If you celebrated Thanksgiving as it is traditionally celebrated (you know, pants unbuttoned after dinner, dessert to last until Christmas and sweatpants picked out for every day next week), then you might be thinking about how to undo that post-feast food coma. In the spirit of “giving,” we’ve got 5 ways to beat the bloat post-Thanksgiving feast that don’t include starving yourself, juice-cleansing, or working out ‘til you pass out.
1. Drink Water: It may seem counterintuitive since you feel like you’re retaining a lot of water, but the more H2O you drink, the more you flush the toxins out of your system. Choosing to eat vegetables with a high water volume also helps.
Photo by Becky Hughes
2. Cut out Sugar: Gasp! Yes, it seems drastic, but after the extra slice of pecan pie you may have downed (no judgment), a few days without sugar might not be so bad.
Photo by Becky Hughes
3. Cut out Alcohol: Again, not trying to break your heart here, but giving your liver a rest allows your body to metabolize fat more efficiently, since it naturally uses the byproduct of alcohol before it uses that protein plate you ordered post-Palladium run. Skip the booze this weekend, and let your body get its energy from the good stuff- lean protein and complex carbs.
Photo by Becky Hughes
4. Start your Day with Lemon Water: Beyond just getting in those 8 glasses per day, try adding some lemon to your morning sips. Lemons notoriously detox the liver, provide a boost of vitamin C, and help you digest. (Especially helpful when reliving bites of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pie…)
5. Swear off Salt: Simply stated, ingesting salty foods makes you retain water. Retaining water makes you bloat. Chances are, your grandma was going for flavor, not less sodium, when seasoning her turkey and stuffing, so swearing off chips, fries, and the like for a few days won’t be the end of the world.
Photo by Becky Hughes