Tips for Post Holiday Recovery
Welcome to 2024! Let’s be honest, the holidays can be wonderful, challenging, and chaotic all the same time. If you’re anything like me, you’ve gotten out of routine, indulged a little (or a lot), and are looking forward to getting back in a rhythm.
Here are three things I’m talking with my clients about this week to feel better as we all return to some level of normalcy:
Increase your Vitamin D dose: It’s winter which brings cold and flu season for all of us, especially parents of little ones. To keep your household healthy, bolster your immune system by supplementing with 10,000IU of Vitamin D per day. We use a liquid that includes Vitamin K like this one from Thorne (20 drops a day) so you can supplement up to the optimal 60-80ng/mL range without any arterial calcification risk. Get it in daily and you’ll notice you get sick much less frequently
Get the treats out of sight: The way our brains are wired we’re unlikely to be successful with junk food at our fingertips. It’s time to clean out the pantry of Christmas cookies, candy, and other sweet treats we enjoyed over the holidays. Did you know just seeing junk food triggers a hormonal response that initiates a sweets craving? Often this happens so quickly we don’t even really have time to think about it until you’ve got that errant cookie in your mouth. Clients often joke that it’s not even a voluntary decision, which is sadly true. So how do you win? Get it out of the house. If you can’t see it, you won’t eat it.
Get some great sleep: Bedtimes are often all over the place during the holidays. We stay up late, sleep in, and generally disrupt our circadian rhythm. Take this next week to reset your bedtime. The gold standard is 8 hours of lights out, which should allow most people 7+ hours of actual sleep. Want even better results? Make sure to put down anything with a screen 60min prior to lights out. High quality sleep will improve your mood stability, cognitive capacity, reduce junk food cravings, and make you more pleasant to be around.