Holiday Bloat giving you the BLUES ? Try these Tips!
I am a firm believer in ” eat and be merry” during the holidays ! Thanksgiving, Christmas , New Year come just once a year and there is no point in dieting during the season and depriving yourself of ALL that good stuff ! I do however practice some tips to rid myself of Holiday Bloat and I am talking about Water Retention. A lot of the foods we eat during the holidays are salty, high fat , high sugared : all bloat makers! Some simple tips to Beat the Bloat can make you look and feel a lot lighter and healthier during the holidays.
Some Adverse Effects of Water Retention : Swollen legs, Arthritis, High Blood pressure, Weight Gain.
A picture gallery of some Natural Diuretic Foods.
Tips to Beat The Bloat
Drink Up : Water is your best friend ! One of the main causes of water retention is dehydration. Drink at least 8- 10 ( 8 oz ) glasses of water / day . The more fluids you drink, the more fluids you lose. Water spiked with lemon will give you great flavor and give you a diuretic boost.
Cran Water : This is nothing but a combination of pure cranberry juice and water which is in my opinion the best ” Bloat Beater ” ever. You make cran water by mixing one ounce of pure 100 % unsweetened cranberry juice with 7 ounces of water. It’s tasteless and will pull water out of your body like crazy. Drink at least 4 glasses of cran water / day for maximum effect. Just make sure you have an easily accessible rest room nearby. The cranberry juice I am talking about is not the mixed fruity kind you find in stores, but the pure juice. You would usually find this at health food stores and some grocery stores like Trader Joe, Whole Foods, MOMs etc. Costs about $4.00 / bottle , but considering you’re getting 32 servings of cran water/ bottle which can last a week it’s great value.
Vegetable juices : Home made Veggie juices especially using veggies that have a high water content will pull water out of your body and give you a mega dose of vitamins and minerals. My favorite juice is a celery apple combo. I go on a detox quite regularly and this a great detox juice. You can also eat your veggies if you do not want to juice them, but will probably not get the same effect. High water content veggies are Celery, Cabbage, Cucumber, Brussels sprouts, Lettuce,Tomato, Radish and Asparagus. Try mixing the veggie juices with fruit juices to make them taste Yummy ! Some tried and tested combos that I can even get my kids to drink are Carrot + Apple, Watermelon + Carrot, Pineapple + Oranges + Carrots. be creative and you may hit jackpot 🙂
Fruit Smoothies : ( unsweetened) : fruits like veggies have a high water content, but please note that adding sugar to them will dilute the diuretic effect. High water content fruits are Watermelon, Melons, Grapefruit, Oranges, Grapes, Apples and berries.
Tea (unsweetened) : Another great diuretic. Green tea and dandelion tea are touted for great benefits including the diuretic effect. Adding a safe sweetener like Stevia or Agave nectar will not dilute the diuretic effect.
Fennel Seeds : Have been used and are still used in several cultures as a natural diuretic. The way to use this would be to boil 1 quart of water with 1 – 2 tbsp of fennel seeds for about 20 minutes. Cool strain and drink warm or cold. You get a mildly flavored water drink that also helps with digestion.
Just a note : water weight lost is always temporary, but you can easily incorporate one or more of these tips into your daily routine to keep water retention always at bay. I use the Cran water and vegetable juicing and although I gain some holiday lbs ( see I have a horrible sweet tooth) I manage to keep bloat away. If these tips do not work , never fear ! There is always Spandex and Kymaro that can come to the rescue 😉
Try these tips .. any of them should work for you. If you have any to share, would love to hear from you.
74 thoughts on “Holiday Bloat giving you the BLUES ? Try these Tips!”
Thanks Sue, This is great !! Am going to get some Cranberry juice and bloat beat myself 🙂 Trader Joe is right around the corner … that brand is good I guess !! If i use two ounces instead of 1 will I have a double effect ? just wondering 🙂
Just the two ounces gives a stronger taste… but if you can handle it , go ahead !! Stronger the better ! The 1 oz :7 oz is quite tasteless and easy to gulp down like water 🙂 Try the Trader Joe's brand .. use it myself ! Its aweseome !
Have used Cran water myself and found it V USEFUL !! Lost 4 lbs in 3 days the first time I used cran water. Was awesome .. but like you said it temporary wt loss unless you keep it going. I can tell the difference when I forget to drink my daily dose of cran water. Where do you get Fennel seeds ?
Interesting Steve , I can feel the difference too when I don't juice or cran water drink ! I need to stock up actually today on my way home. To answer yr question, Fenell seeds are available in health food stores, Asian stores, Indian stores and Online. They are very cheap in Indian Grocery stores.. so see if you can locate one nearby !
Great advice. I eat/drink all of that stuff regularly. All of it is good for you even if you don't have water retention issues. Did not know that about fennel seeds though.
