This is the third day of 2008 and so I guess by now everyone is trying to sober up and come down to earth after all that havoc on eating and drinking over the holidays.
Feeling like a zombie? I am relishing with glee at those who are still trying to get rid of their hangovers tsk! tsk!

Did you experience those common symptoms like headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and thirst when you woke up? Well, that means your body is in dehydration mode because alcohol is a diurectic. As we all know a diurectic would reduce the amount of water in the body through urination. Of course, the severity and number of symptoms varies from person to person and the more alcohol a drinker consumes, the worse the hangover will be.

Alcohol does contain toxins because of the way they are fermented. The toxins known as congeners are from the by-products of distillation and fermentation. There are more toxins in darker drinks like brandy, red wine and port when compared to lighter drinks like champagne, whiskey, white wine. About twenty percent of alcohol would be absorbed in the stomach and the rest goes to the small intestines and several factors depend on how fast alcohol enters the blood stream like whether its consumed either on an empty or full stomach, the concentration of alcohol and the type of beverages. Alcohol will then leave the body through the three main organs: the liver by oxidation, exhalation by the lungs and urination by the kidneys.

Therefore, to try to get your body system in order again, the main key here is to drink plenty of fluids like water, fruit and vegetable juices so as to dilute the alcohol in your blood stream. Besides that, fruit and vegetables juices are high in antioxidant and water. Other solutions are taking Vitamin C tablets for it helps to break down the alcohol content. Eat bananas for it is a rich source of potassium. If you are still feeling nauseous, chew thinly sliced fresh ginger! It is also said that munching on chocolates also helps because the sugar content helps to break down the alcohol.

Lastly, consider having a light diet for the next two to three days to give your poor body the chance to recover fully.

Dr. James D. Lane from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Duke University Medical Center released his findings and stated, “The body acts like it is continuously under stress. If your work day is already stressful, you can take control of it by reducing caffeine. Coffee may temporarily help someone through a work day, but in the long term, heavy coffee drinkers may be damaging their blood vessels or weakening their immune system.”

I drink coffee very, very occasionally now but I still remember the time when I had a hard time weaning off coffee.That was when I learned that my migraines were triggered by the caffeine from coffee. I used to drink about three cups a day, ok…, sometimes more, and I thought it wasn’t much at that time…. when especially it was a must have to start the day going. I was so addicted that if I didn’t have my first cuppa drink by a certain time, I would be moody and headachy, and biting somebody’s poor head off!
The day when I learned that my migraines have started to get worst and in need of more morphine treatment, I decided to quit coffee drinking, that made my GP happy alright. I remembered the terrible effects on me, I had the withdrawal symptoms; blinding headaches, brain fog, depressed, irritable, moody and the feeling of being lousy, to treat all these, I was given more drugs to help me through.

Doctors lay great emphasis on diets considering the non- nutritous food available in markets these days. Fast food and cheese items lead to fat and chubby bodies. Then people try to loose some weight. For this they may use hydroxycut. However if does not suit you, you can even use xenadrine. Other than this, the diet recommended to diabetic patients is known as diabetic diet. It is basically low in fat and high in dietary fiber. For dieting you can even take black coffee. However, the caffeine present in it may affect you as you are not taking any healthy food item. It may cause weakness and you may feel dizzy.

In those days, we have never even heard of detox and we didn’t have the means of reading research papers. With migraines, people used to make comments that it is all in the head…how ignorant people can get.

Now we realize and know what caffeine effects could do to our body:
=> It gives our body STRESS because it stimulates the adrenal glands to produce the classic “fight or flight” syndrome.
=> It is a DIURETIC so your calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and trace minerals, all essential elements necessary for good health are excreted through urine.
=> It DEHYDRATES you and so don’t forget to drink plenty of water
=> It RAISES your cholesterol, homocysteine, increases heart rate therefore elevate blood pressure, gives palpitations
=> It is highly ACIDIC and acidity is a problem in many conditions such as acid reflux, ulcers, and chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
=> Coffee is an IRRITANT to the bowel and the urinary tract causing problems for people who suffer from various conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome, and Interstitial Cystitis.
=> It INHIBITS absorption of some nutrients
=> A recent study has shown that coffee drinking is associated with raising inflammatory markers that are implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease.

By the way, don’t even think of drinking decaffeinated coffee. Its worst! Do you know that to decaffeinate they have to use a chemical called methylene chloride, a solvent used in the paint industry. Although the residue of this chemical is only in trace amounts, it seems to have an effect on the health of sensitive individuals.

But then life is short and the last couple of years, I have started to indulge myself a cuppa once in a blue, blue moon….the feeling?…EXHILARATING!!!

Just ended my one day mono-diet detox today, for lately I have been feeling lethargic and body aches all over, and worst, getting so lazy that I feel my brains have been fried! I supposed when one is away from home, the challenge of watching your food intake gets fly out of the window….

Anyway, I haven’t done detoxing for quite sometime which is normally a three-day regime, but when I am lazy I just do the one day detox on a mono-diet. So since my return last weekend, I have been cutting down my intake of food in preparation for today’s detox.

Actually, this is a good introduction for those who just wants to do a quickie detox as you won’t experience any dramatic side-effects but a positive effect on your well-being after. Well, there’s no harm in giving it a try is there? Have to start somewhere….

All sorts of information on dietary supplements can be searched for on the internet. An effective medicine used to loose weight is hydroxycut. Serenoa also known as saw palmetto is one of the very useful species in this regard. Some people do mono-diet detox. In this way they eat raw fruits and vegetables with plenty of water which has abundance of vitamins, minerals and powerful cleansing effects on your body.

Going on a mono-diet detox means you choose one type of your favourite raw fruit or vegetable that you won’t mind eating it the whole day and plenty of water, filtered if possible. Raw fruits and vegetables are ideal for detox because of the abundance of vitamins, minerals and fibre and also their powerful cleansing effects on the body. Besides giving the digestive system an opportunity to rest, the stored toxins in the liver gets the chance to be eliminated too.

For today’s detox, I have chosen organic apples… bought a bag of 12 for $6.80 from my local supermarket the day before, standby 2 litres of filtered water and my favourite herbal tea from Dr Stuart’s Botanical Teas. I chose organic apples because of its natural sweetness, smooth firm texture and with enough moisture unlike some apples which tend to be too crunchy with a metallic taste and dry.

Pre-detox day, I had blanched broccolis and cauliflower with chopped almonds sizzled with some olive oil and wheat germ for lunch, dates for my snack and a bowl of clear chicken soup with mushrooms for dinner. Oh, upon waking up, I had my normal drink of lemon juice water. Then after an hour or so, for breakfast…I had oats with raw honey and yoghurt. Throughout the day, I just top up with water to keep myself hydrate and at the same time to kickstart the toxins.

So today, I had my usual lemon juice drink, did about a 30 minute stretching exercises including the swiss ball. Had a shower and munched two apples for breakfast, decided to tidy up my bookcase and later in the morning I had two more apples. Had a slow lunch….munching three apples and then took a short nap. In the later part of the afternoon, had an apple and a cup of herbal tea. Did some work on the internet and another round of apples for my dinner. All this while, sipping filtered water throughout the day.

As I blog now I have just snacked my last apple for the day. After this, going for my dry skin scrub before showering. How time flies huh….? Should I continue tomorrow? Nah…got a seminar to go to. Looks like I am REJUVENATED already!!!