Chasing away holiday excess

We know how you’re feeling; Christmas and New Year have passed and, despite your best efforts, you were either tricked into eating something you couldn’t, ate something that used to be a food friend but has now turned it’s back on you, or you made the age old faux pas of taking just one teensy bite. You might even be suffering the effects of stress that the holidays bring.

A week on, you’ve been through the detox process and you’re not feeling so hot. You’re tired, bloated, have dark lines under your eyes, your joints are a bit stiff, and your skin has broken out. You might even find yourself sleeping for a lot longer than usual.

Never fear, we’re here to guide you through this difficult time. Sure, we’re not doctors and urge you all to check out any changes that you want to make to your health regime with your health practitioner first. We consider this more like a bunch of friends lounging around in their post Christmas belly glow (positive or not) talking about tips and tricks that have worked and any other worthwhile info that we’ve come across. With any luck, something will work for you!

Some tips will always be rehashed, in the cases of rehashing we’ll be adding a few more bits of information like research studies, specific brands and so on.

Fresh fruit and vegetable juices.
You’ve heard this one before; fresh fruit and vegetable juices are a superfast way to provide your body with nutrients. And it’s true. Consuming fresh fruit and veg is good for you, one study even found that when post-menopausal women increased their intake of fresh fruit and vegetables there was an increase in their bone mineral density.

 
If you’re tempted by store juices in cartons you might want to check out this article from July of 2011 – apparently our fruit juice labels aren’t as honest as you might think.

I have been relying on fresh pineapple and coriander juice (tastier than you think, just don’t overdo the coriander, a small handful will be enough when juicing half of a pineapple.) and pear and watercress juice this week. I can say that it’s helped give me a boost and has helped with the icky detox process. So I found out just what I was getting in my daily juice:

A fruit composed of coalesced berries, our beloved pineapple. Low in calories and high in soluble and insoluble dietary fibre, pineapple contains bromelain which is famed for breaking down protein. What you might not know about bromelain is that it also has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-clotting properties. But be careful, when consumed in large quantities during pregnancy bromelain can cause uterine bleeding – I’ve not found any solid reference for that one yet but it’s worth noting.

Pineapple is also packed full of the antioxidant vitamin c, has good amounts of vitamin A and is rich in B-complex vitamins.

Coriander or cilantro also contains antioxidants and is a fabulous little herb. Some folk hate the taste because of their genes and there’s a bit of controversy surrounding the claims that it can help the body rid itself of heavy metals. But there are a lot of proven and widely accepted positives for this plant:

• But it can be very good for you, it is traditionally used as an anti-anxiety folk remedy in Iran and this study found that it helped to reduce anxiety in busy mice.
•  this animal study demonstrated that it helps the body release insulin and has an insulin-like effect in diabetics.
• While this study demonstrated that coriander seeds helped to increase good cholesterol while reducing bad cholesterol – that’s pretty awesome.

Watercress is one of those superfoods that hides in the background, it’s peppery and can be an acquired taste to begin with. If you’re not so sure about it (and aren’t allergic to the stuff) it’s worth persevering.

A great source of iron, calcium, folic acid, vitamins A and C, studies have shown that watercress can help inhibit the growth of certain cancers (such as breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer). A recent study also found that it can help boost the concentration of carotenoids in the blood.

Due to it’s high iodine content it can also help to strengthen the thyroid, which is great news for hypothyroid sufferers.

But, there is a word of warning; watercress is a known inhibitor of certain drugs (I’m sorry I can’t list them here), as we always say, please check with your health practitioner that it is safe and suitable for you.

Probiotics

Sheesh, we get it already. You know the deal, it’s great for your gut and our favourite brand is bio-kult. But what we didn’t know is that probiotics are also awesome for your liver as evidenced here.

Exercise

  

It’s an age old recommendation that everyone likes to give. But which ones help the body get over bloating and food-related madness?

Well, we’re here to tell you which ones Em, L, myself and all of our food-trouble friends have had success with:

1. Yoga,
2. Walking (and when you can tolerate it quick bursts of running),
3. jumping around on a trampet trampoline, or in your kitchen for at least 2-3 minutes.
4. going out in the fresh air 

If you’re interested in yoga dvd’s or books we have a few recommendations:

Rodney Yee Yoga, with products covering all yoga levels, rodney yee is a fantastic and well-paced teacher. Our favourite is Power Yoga Total Body, don't be alarmed by the title though. The trick with yoga is to follow your body, everyone who practices yoga is always learning something about their body and the yoga pose. This dvd works you out, so long as you take it at your own pace and pick and choose which exercises you partake in it’s not as intimidating as trying to force yourself to work through it.

David Hittleman’s yoga for health – this was my introduction to yoga, I discovered it at my gran’s house when I was 8 or 9 and asked her to explain. Just in case you’re getting visions of the kid who loooved Physical Education right now, I’d like to let you know that I sucked at P.E. (really) and would go to great lengths not to do it. This book has step-by-step illustrations which guide you through basic yoga moves, and with prices starting at 1p +£2.75 postage it's a steal!

If you'd like to check out our other dietary health tips you might like our posts on foods that  can help with blood sugar levels, the alternatives to sugar series, and the bloating posts. Unfortunately blogger is being slow right now so we can't update the post. Please check back later for links and our ultimate detox tea!

Thanks so much for reading, we hope our tips help!
If you have any detox tips let us know!
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For all you keen readers out there here's a post from Scandi Kitchen with her tips for green cleaning and green grooming.  Make sure you check out her favourite deodorant recipe and her cooking recipes - they're scrumptious!

Freddy, if you are reading this, don't worry. We've hit the research hard and have found a few new products to test out. In the mean time check out this post on shampoo free hair cleaning. If you're not Freddy but would like to know who they are click here to go to our urtekram rose shampoo post and check out the comments, maybe you can help!