Hi there, new visitor to your site ! love the fresh look ! Great tips in this post .. I already juice, so will keep on, but add more of the high water veggies.
I love the picture gallery ! Did you create that or came as a collage? I have a WP blog myself and think it would be great to display some stuff and put in my pics etc.
Also love Love the slide show you have on the home page. That must be a plug right ? Would be interested in knowing what it is and how used friendly it is ? GREAT SITE !!
Hi Mellisa, Thanks for visiting ! keep up with the juicing 🙂 I created the the picture gallery using a built in plug in called media library. It came with my SP theme…but I do believe you can down load the plugin and activate. The slide show I have on the home page is a plug in called " Dynamic Gallery " plug in which is very user friendly . This again is a free plug in which will work on any WP self hosted site. Hope that helps .. plug ins are awesome and one of the reasons I moved to WP from blogger.
Hi Sue, I think I am in the beginning stage of arthritis. As you mentioned that water retention could also be a cause for arthritis, Do you know of anything that could help it slow down or even stop progress? Appreciate any suggestions.
Hi, sorry ! just saw this comment ! Thanks for visiting and glad the post helped. We sweet tooth people are sweet and eat healthy otherwise right ? so that's fine ! Have a great 2012 🙂
Hi there! I’m Sunithi, AKA Sue, a registered dietitian with a sweet tooth and a passion for eating healthy (quite a combo) currently working as an independent consultant in the DC Metro area. I’m also a blogger, health nut, nutrition geek who jogs to keep sane :)! I love to revamp recipes and add some ‘Nutrition Bytes’ to them. All my recipes are gluten free! I also blog on natural health and fitness! Visit often and drop me a note if you have any nutrition queries!
Hi there! I’m Sunithi, AKA Sue, a registered dietitian with a sweet tooth and a passion for eating healthy (quite a combo) currently working as an independent consultant in the DC Metro area. I’m also a blogger, health nut, nutrition geek who jogs to keep sane :)! I love to revamp recipes and add some ‘Nutrition Bytes’ to them. All my recipes are gluten free! I also blog on natural health and fitness! Visit often and drop me a note if you have any nutrition queries!
Thanks Sue, This is great !! Am going to get some Cranberry juice and bloat beat myself 🙂 Trader Joe is right around the corner … that brand is good I guess !! If i use two ounces instead of 1 will I have a double effect ? just wondering 🙂
Just the two ounces gives a stronger taste… but if you can handle it , go ahead !! Stronger the better ! The 1 oz :7 oz is quite tasteless and easy to gulp down like water 🙂 Try the Trader Joe's brand .. use it myself ! Its aweseome !
Needed this ! Thanks !!! Will try these tips for sure … pigged out big time !
🙂
Have used Cran water myself and found it V USEFUL !! Lost 4 lbs in 3 days the first time I used cran water. Was awesome .. but like you said it temporary wt loss unless you keep it going. I can tell the difference when I forget to drink my daily dose of cran water. Where do you get Fennel seeds ?
Interesting Steve , I can feel the difference too when I don't juice or cran water drink ! I need to stock up actually today on my way home. To answer yr question, Fenell seeds are available in health food stores, Asian stores, Indian stores and Online. They are very cheap in Indian Grocery stores.. so see if you can locate one nearby !
Great advice. I eat/drink all of that stuff regularly. All of it is good for you even if you don't have water retention issues. Did not know that about fennel seeds though.
That's why your'e super slim !! No bloat for you ever ! Lucky YOU !!
Hi there, new visitor to your site ! love the fresh look ! Great tips in this post .. I already juice, so will keep on, but add more of the high water veggies.
I love the picture gallery ! Did you create that or came as a collage? I have a WP blog myself and think it would be great to display some stuff and put in my pics etc.
Also love Love the slide show you have on the home page. That must be a plug right ? Would be interested in knowing what it is and how used friendly it is ? GREAT SITE !!
Hi Mellisa, Thanks for visiting ! keep up with the juicing 🙂 I created the the picture gallery using a built in plug in called media library. It came with my SP theme…but I do believe you can down load the plugin and activate. The slide show I have on the home page is a plug in called " Dynamic Gallery " plug in which is very user friendly . This again is a free plug in which will work on any WP self hosted site. Hope that helps .. plug ins are awesome and one of the reasons I moved to WP from blogger.
Hi Sue, I think I am in the beginning stage of arthritis. As you mentioned that water retention could also be a cause for arthritis, Do you know of anything that could help it slow down or even stop progress? Appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks for these tips! I have an ill sweet tooth myself.
Hi, sorry ! just saw this comment ! Thanks for visiting and glad the post helped. We sweet tooth people are sweet and eat healthy otherwise right ? so that's fine ! Have a great 2012 🙂