Post-Christmas detox plan: Nutritionist Sarah Di Lorenzo reveals how to achieve your health goals

Feeling like you may have had too much chocolate, pavlova, champagne, trifle or overeating in general and not feeling great?

Possibly the lead up to Christmas has also opened the door to way too many salty foods, nights out, too much alcohol and late nights.

Your exercise has gone out the door and you have no routine.

Well if this is you, you are not alone, the average person is around 1.5kg heavier just after Christmas.

Now that Christmas is over and while it was a lot of fun to over indulge you are feeling bloated, tired, puffy and just not great.

What we are actually experiencing as a result of overindulging is reduced metabolic rate, increased stress hormones, increased triglycerides, increased insulin resistance, increased VLDL the bad cholesterol as well energy fluctuations, moody and tired and with the lack of exercise there is less energy burnt off and rather it is stored.

For those of us who have partied really hard with back to back big nights of drinking too much alcohol then chances are your liver right now is not happy.

Excessive alcohol increases inflammatory responses and free radicals that damage liver cells and the same goes for overeating the wrong foods.

A combination of too much alcohol and overeating will cause the liver to really struggle to process fats so therefore will store them.

The good news is that your liver can easily repair itself.

While it is important to have fun in life and enjoy yourself feeling carefree, the key is moderation and balance.

After the Christmas festivities when you are feeling puffy, irritable, bloated and inflamed this is the perfect time to spend some time focusing on good health.

The post-Christmas detox is a great idea and I really do love this but it is important to understand that there is no such thing as a ‘detox’ .

Our bodies are in a constant stage of detoxification through our kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract and sweating. What the goal is to do is support our detox pathways.

The best place to start is with your mindset, don’t go in hard and starve yourself, this will only lead to failure.

See this as getting back on track and consistency is key.

Make a plan and set realistic goals. Do all your grocery shopping to match the meals you plan on eating. Keep a journal and set daily goals.

When planning to make sure you are addressing your water intake, people so often overlook this.

Make sure you are having 30ml per kg of your own body weight daily. Hydration is key to releasing water weight you are holding.

Make sure your menu plan is balanced and healthy.

Protein with each meal, minimum of two pieces of fruit per day, six cups of vegetables to be spread across your meals.

When it comes to snacking, enjoy fruit or nuts. Add herbs and spices to your meals to accelerate the nutritional profile of the meal.

Your day on a plate could look something like this.

A smoothie for breakfast full of berries, spinach, beetroot, chia seeds, kiwi including the skin with yoghurt, ice, cinnamon and some water.

Mid morning could be a handful of nuts and lunch a gorgeous rainbow salad with some lean protein.

Mid afternoon a banana with a tablespoon of nut butter and for dinner some steamed vegetables and fish. All meals are garnished with fresh herbs, olive oil and spices.

Have a plan of eating no processed, junk foods or refined foods and a good idea is to remove them all from the home. Your gut will love you for this !

The approach needs to be holistic.

Make sure you are adding in to your plan some daily exercise at your level and focusing on getting good sleep and getting back into a good sleep pattern.

Good sleep will improve immune function, reduce stress hormones and help control appetite meaning your chances of succeeding in your health goals are very high.

In doing a post Christmas detox or for want of a better word — reset — will see you lose weight, feel energised, feel happier and just a really wonderful sense of well being.

It really is worth it.