Silly Season Survival

20 Dec Silly Season Survival

Let’s face it. You are all going to drink and eat the odd carb this summer. It’s been a big year. Enjoy. We can’t stop you. Whilst we would advocate moderation, we know that sometimes this won’t happen either. As long as you are having fun we are all for it. So in the spirit of letting your hair down this silly season here are some not so silly ideas to help you maintain your health.

1. Support COMT

Your liver has 2 phases and 6 processes to detox. The COMT gene is down-regulated in many of us. This codes for phase II liver detox. The limiting factor (without which it won’t work), is magnesium. We naturopaths in the know will magnesium load before a big night to support COMT. The trick? Drink a tsp of mg bisglycinate or citrate in a large glass of water prior to going out, preferably whilst out and then again before bed. You will wake up sans headache and be the envy of your friends.

2. Hydrate!

We tend to get a little anxious and excited when socialising. This causes the hand holding our drink to go to the mouth more often. Swap every second drink for a glass of water with or without fizz and gas. I put mine in a huge wine goblet with ice and lemon and sometimes beet kavass. The beet kavass I tell everyone is Campari. This stops people hassling me to ‘have another’.

3. Protein load.

Take 2 scoops of protein powder with some water or nut milk. This will put glycogen into your liver and satiate the appetite. You won’t need to eat straight away and will be able to wait until the ‘proper’ food has come out and avoid the cheese, chocolate, dips etc.

4. Take time out.

When gathering socially just walk out for 5 minutes. Tell everyone you have gone to the loo. Just leave everyone’s energy and tune into you. This settles the vagus nerve moving you into rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system activity and out of sympathetic excitation.

5. Eat well first.

I know the mince pies, trifle, chocolates, breads, pastas and ‘naughty’ foods look great. All I’m saying is – eat your proper food first and then eat a little of the other.

6. Earn it.

Decide before you go out what your extra consumption will be even if it is a bit OTT. Work out how many calories that is and earn it first. Wine is roughly 130 calories per standard glass, vodka and gin are around 60 calories without mixers. Most people burn around 300 calories doing cardio at a heart rate of 130 bpm for 30 minutes.