Pre Christmas intervention!

In a month, it’s Christmas time! The holiday season is always full of love, gifts, and food! Since we got a month ahead of us, let’s get started with our pre Christmas intervention!

Rule#1: aim at losing a kilo or two

If you are not at your ideal weight, kick start the holiday season by losing one or two kilos. Usually, most people gain around one or two kilos at best during the holidays, and end up even more frustrated with their weight afterwards. That way, you will avoid the second of January scale shock. Instead of adding to your 2015 resolution “lose weight urgently!” you could start the year with “keep up the good work weight wise”. Such positive thoughts are always a good way to start the New Year!

Rule#2: traffic is no excuse

If you feel like you will miss out on your gym schedule due to traffic, be proactive, and start a home workout plan. You could finally make use of the treadmill you bought last year, or get sports DVDs to use after work. Or even you could just ask your coach to come at home, or teach you some moves that you can do on your own. Nowadays, let’s face it, so many options are offered for us to work out from home. So no excuse!

Rule#3: soups and salads

By the 20^th of December you will be constantly fully loaded with meaty fatty foods, such a turkey, gravy, foie gras, buche… you name it! So why not lighten up your meals this month? For example, make sure that on most days, the bulk of your meals are based on cooked vegetables, or salads, or veggie soups (of course without stock cubes, or butter or cream). For example, you could have for lunch loubieh bi zeit with brown bread, and a cup of low fat yogurt, and then at night a carrot and tomato soup with a quinoa and halloum salad. Next day, you could eat grilled fish with spinach and steamed potatoes, and for dinner boiled zucchini and green beans salad with a bit of labneh and rice cakes. Bottom line: lighten up your meals and curb your appetite with vegetables and fibers.

Rule#4: shop smart

By shopping smart I mean, take advantage of the mall to burn more calories. If the mall is next to your house, go walking. If not, don’t park at the closest spot to the elevator. While shopping, try to walk as much as possible, use the stairs, check out each floor decoration, and basically keep moving. And please no ice cream or coffee shop stops, unless you will stick to tea or black coffee.

 Enjoy!

The Hang Over Cure!

Saturday night is long gone, and Sunday morning has a flavor of headache over an alcohol breath. Who hasn't felt this end of weekend "disease", that general sense of exhaustion, coupled with the Sunday blues? Well, today, I shall fight the hang over. No weekend will have to end in bed feeling like trash anymore!

1- Drink plenty of water

Ideally, you should start drinking a glass of water for every alcoholic drink throughout the night. However, whether you skipped that part or not, it would be pretty smart to drink plenty of water once you get back home, and when you wake up the next morning. Why? Well, from scientific point of view, the post-drinking headache is due to severe dehydration caused by alcohol. To correct this dehydration, you need to drink water, so always remember to keep a bottle of water next to your bed, in case you got too lazy during the night.

2- Have a carbohydrate-rich meal

Drinking alcohol lowers blood sugar levels, and as a result, you feel exhausted since your body is running without fuel. Therefore, you need to eat carbohydrates. For the juice and fruit smoothie lovers, this is great news and a double duty strategy. In fact, you increase your fluid and sugar intake at once. In addition, consuming bread, corn flakes, oat, fruits, or any other starchy food will help you get your energy level back to near-normal.

2- Exercising

This all depends on whether you’re not feeling nauseated and can actually stand up! The trick is to hydrate first to avoid any further unnecessary fluid loss. The big question is “how can exercising help with hangovers?” Well, the good thing about exercising is the endorphin release, you know, the happiness chemicals... After an alcoholic night, we all tend to feel tired, not at ease in our own skin, and a bit down. This is where going for a run can make all the difference. Instead of spending your day feeling slow and low, you are re-energized.

4- Coffee and tea

While coffee may not help directly with the hangover, it can give you a boost to get moving. Make sure to have had enough water before gulping on your coffee.

As for tea, it will help you reduce the puffy eyes that you could have after a long night. You could use it as cold pads on your eyes. The caffeine in the tea will constrict the blood vessels around the eyes, and reduce the puffy look.

By now, you're almost fresh and ready to go for your Sunday family lunch! Happy end of weekend everyone!