Tips for Healthy Recovery from the Holidays

With New Year’s day come and gone, it’s time to take a deep breath and utter a sigh of relief that we’ve made it through another hectic holiday season.

Holistic nutritionist Lisa Margolin offers helpful advice, “As much as we enjoy the many happy moments of the season, the physical and emotional stress of the holidays can takes its toll on our health and steer us far from our healthy eating goals. The key to success is not to get discouraged or overwhelmed about the detour…focus now on finding your way back.”

Now is the time to follow these easy steps to renew our energy and shed those extra holiday pounds so we can healthfully take on the cold winter months ahead. Here are some ideas to help you start the New Year off right:

1) Get rid of the holiday leftovers and baked goods. Pass on your leftovers to neighbors, friends, or family, take baked goods into the office for the staff, find a way to get them out of the house as soon after the holidays as possible. Once the rich holiday foods and baked goods are out of your refrigerator and pantry, you’ll be able to focus your attention on eating more nutritious whole foods again.

2) Restock your refrigerator with fresh fruits and vegetables. Citrus fruits are in season now, and the delicious and sweet Clementine oranges are available in many supermarkets. Take advantage of their availability and reach for one when you need a snack during the day or before bedtime. Start drinking a glass of fresh squeezed lemon water every day to help detox your body from the holiday overindulgences, and to help your digestive system work more efficiently. Select leafy green vegetables such as Swiss chard, collard greens, escarole, and prepare them with a bit of olive oil and garlic. These are easy for your system to digest and they are packed with important nutrients.

3) Make a pot of vegetable soup. Eating soup regularly will help you get lots of vegetables into your diet and will aid you in losing and maintaining your weight. Preparing a pot of vegetable soup with this simple recipe is easy: sauté 3 tablespoons of olive oil with 4 cloves of chopped garlic, add a diced onion, a chopped red pepper, 2 stalks of sliced celery, and ½ of a head of cabbage, sliced thin and chopped into small pieces. Simmer the vegetables until softened, adding some water to keep them from sticking. Add a large can of vegetable juice (low sodium if you prefer), to make the tomato based broth. Add spices such as basil, thyme, fresh parsley, and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Slow boil the soup until the vegetables are tender. Eat a bowl of this soup for one meal each day until the soup is gone. This is a great cleansing soup and helps to give your digestive system a break after the hard to digest foods eaten over the holidays. Continue to prepare a pot of soup each week throughout the winter for satisfying, easy to digest, and nutritious meals.

4) Add ground flaxseed to your diet. Incorporating flaxseed into your diet can improve the functioning of your digestive system, increase your energy and stamina, assist in weight loss and maintenance, provide relief from inflammation and allergies, enhance mental clarity, and boost your immune system. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds to your hot oatmeal or breakfast cereal in the morning; add it to a soy protein smoothie for a quick lunch, or to a vegetable stir-fry or a bowl of brown rice. There are so many ways to include ground flaxseed into your diet, and the health benefits of eating it regularly are worth the extra effort.

5) Pass on the bread. When dining out, forgo the tempting bread that is put on the table while you wait for your meal. And when preparing meals at home, be creative and avoid serving bread, particularly white bread at mealtime. Just eliminating bread from your daily diet should help you to lose those few extra pounds you put on during the holidays. If you feel very ambitious, you can avoid all white flour and white sugar products until you have given your body a chance to recover from the holiday indulgences.

6) Use a smaller plate. Sit down at the table to eat your meal rather than eating on the go, standing at the kitchen, or in front of the television. Choose a smaller plate than the standard dinner plate to eat your meal from, and take a deep breath before you begin to eat. During your meal, stop and take a few more deep breaths and then continue with your meal. It’s amazing how fast many of us eat our meals and in doing so, we forget to savor the flavors of our food. We also need to take the time to enjoy the company of family and friends with whom we may be sharing our meals, and to appreciate the wonderful foods we have available to us in abundance in our country. To slow down your meal even more, eat with chopsticks when appropriate.

7) Drink some herbal tea. There are so many wonderful varieties of herbal teas to choose from these days, and it’s fun to experiment with new ones. Take a few moments out of your day to make yourself a cup of herbal tea and enjoy the warm, aroma, and flavor. Along with stimulating your senses and calming your nerves, you may be selecting a tea that provides antioxidants, aids in digestion, builds immunity, reduces stress, relieves sinus congestion, and much more. Drinking tea can also help to suppress your appetite and lessen the temptation to snack on sugary and fatty foods.

8) Exercise. Make a plan to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Go to sleep 15 minutes earlier so you can wake up and spend 15 minutes stretching, walking, riding the stationary bike, or following along with an exercise video. This should be one of your top priorities for the New Year. If you feel good now, you’ll feel even better once exercise becomes an integral part of your daily lifestyle. To recover from the holidays and to beat the winter blues, exercise must be an essential component of your plan.

Follow these easy steps to healthy recovery from the holidays, and you’ll be giving yourself the gift of good health for the New Year.