It’s mid December and we are in the thick of Christmas and end of year festivities and fun. It’s not quite the time to completely let loose (though you may really feel like it). Many of us are still working, completing projects and tidying up those loose ends before we go to break. Hang in there! Here are some tips to get you through with ease, grace and energy.
- Are you burning the candle at both ends, feeling fatigued and needing a caffeine drip to function?
- Enjoy a long black with a swirl of coconut oil, butter or ghee. Check out this Bulletproof Coffee recipe. The addition of a high quality fat to your coffee will improve your energy – mentally and physically for longer periods of time.
- Don’t like coffee, enjoy some delicious pick–me–up teas which bolster immunity, adrenals and general vitality such as Licorice root, Lemon myrtle, Hibiscus flower, Rosehip and Rosemary leaf. Choose quality, organic tea – free of chemicals.
- Drink water. I know it’s pretty simple. According to Dr Batmanghelidj, author of the book The Water Cure, “The effects of even mild dehydration include decreased coordination, fatigue, dry skin, decreased urine output, dry mucous membranes in the mouth and nose, blood pressure changes and impairment of judgment. Stress, headache, back pain, allergies, asthma, high blood pressure and many degenerative health problems are the result of UCD (Unintentional Chronic Dehydration). Drink 3% of your body in kg = number of litres required per day. Drink quality, filtered or spring water.
- Feeling stuffed? Full, heavy, sluggish, bloated, windy, can’t digest?
- Eat less. Sample food. Small tastings instead of filling up your plate with food you wouldn’t normally eat.
- Take some enzymes before each meal to assist with digestion.
- Alternatively take bitter foods (salad leaves and herbs such as rocket or radicchio) or prescription herbal tonic from your herbalist. Bitters stimulate salivary juices and acids and enzymes in your tummy. This helps you digest your foods. In a previous article I wrote about the health benefits of bitters.
- Enjoy an aperitif and digestif (pre and post a meal) such as Aperol or Angosturo with sparkling mineral water and fresh lemon and lime.
- A delicious cocktail – ginger lemon drink. Add 2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger root and the juice of 1 lemon to 1 litre of sparkling mineral water. Add a pinch of green leaf stevia powder for sweetness. This also makes an excellent remedy for a hangover.
- Hangover?
- Water, water, water!!!
- Supplement with Milk thistle seed – a liver herb (I like Legalon by Flordis – available from your pharmacist or health food store) + Vitamin C (I am a fan of the Loving Earth Gubinge powder – richest fruit source of vitamin C). Take these daily during this period.
- Organic Peppermint leaf, Rosemary leaf, Star anise and Dandelion root herbal teas. These herbs will help you detoxify, uplift, energize and clear brain fog. The mint and rosemary leaf can be added in fresh or dried. 2 tablespoons each of the fresh herb or 1 teaspoon each of the dried herb to 1 teaspoon of the dried dandelion root and 2 star anise. Steep in a teapot or plunger with 3 cups of boiled water for 5 minutes. Drink up!
- Enjoy a long black with a swirl of coconut oil, butter or ghee. Check out this Bulletproof Coffee recipe. The addition of a high quality fat to your coffee will improve your energy – mentally and physically for longer periods of time.
Enjoy, be merry and safe. I hope these ‘natural’ little antidotes will help offset some of the ‘not so healthy’ effects over the coming weeks.
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