How to recover from the New Year holidays?

Post-New Year Depression - a story that does not happen so rarely. Especially often it goes through those who have been waiting for the holiday for a very long time, experienced certain expectations towards it and were not completely satisfied with them. AND even if everything went well, the feeling of "abrupt withdrawal" can actually cause depression... Although this is not the only point.

According to the WHO, almost half of the world suffers from post-New Year's depression. But someone is lucky, and this unpleasant state lasts for several hours, while others have to come to their senses up to a couple of weeks. And this is not connected with the endless "celebration", the amount of alcohol consumed and a series of visits and receptions at home. More precisely, this is not always connected with this.

December through January are the start months for emotional disorders. This is the time when, it seems, it is time to take stock of the year. And if they do not please (even in part), the mood spoils. With the beginning of the new year, the situation is slightly different: from January 1, many are in a hurry to start a new life. But for various reasons, the plans are not fulfilled, the deadlines are postponed, which also leads to depressive thoughts. After celebrating the New Year, it seems that all this fuss, preparation, fun are canceled in one day, become meaningless. Someone is corny tired of the celebration.

Features of Post-Holiday Fatigue:

• low activity, even the usual things cause quick fatigue;
• the desire to quickly disassemble the New Year's decor, take out the tree, start living "as before";
• want to go to bed faster;
• lack of appetite or, conversely, an irrepressible appetite, seizing stress;
• inability to get pleasure from receiving guests, unwillingness to visit.

And this is also depressing. Someone is simply upset that the New Year did not go as we would like. By the way, there is no need to postpone revising your attitude to the holiday for the next year.

At the very beginning of January, you can decide for yourself that you will no longer arrange a large table, invite a lot of people, get tired of both the amount of food and the number of guests. And if someone decides for himself that the ideal holiday for him is a beautiful, but modest dinner with family members, an evening with board games and favorite music, this is the first step towards an early recovery. A huge number of people would prefer not to arrange night tables, drink a sip of champagne to the chimes, eat a tangerine and, after watching their favorite movie, go to bed. But some attitudes, stereotypes prevent you from doing just that.

Many jokes have been invented about the weight that grows with each new day of the new year. After the New Year's holidays, many break down with diets, proper nutrition, as they say, go haywire. And they want to return to normal very quickly, in a couple of days. But what is quickly discarded is recruited even faster. It is not rush that is important here, but quality. What can you do to keep fit?

1. Start walking a lot. And the morning of January 1 is a wonderful excuse for a walk. The city is asleep, the weather can be fine, it's time to take a walk and thereby prevent the post-holiday depression. But on any other day, you can have time to stop and find time for long walks (preferably with a pedometer). 8-10 thousand steps a day is the best regimen for recovery.
2. If it is still early for work, and you are already tired of the New Year's holidays, you need to combine business with pleasure. While watching your favorite movie or show, do a half-hour workout in several approaches for the main muscle groups. And so - every day.
3. If you still haven't made a gift for yourself, it might be worth going to a sporting goods store and taking a closer look at an exercise machine. A treadmill, an exercise bike is a good and useful purchase. Moreover, at the beginning of the year.

If you are so lazy that you don't want to go for a walk or home fitness attracts, cleaning needs to be organized. Send the household members for a walk, if there are any, and arrange cleaning, airing, "decluttering" at home. Even if all this is done before the New Year, after the holidays there will always be a reason to repeat the labor feat. And after cleaning, a recharge will take place, which will encourage you to go for walks, fitness, and even skis with skates.

The nutritional recovery item is the most difficult to accomplish. There are so many tasty things in the house (and even more in the store / away) that it is very difficult to resist. But behind all this feast there is a post-holiday "got better again", which plunges into a real depression. Therefore, you need to think over the New Year's menu in advance so that everything tasty is eaten on a holiday, and you do not have to finish the salads for another week, snacking on them with cakes and sweets. How to eat after the holidays?

