Indulging on holiday is all part of the fun. But how do you get back on track once the holiday is over? Photo / Getty Images
Indulging on holiday is all part of the fun. But how do you get back on track once the holiday is over? Photo / Getty Images
After the summer holidays, you may be feeling tired and sluggish. Here are some easy ways to reverse the damage and restore your health
Your alarm goes off two hours earlier than you’re now used to. You’re feeling ravenous for a buffet breakfast and longing for another day by the pool but, in reality, it’s the first day back into your routine after your holiday, your waistband is feeling uncomfortably snug and you can’t quite face the bathroom scales.
Summer holidays are meant for indulgence. But, as with everything, scoffing too much comes with some inevitable knock-on effects.
Scientists from the University of Oxford shared findings that just a few weeks of eating with abandon can alter our basic health markers for the worse. Just 24 days of following a diet high in saturated fat – think plenty of sausages, whole-fat dairy, pastries, cakes and pizzas – led cholesterol levels to spike by 10% and the fat in the liver jumped by 20%, posing a risk for heart health and Type 2 diabetes.
If you’ve eaten too much over your summer break, here’s how to pave the way to restoring your health.
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Eat a filling breakfast – but make it protein-heavy
If you’ve been enjoying a buffet breakfast with multiple courses, don’t feel you need to deprive yourself by reverting to toast or a bowl of cereal for your first meal of the day.
“A substantial, protein-based breakfast will help to fill you up and keep you satisfied for far longer,” says Kim Pearson, a leading weight-loss nutritionist. “This will help to sustain your energy levels and prevent blood sugar dips that lead to snack cravings later on.”
She suggests an omelette and adding vegetables for flavour and fibre, such as mushrooms and herbs or leftover roasted Mediterranean vegetables such as peppers, red onion and courgette. Or make a berry smoothie with protein powder, frozen berries, half an avocado and milk or water, she suggests.
“If you’ve been taking advantage of the hotel breakfast buffet, this will help you re-establish a healthier start to the day,” Pearson adds.
Oily fish like salmon is loaded with omega-3, which can help lower cholesterol and boost heart health. Photo / 123rf
Make a fishy lunch
While the study’s findings are gloomy, the researchers also found that another group of volunteers who ate mainly polyunsaturated fat, rather than saturated fat, saw their total cholesterol and “bad” cholesterol levels drop by 10%, while their heart health strengthened.
Oily fish (particularly salmon, mackerel and sardines), are some of the most potent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fat that has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease. Other sources include nuts and seeds, such as walnuts and flaxseeds.
Structuring a meal around a protein such as fish “will fill you up and keep you satisfied, helping to prevent snacking between meals,” Pearson says. Official British guidelines recommend eating at least two portions of fish a week, including at least one oily fish. Fresh, frozen and tinned all count.
Adding some vegetables will “provide your body with the macronutrients and micronutrients it needs to function optimally and promote stable blood sugar levels, important for preventing energy dips and weight gain”, Pearson says.
Home-cooked meals, rich in vegetables and lean proteins, support gut and immune health. Photo / 123rf
Try an old-fashioned stew for dinner – or a vibrant curry
After days or weeks of dining out at restaurants for most meals, chances are you’ll benefit from eating some homemade food.
Cooking from scratch will help to cut out ultra-processed foods (those that typically come in a packet and contain more than five ingredients, including additives and emulsifiers) such as ready meals and jars of sauce. “These foods have been linked to an increased risk of a number of diseases and are significantly contributing to the obesity epidemic,” Pearson says.
Home-cooked food, meanwhile, provides the opportunity to make your diet much healthier. Knocking up a traditional stew with lean meat, bone broth and plenty of vegetables and herbs like onion, carrots, celery and thyme will support your gut health and immune system. Alternatively, making a curry with chickpeas and spices, for example ginger and turmeric, can help to improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
The key is to pack in a diverse range of whole foods, as the compounds they contain “feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut’s microbiome”, Pearson explains.
Fill at least half your plate with greens
Whether you opt for broccoli and peas or prefer spinach and kale, make sure at least 50% of your plate is made up of vegetables so you’re eating enough fibre.
“Fibre is not only beneficial for our gut health and keeping our bowel movements regular, it also helps regulate blood lipids [fats],” Pearson explains. And it helps to manage blood sugar and it induces satiety, thereby preventing overeating, she adds.
