas are an excellent source of potassium, which flushes out excess sodium in your body.
Leafy greens are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. They’re a great thing to eat if you want to jumpstart any eating plan. My personal favorite is kale because it’s so versatile. You can stir-fry it, mix it in smoothies, or crisp it to make it into chips.
What you’d want to skip is dairy, for at least a few days. Dairy is a bloating culprit, so it would be very counterintuitive to eat it when you’re trying to de-bloat.
Ease back into your exercise routine.
You’d want to ease back into the gym with a 20-minute cardio workout on the first day. A shorter workout is much easier to get yourself back. Also, this shorter commitment will get you more likely to start working out again after the holiday. And yes, holiday shopping can be considered cardio.
Yoga poses are a great way to make sure your digestion track is working well. Plus, yoga will help you stretch your muscles, and therefore prevent any injuries if you decide to go back to lifting weights and/or go hard on the cardio.
Get to work early this week.
This might sound like the last thing you’d want to do after a long holiday weekend, but you’ll thank yourself later. Your first days back to the office were probably chaotic, and that doesn’t help your body or mind feel better. Avoid the distractions of your coworkers’ post-holiday small talk by getting a bunk of work done even before they come into the office. Finally, get caught up on all of your voicemails and emails. The end of the year is chaotic for any office—so prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed by being on top of your work. Plus, getting a better hold of your work will help you feel more energetic, and increase your willpower to hit the gym after work.
Remember, there’s less than a month left until your next break.
You’d want to enter the December holidays by feeling your absolute best. Take care of yourself and stay on top of work so you can enter the holidays less stressed. As much as the holidays are meant to be joyful and gratifying, we all know that the reality is that they’re pretty darn stressful. And you are going to feel worse if your body is failing you. Schedule regular down times for you to practice self-care and reset. You can be nice to others only if you’re nice to yourself first.
