It’s December! Time to gear up and get ready for the silly season and all the stress and pressure that comes with it. The overcrowded shopping centres. The hyper-cheery Christmas concerts. The visitors. The visiting. The social fatigue. The wrapping. The cooking. The cleaning. And of course all those stiff drinks and sugary treats!
It’s a lot!
But as you run around preparing for Christmas, prepare your body, too, so you can better meet the demands of the holiday frenzy and promote efficient recovery from any overindulging, ready to tackle the new year head-on.
How to prep your health ready for the Christmas onslaught
When your regular health and fitness regime is interrupted, like it inevitably is over the summer holidays, supplementing your diet with vitamins and amino acid combinations can help you avoid feeling depleted, sluggish and run down.
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. They have all sorts of helpful functions in the body like breaking down food, making hormones and neural transmitters. They provide energy, maintain healthy skin, hair and nails, build muscle, boost immunity and sustain a healthy digestive system.
So many good things! This makes taking amino acids as a nutrition supplement popular for workouts and with athletes.
Your body makes most of the amino acids it needs, but not all. Essential amino acids must come from diet. Amino acids are found in many foods, including beef, chicken, nuts, quinoa, eggs and dairy.
But during the Christmas period, when our healthy balanced diet is often disrupted, amino acids in supplement form can help you with a short-term boost for sleeping, for energy, for recovery and even for mood!
However, there are many types of amino acid supplements for different functions, and your diet plays a part in which amino acids you need. You should therefore speak with your healthcare provider or custom compounding pharmacist to get the right form of amino acid supplements for your needs.
Then there’s one of the safest and most effective nutrients around – good old Vitamin C.
Having sufficient amounts of Vitamin C in your body offers numerous health benefits. As an antioxidant, Vitamin C protects your body from damage caused by toxins and free radicals, which are linked to chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
Vitamin C also assists with wound healing, fights inflammation and helps your body absorb iron, essential for healthy blood.
Your body doesn’t produce or store vitamin C, making it an essential vitamin to have in your diet. A consistent intake of fresh fruits and vegetables provides sufficient daily requirements of Vitamin C.
However, if your diet is more eggnog and trifle than carrots and oranges this time of year, or your Vitamin C is being depleted by excessive alcohol consumption, you might want to supplement your Vitamin C to continue getting the antioxidant benefits.
Other super detoxifiers include the B-group of Vitamins, zinc and magnesium, all of which provide you with other health benefits, too! In fact, there’s a whole host of supplements that you can take, depending on your particular lifestyle and deficiencies, that will give you a boost over Christmas.
Now you don’t want to get a degree in nutrition just to get through the holidays, and you don’t want to walk out of a pharmacy with an armful of expensive supplements that you may not benefit from.
A custom compound pharmacist can do the hard work for you, and produce a single custom vitamin that contains all the things that you want and need, and skips all the fillers and extras you don’t need! Unique to you. What could be easier?
While perhaps not as easy, there are other things you can do now in the lead up to the busy holiday period to give your mind and body the best chance to make it to 2023 in one healthy piece.
- Drink plenty of water, especially before, during and after a session of Christmas cheer! And don’t forget the electrolytes!
- Exercise when you can – even a brisk walk, or running up and down the stairs a few times, will get your heart and blood pumping for good oxygen distribution.
- Cut down on meal sizes and reduce your intake of fatty foods like chips and red meat.
- Eat lots of fruit and vegies in between the ham and prawns and champagne.
The Take Out
While the best way to keep yourself in shape for the holidays is with a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise, a boost with supplements can help with a temporary solution for times when you may not be getting as much of either as you should.
For more information on vitamins and supplements for a pre-Christmas boost, or help for a post-Christmas detox, speak to an integrative doctor in your local area, or an affiliate pharmacy to get custom prescriptions and supplements from National Custom Compounding.