The Easter Hangover

Have you left the Easter weekend feeing like you over did it? Be it too much chocolate of the Egg variety or too much alcohol or maybe a bit of both (I’ll be honest, unlike normal me, I’ve had little chocolate this weekend but did wake up Sunday swearing to never drink again).

There can be a real temptation the day after a heavy weekend, or even just night, when you feel like you’ve over indulged and ruined your diet, to go all out healthy the next day. You know the one. i will eat nothing but leaves and drink nothing but water and run 50 miles each morning and meditate and lift heavy things and sleep for 12 hours a day and I will do this for the rest of my life to atone for the 500 extra calories I’ve convinced ruined my life over the weekend.

This in itself makes us feel worse in reality. We won’t stick to it for more than 23 minutes and then come 10 am when we’ve succumbed to a biscuit with a cup of tea we are kicking ourselves again at our obvious lack of willpower.

The fact of the matter is if you ate chocolate until you were sick or stayed up until 5am and spent yesterday in bed you might not feel very smug today. Smug is a bit of a dull feeling though and in actual fact if you just get back to normal today and eat your normal amount of food, drink plenty of fluids, train as you normally would, get some steps in you’ll actually feel pretty much back to normal by the time you go to bed. Maybe a little bit of extra fresh air would be beneficial if you do feel particularly rubbish.

Extremes rarely work. You have to have a very particular mindset to be comfortable sticking to very strict regimes for long periods of time and even if you are able to, it will often be at the cost of doing things you’ll enjoy. Balance, as so many PTs will say, is key. The problem is when we feel rubbish about ourselves our brains tell us that really strict will probably bring quicker results and when we feel rubbish that’s appealing. It actually takes quite a lot of willpower to override that little voice in your brain and just try and get back on with trying to be a bit sensible when you feel like that.

If you can today though, just try to be normal and not beat yourself up about any over indulgences.

Tribal Gathering Manchester 01.06.19

On Saturday I went to Les Mills Tribal Gathering in Manchester.

This is an opportunity for instructors to try out the new releases and catch up with one another, and this one was a bit special because the Programme Director for Body Pump and RPM, Glen, flew over from New Zealand to teach.

It’s a long day- I was up at 6.00 am and got to bed at 3.30 am the next day!

Below is a 5 minute video to give you an idea of what a day at a Tribal Gathering is like!

P.s. I am not a good camera woman but I thought this would be more interesting than me writing about it!

Hangovers and Training

Sweating out a hangover.

Something you’ll hear often and we’ve probably all said.

How should you train the day after a heavy drinking sessions?

It sounds appealing- almost like atonement – make up for the things you put your body through the night before. But when you drink a lot you become dehydrated, going to the gym and working out will cause further dehydration to occur. This can make exercise feel more draining than normal (you are more likely to suffer from cramps for instance) so you can end up feeling worse rather than better. Studies have also suggested that greater than normal fatigue can also affect our co-ordination leading to a greater risk of strains or injury. There is also evidence that alcohol can have an effect on protein synthesis so it can be harder to recover after a sessions as effectively as you normally would.

Hangovers obviously vary on a scale and if you had one glass of wine last night you will probably feel fine to work out the next day but if you wake up dizzy, shaking with your head banging heading to the gym for a hardcore workout could make you feel worse than you already do.

Instead drink all the water to hydrate – consider adding some hydration tablets or salts such as these Electrolytes.

Don’t try restricting your food intake to make up for overdoing it, have a good meal – eggs on toast and a banana is a decent breakfast idea for making you feel better.

If you really want to be active get outdoors and go for a walk – some light movement and fresh air will almost definitely help.

Sleep. Your quality of sleep is often reduced when drunk so a nap could make you feel brighter quicker.