Thinking about going on a stricter diet because you let yourself go wild binge-eating just once? Relax… it’s okay to give yourself the guilty pleasures once in awhile. If you’re feeling unhealthy, here is what you can do.
Avoid hard-to-digest acidic foods
If you are feeling digestive distress after having a heavy meal, stay away from hard to digest acidic foods that will further upset your tummy. Avoid dairy products, gluten, refined sugar, coffee, fatty meats, pasta, alcohol, and chocolate. Instead, you can have some veggies, fruits, almonds, lentils, and avocados. You can also have a high liquid diet for the coming few days to aid digestion.
Liquids
Liquids are a great way to boost your digestion. If you’re already full, drinking water might seem difficult. You can try mineral water in that case2. Liquids help in breaking down food so drinking extra liquids will ensure that you have a better sleep, which brings us to our next point.
Have a breakfast full of protein and fiber
Insulin levels in our body spike after we eat a heavy meal. This leads to a drop in blood sugar levels. As weird as it may seem, after having a heavy dinner, you will wake up feeling even more ravenous. And when hunger strikes, instead of stuffing your mouth with more sugary goodies, have a breakfast full of proteins instead of carbs2.
Get enough sleep
Make sure that you get adequate sleep after a walk or yoga. Studies have shown that people who get enough sleep and rest after a heavy meal show greater food restraint the next day. By contrast, sleep deprived people consume more calories the next morning.
Light exercise
Eating too much and just lying around can give you health issues such as acidity. So get moving and do some light exercises. Go for a walk. Vigorous exercising is not a good idea after a heavy meal, so stick to exercises such as light yoga3. You can do light cardio the next morning. If you are hard pressed for time, park your car as far as possible and power-walk to your office.
Binge eating is allowed once in awhile. However, to keep yourself in a healthy state, it’s important to recover from it. Drinking liquids, doing light exercise, and getting back on the right diet are some ways to reduce the impact of a binge eating session.
Resources
- http://greatist.com/grow/how-to-bounce-back-after-food-binge visited 14 March 2017
- https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/herve9.htm visited 14 March 2017
- http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/exercises/how-to-recover-from-a-day-of-binge-eating.html visited 13 March 2017
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