Out with the detox in with the pretox

London nutritional therapist Holly Sugars tells us the do's and don'ts to prepare our body to allow Christmas indulging stress-free.

Ever since December began, my mom has been collecting recipe after recipe to make during the holidays. She already made the announcement "do not be on a diet or count your calories during Christmas!" In other words, get ready to Eat. A. Lot.

Needless to say, I’m beyond excited to have mom-cooked homemade meals, and I’m not worried one bit about the aftermath. I talked to chef and nutritional therapist Holly Sugars to explain the right ways to prepare my body to an overeating experience and what the do’s and don’ts are to pretoxing.

Although pretoxing sounds to be very similar to detoxing, it has nothing to do with starving your system and only drinking some sort of shake that “must be good for your” for a week or two.

Pretoxing is the opposite. Its most important aspect is to eat during the weeks leading up to Christmas, and eat often — Holly suggests five small meals.

“You can still have a bigger lunch or dinner,” she said. “But make sure to have a healthy snack in between. But not crisps or sugar.”

Pretoxing is all about keeping your metabolism up — the body’s chemical process that breaks down what you eat and drink and transforms it into energy. A faster metabolism allows the body to get rid of the excess of food you consume and prevents it getting stuck on your waist line.

Photo by Michael Stern

So, let’s see what Holly suggests you do and don’t do the next two weeks.

Do’s

Eat and eat often: Have five smaller meals as oppose to three big ones. Make sure that each meal contains the triangle of nutrients — 50 per cent vegetables, 25 per cent protein and 25 per cent carbs.

Drink water: Lots of it. Water helps detoxify your body throughout the day, making it flush out what it doesn’t need. Try to aim to drink around one gallon (about four litres) a day. It may push the number of your trips to the loo, but don't worry, that's completely normal.

When it comes to drinking alcohol, which comes hand in hand with the festive season, make sure to drink water before those cocktails and have a glass of water in between drinks. It will help you not feel better during the night, but save you from a painful hangover as well.

Get your beauty sleep: Sleep is the time when the body recovers, so it’s important to give it those eight hours to do so. Holly said to also take time during the day to just rest for 20 minutes when you can.

Exercise: One of the most important things, besides the right diet, that also speeds up metabolism, is exercise. I’m sorry to break it to you, but can’t skip this one. The good news is, you don’t have to spend hours in the gym, though. Holly said, just stand up from your chair more often, or get off the bus a stop early to walk more can help. The point is to get your heart rate up and get your body working.

Don’ts

Starve: There’s no reason to starve yourself thinking: “I’m going to eat a lot during Christmas, so I just won’t eat till then.” It will not only put you in a bad mood, but does do any good to the body. When you starve, your stomach shrinks, so when it comes to Christmas dinner, and you stuff twice as much in it as fits, you will feel bloated and much worse than you expected.

No hard liquor: Drinking whiskey and dark rum have a much worse effect on the body than gin or vodka. So if you’re a cocktail person, try to reach for alcohol that’s see-through.

Take it easy: Holly said that the problem with many diets or lifestyle change attempts is that people tend to overstress what they eat and what they do. Well, don’t do that. "Pretoxing is all about keeping your body healthy and giving it what helps it perform at its 100 per cent efficiency."

Take a look at the story as it ran online at the Health & Fitness section of the Evening Standard online

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