#53: So You're Hungover... Now What?

Hey Friends,

A friend recently asked me what he should be doing on days when he’s hungover.

Being that it's a common question, I figured I'd do a newsletter on it.

So this week I'll talk through a couple things you can be doing to recover from your hangover and get back on track with your fitness goals.

Weekly Action Point

This week, let's make a goal of eating no meals out for Monday-Friday. 

Bring a lunch from home each day of the work week, and cook your own dinners. If you wanna meal prep, go for it!

One week, zero meals eaten out.

Woke up feeling rough? Here’s what to do about it.

So you had a night out where you told yourself you were going to have two drinks, and then ended up having… a few more than that.

Or maybe you had a bachelor/bachelorette party, a wedding, a cabin weekend with friends, or some other event where you ended up drinking heavily.

It's happened to almost everyone at some point. And then you wake up the next morning feeling awful.

Headaches, upset stomach, feeling foggy and tired from lack of sleep, “hangxiety” or “Sunday scaries” are some of the common hungover feelings that we know and love.

So you’re hungover, now what do you do about it?

1. Reframe the guilt 

People say the funniest things to express their guilt/shame the morning of a hangover”

“Why did I take those shots?” 

“I drank way too much last night.”

“Why did I say/do xyz thing?”

Or my personal favorite “I'm never drinking again” (Which I hear all the time, and usually translates to 'I'm never drinking again…until next weekend’).

The first step of recovering from your hangover is getting over any guilt you have about the night before. You had fun and went a little crazy, no big deal. It's ok to have some fun and let loose occasionally.

It happened, feeling guilty about it won't change anything, so move on.

2. Hydrate

Alcohol is extremely dehydrating and messes with your electrolyte balance. So before doing anything else, drink some water - ideally with an electrolyte packet (LMNT is my personal favorite brand).

3. Don’t Go Crazy on the Caffeine

Often times people feel extremely tired and drained when they are hungover, causing them to think they need to drink a gallon of coffee to recover.

Caffeine is a diuretic, meaning it contributes to increased urine production and can further dehydrate the body when you are already hungover and dehydrated.

I'm not saying don't drink caffeine when you are hungover. However, make sure you drink it AFTER you drink a good amount of water in the morning. Also, if you are a regular caffeine drinker, consume your normal amount.

Don't double your caffeine intake on the morning of a hangover just because you got terrible sleep. It won't help you feel any better, and in fact could make you feel worse when your body is dehydrated from the alcohol.

4. Don’t try to “sweat it out”

Sometimes people try to do a big workout when they are hungover, telling themselves they will “sweat out the toxins”.

Don't do that.

Not only will you not sweat out any of the toxins, you will just further dehydrate your body. 90% of alcohol is processed by the liver, you only lose a very very minor amount in sweat, and thus it won't help you feel any better.

Also on that note, when you are hungover, your heart, liver, and nervous system are already working overtime trying to recover from the night of drinking.

Putting more stress on them with an intense workout (think HIIT training, running, heavy weightlifting, etc.) will not help your case.

So instead, you could:

5. Get some light movement in

Light movement such as going for a walk, gentle yoga flow, or a mobility session will improve blood circulation and lift your mood.

Doing these things on a day when you are hungover, instead of just laying in bed all day, can be hugely beneficial. 

6. Eat something nourishing for your body

When most people are hungover, they crave greasy food. Things like McDonalds, Raising Canes, Taco Bell, or pizza. Sound familiar?

Instead of giving in to this craving, eating nourishing whole foods will help you feel much better, much quicker.

Generally speaking, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, dairy, and whole grains will help you feel far better than greasy food.

So basically, the same nutrition advice I'd give to someone who isn't hungover. Skip the greasy fast food, and eat high quality, real foods instead.

7. Try to get your sleep schedule back on track

Alcohol is absolutely horrendous for your sleep, usually compromising the quality as well as the quantity.

If you can fit in a nap on your hangover day, excellent! But try to keep it less than 45 mins. Try to avoid the multi-hour mid day naps that will interfere with your next night of sleep.

Your main goal when you are hungover should be to try and get to bed at whatever time is normal for you - not crazy early either because that just further disrupts your normal sleep cycle.

If you usually go to bed around 10, try to prioritize getting yourself to bed around that time when you are hungover. It will help you get your body back in its normal rhythm.

Hopefully some of this was helpful. Obviously, the best way to cure a hangover is to just… drink less. Duh.

But I know that isn't always the most appealing option, so knowing how to properly recover from your hangover is key. When you have a night of fun, use some of these simple things the next day. 

Also, when you are drinking, please just mix in a water. 

When I try to encourage a drunk person to drink water, they usually passionately reject it, often acting like drinking a water is a sin. It's not.

Mixing in water throughout your night of drinking will dramatically improve your hangover the next day, so just be mindful of it.

As always, feel free to reach out with any questions. I wish you nothing but speedy recoveries from any of your future hangovers.

Ben

Ben’s Best 

Usually I give you guys a recipe in this section, but today I wanted to link to an Instagram account that I found recently. He gives awesome, science-backed information in short form videos on a variety of fitness topics. When you get a chance, just take some time to scroll through his page, I guarantee you will learn something useful.

trainbloom

780K followers

View more on Instagram

Have a great week!