1. Light soup January 1st. One of the best post-holiday dishes is a light soup, broth. You do not need to cook it the day before, the soup should be cooked on January 1st. Moreover, you can tinker with herbs, serving, in order to somehow force yourself to move, to be active. Eat slowly and tastefully. You can serve flavored croutons with the soup in order to get enough and not go all the same to cakes and salads.
2. It makes sense to write down what you eat. And it is better to draw up a menu for the day ahead, and then fix breakfasts, lunches and dinners. This will relieve overeating.
3. There are more greens, vegetables, fruits. Refuse heavy food, sweet, fatty, fried. And in order not to break down, something is still allowed, but strictly according to the regulations. For example, sweets on Saturday morning. A fatty, hearty dish - Sunday lunchtime. And not more often.
4. Introduce something new and healthy into the diet.For some, it will be a smoothie in the morning or an avocado toast. A new dish is already an interesting experience for the new year, and yet it can become a healthy habit.
5. Unload the evenings. It is better to gather with your family for dinner no later than 6 hours. Communicate, joke, watch movies, eat together. And then - nothing, just green or herbal tea without sugar.
6. It is better to go on a visit for lunches, and not for dinners. Or you can even suggest a new habit - brunch with friends in your favorite place (or a new cafe).
7. If you do not want to give up alcohol at all, well, and there should not be violent libations, you need to agree with yourself on this issue in advance. For example, allow yourself a glass of good wine at dinner - and nothing more.

We'll have to wean ourselves from this habit. It can be made a festive exception, but the point is that such "gastronomic debauchery" happens once a year. And then on January 1, the conscience will not torment the amount of food eaten on the TV, because tomorrow there are already different rules. And all of this you need to combine - well-established nutrition and physical activity. These two components work great together. And if normal sleep also joins them, recovery will be quick.

It's no secret that on New Year's holidays (especially if they are associated with vacations), this point gets lost first. And in the absence of normal sleep, you will not be able to recover quickly. We will give advice on how to normalize sleep.

1. No need to fall asleep under the TV. Ideally, take a short walk before bed (while the room is ventilated), then come into the house, take a soothing shower, and go to bed. If you can't sleep, pick up a book, but not your phone.
2. No need to eat before bed. Trying to have dinner at least 3 hours before bed is feasible for almost everyone.
3. Go to bed and get up at the same time. It helps the body a lot, which is a cyclical system.
4. Already on January 1, change the bedding for fresh, fragrant ones (you can even specially hold it in the frosty air).
5. Do not give up the evening relaxing baths surrounded by aroma candles.
6. Wash the floor in the room with water and a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil.
7. Ideally, turn off unnatural sound sources at home 2 hours before bedtime. Only quiet domestic conversations are encouraged. But light music is quite acceptable - something like jazz or calm ethnic melodies.

It is also difficult to recover at the moment of going to work after a long break. Psychologists advise you to be careful not to get into the work race too violently. On the first working day after the holidays (if possible), do not immerse yourself in work with your head. Do not take anything home, do not stay up late, do not rush - these are the principles of the first working days. Such moments help in post-holiday recovery.

• Physical exercise... Sport always affects mood, emotions, activity. Therefore, any sofa should be preferred for jogging, fitness and more. You can also lie on the couch, but not much. The longer the “sofa” period is delayed, the longer the recovery will take.
• New hobbies, projects. Not necessarily large-scale and significant. You can go to the local museum, study the latest exhibitions. You can buy a new book and dedicate cozy post-holiday evenings to it. You can draw, sculpt, embroider - art therapy is very organizing, "gathers" a person, relieves stress.
• Evening or afternoon walks around the city "without a plan". Just go out for a walk, taking with you a thermos and homemade cookies (or nuts, dried fruits). You can take a picture at the same time. Stretch the walk longer, do not tie it to shopping.Walk where you haven't been for a long time, discover new places in your hometown.
• Cross out everything that you can not do right now. Postpone large-scale shopping, a big wash, rough cooking and enjoy the leisurely, calmness, the realization that the holidays can be quiet and cozy.

Of course, you will have to plan a lot and refuse friends and family if you want to change something this time in a series of receptions and visits. It’s just sincerely, politely and kindly to say that this time we are in the mood for a quiet New Year in a close family company. So that you do not need to recover for a long time, you should not pay so much attention to gifts, decor, menu preparation and other New Year's fuss. Everything can be simplified, replayed, changed settings. And then it turns out that the New Year is a holiday that charges, and does not suck out all the energy.