Maybe you have the discipline to resist sweets and heavy food throughout the year, but the holiday season is the time when even the strongest of us give in to the urge to eat whatever is on the table. It’s that time of the year when everybody is indulging themselves in all those cookies, dressings, cakes, hot chocolate, and wine.
Well, not to worry – maybe you got carried away and know you feel guilty for that holiday binge but there are ways to get back on track. Here’s what you should do.
8 Ways To Bounce Back After a Holiday Indulgence
1. Start with a healthy breakfast
You may think it would be better for you to skip breakfast after a day of overeating but it’s not. Your body needs energy after sleep, and a healthy meal will help you control yourself more easily throughout the day. In other words, it may be an introduction to healthy eating for the rest of the day. The best choice for breakfast would be food high in fiber and proteins, such as legumes, vegetables, or whole grains. This combination can even block the strong feeling of hunger later in the day.
2. Hydrate your body
Water isn’t important for your health in general – more precisely, it helps you control your appetite and improve weight loss. It is important to stay hydrated, especially after the binging day. Drinking more water could also speed up your metabolism, helping you get rid of some extra calories. You should listen to your body and drink whenever you feel thirsty but maybe it would be also helpful if you drink a glass of water every 2-3 hours even if you’re not thirsty. Your body will know how to use it.
3. Find a friend for a workout
Holidays are the time we completely break our routine, so you probably stopped exercising regularly, too. To create the habit of working out again, you will need help from a friend. Decide together to go to the gym or to go jogging – whatever you enjoy, so that you can motivate each other during the first couple of sessions – they are the hardest.
4. Do yoga
Doing yoga could help you prevent overeating. The secret is that yoga has a positive effect on your mental state, removing the feeling of anxiety and relieving stress, which are factors that can cause overeating. In the long run, you should try adding yoga to your usual regime, not just after the holidays. It will make you more resistant to emotional overeating in the future.
5. Speed up your metabolism
Heavy holiday food slows down our metabolism, allowing fat cells to pile up in our bodies. When you decide it’s high time you come back to the old, healthy habits, you need to help your metabolism do its job properly after the holiday period. You should concentrate on your gut health, as it’s how your body gets nutrients and burn calories. Most of the time, it’s not enough just to start eating healthy again. The surest way to speed up your metabolism and restore your gut health is to add a few quality supplements to your diet like effective apple cider vinegar capsules or any other that could improve the results.
6. Fill your plate with plants
After all that sugar, you should stuff yourself with fruits and vegetables. Eat at least three fruits a day, enjoy big salads with a lot of protein, and put extra vegetables on your plate for dinner. You can even eat jicama with lime juice as a snack. The point is that you start craving fresh food after a couple of days, while the desire to eat sugar will significantly reduce during that time.
7. Don’t skip meals
You already know that you shouldn’t skip breakfast, but this refers to all the meals during the day. Maybe you think you’ll be better off if you skip a meal or two, trying to make a longer break between the meals but it won’t do you any good. Skipping meals will only increase your feeling of hunger, as well as your appetite, making you binge when you finally get your hands on the food. Whether you usually have three meals a day or 5-6 smaller ones, you should stick to your habit after the holidays. Don’t deprive yourself of your usual meals.
8. Don’t be angry at yourself
You mustn’t feel bad about your holiday binge. Don’t think or talk negatively about yourself. If you overate the day before, act like nothing happened and start the next day fresh, keeping your healthy habits. Making yourself feel bad could only make you eat more.
Feeling guilty because of the holiday binge is normal but leave that guilt behind. These helpful steps will help you get back on track more easily than you think.
