With holiday parties scheduled nearly every weekend and the New Year right around the corner, many of us enjoy the occasional cocktail, or ten. If you are suffering from a hangover, keep reading. Even though there is no known cure that will positively eliminate or prevent the painful effects of a hard night of drinking, the following yoga inspired tips and poses can help relieve your suffering so you can get on with your day in a productive manner.
Yoga Tip #1
Take Five Deep Breaths, preferably outside
Your pounding head in the morning is often caused by a lack of oxygen to your brain because drinking alcohol slows down your respiratory rate. To get the oxygen flowing again, practice some yogic breathing.
Take a deep breath in and at the very top of your inhale, take in just a little bit more breath. Hold your breath for two to three seconds and exhale slowly. Repeat up to five times. This will help flood your brain with the oxygen you may be lacking and give your whole body a blast of fresh air, especially if you can practice this yogic breath in the great outdoors.
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Toxins come in many forms from harsh and deadly organisms such as snake venom, to man-made environmental agents like asbestos. While some toxins are fatal, others simply serve to cause mild annoyances like headaches, nausea or irritability.
To detox with yoga is to assist our bodies in the removal of non-life-threatening toxins such as those absorbed from eating chemical laden junk food, drinking alcohol or being exposed to smog and other types of air pollution. From the sounds of this, you may realize toxins are an often-unavoidable part of life, but thankfully our bodies are equipped to deal with them, and yoga can help.
The liver is the main organ responsible for filtering the blood for the processing and removal of toxins. When your liver is healthy, toxins are more readily released from your body in the form of sweat, urine and excrement, through the liver’s metabolic functions.
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By Michelle Schoffro Cook for Care2.com
When it comes to cleansing your body of harmful toxins, food really is the best medicine. You’ll be amazed to learn that many of your favorite foods also cleanse the body’s detoxification organs like the liver, intestines, kidneys, and skin, preventing harmful toxic buildup. Help ward off the harmful effects of pollution, food additives, second-hand smoke, and other toxins with delicious fruits, vegetables, nuts, oils, and beans.
Apples. Because apples are high in pectin, a type of fiber that binds to cholesterol and heavy metals in the body, they help eliminate toxic build up and to cleanse the intestines.
Avocados. We rarely think of avocados as a cleansing food but these nutritional powerhouses lower cholesterol and dilate blood vessels while blocking artery-destroying toxicity. Avocados contain a nutrient called glutathione, which blocks at least thirty different carcinogens while helping the liver detoxify synthetic chemicals.
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Fresh fruit and vegetable juicing is certainly not a new idea for the raw foods community, however it is growing in popularity as a mainstream method for weight loss and detoxification.
Unlike conventional juices that are often processed with a lot of added sugar, fresh juicing involves creating nutrient-rich juices out of your favorite fruits and vegetables.
“Before you begin any juice regiment, it’s important to understand why juice is important for your health,” said Cherie Calbom, MS, author of The Juice Lady’s Turbo Diet and Juicing for Life. “When you understand the many health benefits of fresh juice, you’ll be much more inclined to take the time to make fresh juice.”
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Mary Hartley, RD, MPH, is the director of nutrition for Calorie Count, providing domain expertise on issues related to nutrition, weight loss and health. She creates original content for weekly blogs and newsletters, for the Calorie Count library, and for her popular daily Question-and-Answer section, Ask Mary. Ms. Hartley also furnishes direction for the site features and for product development.
Calorie Counters want to know whether or not it is wise to cleanse the system with a detox diet. Here are a few of the readers’ favorite “Ask Mary Q+As” about spring cleaning.
Should I fast to prepare my system for a change?
Fasting is unnecessary. Your system does not need to prepare for change. In a fast lasting longer than a day or two, the body starts to breakdown some of its muscles and organs to generate fuel for the central nervous system. Because muscle is a major calorie burner, less muscle could lead to lowering overall calorie requirements, which could make it more difficult to lose weight in the future. And then, due to feast-or-famine thinking, food deprivation could lead to overeating when food becomes available again. Instead of fasting, it’s best to just go ahead and begin to eat a balanced diet of wholesome food at a lower calorie level.
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