However, most of us don’t eat nearly enough of it. Our diet should include at least 30g per day but most people eat only about 18g. As well as greens, carrots, sweet potatoes and beetroot are also dense sources.
“You can boost your intake by mixing psyllium husk fibre supplements into soups, yoghurts or smoothies for an easy, flavourless way to up your intake,” Pearson notes.
In terms of the rest of your plate, around a quarter should be a portion of protein (such as a fillet of fish or chicken breast) and the final quarter should be high-quality carbohydrates, such as wholegrain rice, quinoa or pulses.
Fibre, found in vegetables like kale and carrots, helps regulate blood fats and reduces overeating. Photo / 123rf
Aim for four alcohol-free days per week
Advice to not surpass 14 units of alcohol per week (six 175ml glasses of wine, six pints of 4% beer or 14 single shots of spirit) is well known but often goes out of the window on holiday, as we add wine to lunch and dinners and cocktails to our afternoons and evenings.
Instead of going cold turkey as you ease back into daily life, focus on not drinking every other day, recommends Colin Greaves, a professor of health behaviour change at the University of Birmingham. “Bring your alcohol consumption back down to a sensible level,” he says. “Aiming for four alcohol-free days per week might be a good start – every other day is a routine I find easy to stick with.”
As well as helping with sleep and benefiting our liver and brain, it will also lower your daily calorie intake. A 175ml glass of wine has around 160 calories, while a pint of beer contains around 180 – equivalent to about two chocolate digestive biscuits.
Just four alcohol-free days per week can improve liver and brain health. Photo / 123rf
Try intermittent fasting ‘lite’
Intermittent fasting has shot to attention as it has been shown to aid with fat loss, lower the risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and rejuvenate gut health.
Also known as time-restricted eating, it involves condensing meals into fewer hours of the day, for example an eight-hour window between 10am and 6pm, and not letting any food pass your lips outside of these set times. Some more extreme versions restrict the eating window to as little as four hours per day, or involve forgoing food completely for 24 hours. Whatever the method, even one or two days can be beneficial.
“It is proposed to work by prolonging the period your body has to burn through the calories consumed during your last meal and so begins burning fat,” explains Greaves.
Some people find it easier to stick to this approach than other more restrictive forms of dieting – that limit calories or certain foods – as it focuses simply on when food is being eaten rather than what is being eaten. “It can be a good way to shed a few pounds in the short term,” he notes.
Intermittent fasting, even one or two days a week, can support gut health and reduce calorie intake. Photo / 123rf
Add in a post-dinner walk
“Work your body – get back into the habit of exercising, or try to sustain it if you’ve been on an active holiday,” says Greaves. This could even be a short 10-minute walk after dinner, which will count towards the 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise we should get each week and add around 1000 steps to your daily total.
Moving after a meal has the added benefit of helping to keep blood sugar in check – reducing how much levels rise in the two hours after eating – and building muscle, he notes. It will also eat into long periods of sitting in the evening, which are detrimental to health.
“Piggy-backing small bouts of physical activity to your daily routines can set you up to get some regular exercise which is so important for your long-term health and to keep your metabolic rate high (which helps you burn calories and get a good night’s sleep),” he says.
Even short bursts of post-dinner walking help stabilise blood sugar levels. Photo / 123rf
Get an early night to reduce tomorrow’s sugar cravings
“Sleep is really important because when we don’t get enough, it dysregulates the hormones that control our appetite, making us feel hungrier and driving cravings,” explains Pearson.
As well as length of sleep – seven to nine hours, ideally – a regular bedtime is also vital for our health. We should aim to go to bed at the same time each night, she says.
“Work out how much sleep you need, look at what time you need to be up by and work backwards to set your ideal bedtime,” Pearson recommends. “If you’re someone who finds themselves working into the evening, or engrossed in a Netflix binge, try setting a recurring alarm in your phone 30 minutes before bedtime each night, so that you’re reminded that it’s time to start winding down.”
If you struggle to get to sleep in the first place, avoid caffeine in the afternoon, have an earlier dinner and avoid blue light exposure (emitted by phones and laptops) before bed, she suggests. “Sleep meditations or yoga can also be very helpful,” Pearson adds.
