Few things are quite so humbling as starting off your New Year’s resolutions in the exhausting haze of a soul wrenching hangover. Thankfully, recent breakthroughs in common sense and basic nutrition have rendered the worst symptoms of a hangover largely avoidable. With that it mind, try using one or more of these tips this year on your New Year’s Eve, and maybe you can start the first morning of the new year without crippling remorse.
1. Don’t Drink (at least not so much)
The obligatory recommendation, we’ll get this out of the way first. Really, you don’t have to go out trying to have wildest night of the year every New Year’s Eve. Many people find much more enjoyment with a quite night to reflect upon the year gone by or crying in front of the television. I’m not sure what their problem is, but this article is about helping you, not them. Moving on.
2. Don’t Stop Drinking
Hair of the dog that bit you, one of the more controversial hangover remedies. Many claim that a little bit of alcohol in the morning will alleviate the symptoms of a hard night’s debauchery. Here we must weigh the good with the bad. On the upside, you can delay the inconvenience of mild physical discomfort. On the other, drinking in the morning will lead you directly into a cycle of self-destruction the likes of which no Lifetime movie or after-school special has ever seen. It’s like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters; Egon tells you not to do it, but sometimes the State Puff Marshmallow Man just has got to go. By State Puff, I mean a hangover.
3. Drink Differently
Beer, wine, cocktails, moonshine, it’s all got the same chemical the same job: ethyl alcohol. However, each of these beverages have a bunch of other crap in them too, and it’s this stuff that makes a hangover particularly unpleasant. Unfortunately, this is the stuff that gives your beverage its flavor. Clear and generally flavorless drinks like vodka and gin give a much lighter hangover and are a good choice if you’re overindulging. Try to turn down the sugary cocktails; sugar and alcohol combined make the metabolism go double time and really replenish your vitamin reserves.
4. Eat Before You Drink
And eat while you drink, eat after you drink, and eat some more the next day. Eating in general increases the metabolizing of alcohol, and certain foods, like cheese and carbs, replace lost amino acids. Italian food, pizza, and a greasy breakfast are all good ideas. Another excellent reason to avoid salads.
5. Hydrate
Kinda obvious, but don’t forget to do it. Alcohol dehydrates you, and getting water back in your system is key to getting it together the next morning. A glass or two before lights out makes a big difference in softening a hangover, and some more in the morning is the right step.
That’s pretty much it. If you give these a shot, you’ll be ready to start off the New Year with a clean head and equipped to fail at optimum capacity! In case you forget to do any of this stuff and wake up with another hangover, job well done; I’ve got another article on here with recipes for hangover cures.
