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Holiday Damage Control!

By: Rosa Coelho

It's the next morning ,you wake up feeling like you weigh twice what you did the night before, you're head is achey, you feel bloated and generally feel unfit. As you think back to the night or the nights before you're horrified to think of all the high fat, high calorie foods you ate, not to mention the alcohol.

What now?

You have 3 choices:

1. Wake up and do it all over again by starting the day with a big fry up.

2. Starve yourself all day hoping to balance it all out

3. Be sensible and apply the rules for damage control.

There's really only one choice: DAMAGE CONTROL

Here's what to do if you want to get back on track and ensure that you're not ending the holidays by having put on the extra pounds that will take the beginning of the new year to take off.

Step 1: Have breakfast - This is the best way to give your metabolism a kick start. People who eat breakfast tend to snack less on unhealthy snacks. Include protein as part of your healthy breakfast as protein takes more energy to digest. Try having natural bio live yoghurt with a small handful of mixed organic nuts, or scrambled eggs with a slice of parma ham. Avoid the bread! It's high in sugar that you're body will store as fat. If you'd like a slice of bread have wheat free gluten free rye bread.

Step 2: Eat every 3 hours - Eating every 3 hours will keep your metabolism going throughout the day. Try having small meals high in fibre and protein. Fibre will ensure that you're digestive system gets back on track! Use your left over turkey to make a turkey salad with lots of fresh vegetables, or a light soup made with lots of veggies and homemade turkey stock.

Step 3 - Drink Water - Hydration Hydration Hydration. This is the cheapest and fastest way of sheding the pounds! The chemical proccesses in your body need water to work efficiently. Make sure to drink atleast 1 litre for every 50lbs of body weight. The old 8 glasses a day doesn't work for everyone as we're all different sizes. It makes sense that the smaller you are the less water and vice versa. If you find drinking water difficult then try having herbal teas such as peppermint or chamomille, or try adding slice of lemon to your glass.

Step 4 - Get Moving - You've done an excellent job carbo loading the day before now it's time to burn those calories! The best way to do this is with a bit of interval training. Choose an activity you enjoy either jogging, skipping,or getting on the cross trainer. Warm up for 5 minutes then increase your intensity to about 85% of your maximum effort, do 20 seconds at high intensity with 10 seconds slow. Do this for 10 minutes or as close to 10 as you can get, finish with a 5 minute cool down. In just 20 minutes you'll be sweating and feeling great!

Rather than starting the new year wishing you hadn't put on the extra pounds, follow these four damage control steps and start the new year right!

The holidays are all about overeating and relaxing. Although most of us enjoy ourselves at the time, the following day we are left feeling bloated, dehydrated and generally unfit. To limit these effects follow these simple but effective damage control solutions.

Rosa Coelho is a Performance Coach, Personal Trainer and Sports Massage Therapist at Dax Moy Personal Training Studios in London. Rosa specialises in applying a holistic approach to health and fitness through The POWER Principles. For more information about Rosa visit http://www.rocofit.com

Article Source: http://www.positivearticles.com. PositiveArticles.Com does not vouch for or necessarily endorse the contents of this article.


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