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Melanie Cole (Host): If you’ve over-indulged at a party, you start feeling the bloat and the headache and you feel awful, and after further assessing the caloric damage of your food free-for-all and how bad you feel; you are wondering what to do and how to get back on track and really can you even do that? Well of course you can. And my guest today is Jodi Dalyai. She’s a community education dietician with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Jodi people start with the negative self-talk right after a binge. That’s the first thing they do. They wake up, they feel terrible and they say why did I do that. I’m such an idiot. What do you want us to do as the first thing after a binge?

Jodi Dalyai (Guest): The first thing I always recommend is just give yourself a break. We know that the negative self-talk isn’t helpful, and we know it’s going to happen. But the first thing we need to do is just give ourselves a break. It’s the holidays, we want to enjoy ourselves. We want to have a good time. We want to be able to participate and enjoy like everyone else, even if we are focused on a healthy lifestyle. So, I think the first thing is just take a deep breath, say heh, I had a good time, it’s done, new day and just not keep beating yourself up over it. That’s definitely step one.

Host: A lot of people think hair of the dog Jodi. What do you think about that?

Jodi: I would definitely say we are going to start with water. If your over-indulging has been food, been sweets and maybe also been too much alcohol; you definitely want to start off with hopefully a good night’s sleep and then some water. You want to just start to get back on track with the things that you know are going to help you out and getting yourself hydrated is definitely one of the first ways to go. So, some water and then we are going to try to figure out what’s going to be some good food choices for the rest of the day if you are ready to get back on track.

Host: Then let’s talk about that, because first of all, you don’t always feel like eating. But are there certain foods that you can eat to get back on track? Are there foods that can cause less stress on your stomach and your body as you are trying to kind of get over that binge?

Jodi: I say the main thing is not to choose processed foods and to make sure that you are starting out with just whole fresh foods. So, you have probably had some holiday cookies or some extra treats and probably some fattier foods and just food you are probably not used to eating all the time. So, you want to start out with just some really fresh foods that are going to nourish you, give you the vitamins and minerals you need. So always starting out with some fresh foods, some whole grains, just something really nourishing. Getting back to just basics. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. It can just be a nice bowl of oatmeal with some cut up banana. It could be some nonfat Greek yogurt with some nuts and some fruit. But definitely just simple, basic less processed food is most important.

Host: I don’t know why people always think really heavy fried food is the way to go. But it’s not really is it?

Jodi: I’m guessing that you’ve probably already had enough of it, so I definitely wouldn’t start the next day with that. As much as a doughnut sometimes sounds like the tasty treat the first thing in the morning and it certainly can go nicely with coffee; if we have already been having a lot of sugar and fried foods; continuing it is probably just going to make your belly hurt more and you are just going to continue with the sugar crash and not really have that energy you want to probably get through the day. So, I would start to lay off the fried food, save it for the little treats here and there that you enjoy during the holidays, but if you are ready to get back on track; you definitely want to go for the least processed, lower fat, just really nourishing foods which are going to be more plant foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains.

Host: Jodi if you start Googling this on the internet, you find all kinds of cleanses. You are a Registered Dietician Nutritionist. Is it possible to cleanse your body after a binge? Are there some teas, or some kind of herbal supplements, things that you want people to try or do you say you know what, there really is no such cleanse, just really eat healthy, maybe get some exercise and hydrate?

Jodi: Yeah, I mean you just said it yourself. There just really isn’t any magic bullet to what is going to cleanse your body. The main thing is just choosing unprocessed foods, fresh foods, plant foods. Again, the vitamins, the minerals, the hydration your body needs, the electrolytes your body needs, the potassium, the magnesium and you are going to find those when you eat things like bananas, when you have things like nuts, when you just eat some less processed foods. So, have some water. If you like to make fresh juice or make a smoothie, that’s totally fine, but use fresh, whole ingredients and if you do that and you take it easy and like you said, heh get back to some exercise, do a walk if you don’t feel like your regular more intense spin class or run or work out. You can certainly still do some movement and again just like you said, less processed foods, more fresh foods. And that’s going to cleanse your body. Your liver, your intestines, your colon; all do a really great job of keeping your digestive tract where it needs to be as long as you are putting in good stuff. So, if you haven’t been putting in good stuff; just take a couple of days and just start putting the good stuff back in there.

Host: Do women especially ask you about bloating and foods or liquids that can help with that bloating? Because certainly after a binge, you feel like you are pregnant. I mean, and you look down at your stomach and go oh God, what happened to me? And that bloating is a big part of how bad we feel the next day. Is there something that can help with that?

Jodi: I like to call that one the snake belly, right. It’s like you ate some large animal. It’s just sitting there waiting to be digested. I mean there are certainly people who have ongoing issues with bloating and it could be related to some kind of digestive issue or you might not tolerate some foods better than others and if it’s something that happens to you outside of these times where we are overindulging; it might be something to look at with someone like talk to a physician or talk to a Registered Dietician. But when we are overeating and there’s more in there and we have a lot of fat; it can take longer to digest. And that’s why we wake up and we are not feeling as good. We could have more gas. It takes our liver a long time to digest alcohol, so we are not digesting our other food as well. So, it’s just all going a little bit slower sort of through our system and not feeling as good. And again, I know I’m sounding like a broken record; but fresh foods, water, get away from the alcohol, the sugar, the processed foods for a few days and reset your digestive tract and you should hopefully be feeling better. But if it’s something you are noticing regularly, even when you are just eating what you consider a healthy diet; it certainly might warrant talking to your physician about it.

Host: So, as we started the segment I asked you about the negative self-talk because while we are eating out healthy foods and our banana and our Greek yogurt and we are going for a walk and we are trying to hydrate and do all these things you have recommended here today; how do we forgive ourselves? Because it takes a while to get back to where you feel like thin again, not bloated, the headache is gone. You don’t look in the mirror and scream. So, the negative self-talk and forgiving ourselves, wrap it up for us, your best advice about putting it all together so that we can feel better whether it’s the next day or a few days after.

Jodi: I think it’s always helpful to look back and think about what successes you have had. Whether it’s just you’ve just had a little slip and you’ve been doing awesome with your routine recently and you can say heh, last week I was doing great. Or even if it’s been a while, you can look back and see when you were successful and what helped you be successful. Go through that again. Remind yourself how it feels, and you know you can get back there. If you need to, just sit down, get out all your feelings on paper and then write out your next step. Putting it on paper usually helps us be more consistent and move forward. So, possibly that’s going to be helpful. The other thing I can recommend is some people really like to have a mantra, a feel-good statement they can tell themselves, they can repeat to themselves that can really get them through that stressful time. So, saying something like I’m a healthy person, I love my body the way it is, anything that feels empowering, loving to yourself can help you get through that day and help you know that the next step is going to be a healthy and good choice for yourself.

Host: That’s great information and it’s important for upcoming holidays for people to hear this about overindulging and bingeing and how crappy you feel the next day and the advice you have given us Jodi can really help us to get back on that wagon as it were, eat healthy again, get some exercise and stay hydrated. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re listening to It’s Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. For more information please visit www.henrymayo.com, that’s www.henrymayo.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for tuning in.