No doubt after the past year of hard work, sweat and tears you couldn’t wait to relax and indulge over Christmas…and to be honest, if you cant let go once a year to reward yourself and enjoy all that wonderful food, drink, sweets, desserts, chocolate, and alcohol then whats the point of all your hard work!
But then of course comes the time after Christmas, and the post-Christmas bloat. Forget hitting the beach on Boxing Day because if you do you will more concerned about hiding your pregnant looking belly than working on your tan. So how do you beat it? And what is the most effective way to work off all those potatoes and 200 prawns dipped in tartar sauce that you inhaled at entree?
Well here are the best tips for you to soothe your digestive system and get back some balance after your indulgent Christmas day:
Peppermint Tea
To get your digestive system back on track, try drinking Peppermint Tea. You can even make a large iced jug to keep in the fridge over the hot summer months. This particular herbal tea calms abdominal pain and helps food move through the intestines quicker after eating too much rich stuff!
Beach Walks
Take advantage of the fact most of us live walking distance to the beach and get some soft sand walks in. Not only will you get the blood pumping and burn off those extra calories, but you will also get that much loved time out to reflect on the year past and get clear on your New Years Resolutions.
Probiotics
Try and incorporate natural yogurt or probiotics into your daily diet to help bring some balance back to your digestive system after all the excesses! You can do this easily by adding yogurt into your breakfast. I personally take a probiotic upon waking and also add yogurt to my gluten free muesli every morning. Another easy way to add yogurt into your diet is by adding it to a smoothie in the blender with your choice of milk, fruit and some ice.
Fibre Focus
To reduce bloating quickly and bring your blood sugar back down to an even, steady level, focus on including as much fruit, veggies and fibre as you can in your post-Christmas diet. Wholegrains like brown rice, whole wheat and oats are excellent choices. You will soon feel the difference after a few days!
Water Water Water
The most important factor in cleansing your body and healing the bloat after some festive indulgence is water…lots of water! Not only will you flush out all the impurities and toxins from the naughty food you ate, but you will also help your body to get rid of any excess liquid that it’s holding on to. You should start to feel revitalised in just a few days.
Ginger
One of the best herbs in terms of detoxing and re-balancing the body is ginger. As well as soothing the digestive tract and settling an overactive stomach, it also increases circulation, helping your body to rid itself of any toxins. The best way to take your ginger to add a few slices to a cup of hot water, lemon and honey first thing in the morning.
Burn Fat
One of the best methods to burning fat is HIIT training, especially using resistance. Now even using your own body weight is just as effective. And lets face it after a day of feasting you may have a little more load than normal! Being the holidays most people dont want to spend hours in a gym or too much time training so the perfect solution is tabata. Whats tabata I hear you say? Well its a form of HIIT training that generally consists of 20 seconds of high intensity followed by 10 second of low intensity or recovery. You can really get the metabolism firing with the classic 8 rounds (4 minutes). YES! Even 4 minutes can get you into a fat burning mode so just try it and feel the effects. Here’s an example of a Vixen Tabata workout:
Post Christmas Body Blitz
Focus: Legs/Cardio; Upper/Core
20sec: Star Jump Squats
10sec: Recovery
20sec: Push Up/Suicides
10sec: Recovery
Repeat 3 more rounds
Time: 4min workout
For more awesome body weight Tabata Workouts that you can do anywhere and anytime, check out our Bikini Body Tabata Video Series complete with 20 Hard HIITing Video Workouts filmed LIVE on Bondi Beach plus an eBook with all the workouts and descriptions. Click HERE
