Urban Vitality's guide to a healthy(ish) party season

It’s approaching party season again and you are faced with the ultimate dilemma! You want to stay on track with your health and fitness goals but don’t want to be tea total over the party season. Wouldn’t it be great if you could drink during the party season AND not blow your waistline? The good news is YOU CAN DO IT, if you follow these simple principles.

Eat

Before…
Eat foods high in good fats and protein prior to drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol, particularly drinks with added sugar, causes a rapid rise in blood sugar which can leave you craving food a few hours later (kebab anyone?). Eating foods high in fat and protein before and with alcohol can prevent this occurring and keep your post alcohol food binges at bay.

After…
Make sure you have a good quality multivitamin to consume before you go to bed. Especially one that contains high levels of vitamin B and Vitamin C. Not only does drinking alcohol provide you with barely any nutrients but it can Block the absorbtion of several vitamins and minerals. This again will leave you craving certain things the day after. Drinking a pint of wheatgrass or good water soluable multivitamin, will keep those post alcoholic binges at bay and reduce a hang over.

Drink

Drinking water in between your alcohol drinks and afterwards will drastically reduce the damage alcohol can have on your waist line. Diluting these toxins with water will help the body remove them and prevent the body from having to store them in adipose tissue – That’s Fat.

Drinking better quality alcoholic drinks can also reduce the amount of toxins that your body has to deal with. (Remember where it likes to store toxins!) Many beers and lagers also have chemicals added to make them clearer and lighter, avoid these if you want to avoid the mother of all hangovers!

And Be Merry

Laughter - Fun
One of the main ways we can reduce the damaging affects of alcohol is bizaarely to make sure we have! Laughter and deep breathing stimulates the PNS which is responsible for the activation of white blood cells and removal of toxins from our body. Doing something you really enjoy whilst drinking, or the day after drinking can reduce the damaging affects of alcohol. Have you ever wondered why sometimes you don’t seem to get such bad hangovers?

Sleep

The earlier you go to sleep the more time your body will have to detoxify itself. With a decent amount of water before bedtime, allied to a decent soluble multivitamin, you can get rid of a lot of the toxins before you wake up. This is also why the three o’clock in the morning drinking sessions can give you the two day hangover.

So There you go, you really can Eat drink and be merry this Christmas you just need to do it consciously!

Merry Christmas from the Urban Vitality Team, www.theurbanvitalitycompany.co.uk

December 5, 2008