How to Spend New Year's Day Recovering from New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is a great time to party and have fun. Who doesn't want to stay up until midnight to celebrate the New Year and go until 4 a.m.? You might drink more champagne than you can handle and dance 'til you drop, using up months of saved energy on one evening. Now, you'll have to recover. This article will help you recover from your New Year's Eve antics on New Year's Day.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Alternative plans for the children during the day
• A nice warm bed to sleep in
• Designated driver or transportation
• Orange juice or some other fruit juice
• Lots of water
• Healthy comfort food, including chicken noodle soup, stuff to make a salad, and other fruits and vegetables

Prepare in Advance for New Year's Day Recovery

1. Plan in advance to make your New Years recovery go much smoothly if you're going to stay out most of the night on New Year's Eve. First, find a place for the children to be on New Year's day. While recovering, it may be difficult to relax if you have young children that are demanding of your time and energy.

2. Figure out where you will sleep on New Year's Eve. To be able to recover New Year's day, you'll need a great bed and immense comfort. You could stay at a hotel near where you celebrate New Year's Eve or you may decide to come home.

3. 
   Don't drink and drive...

   Pick someone in your group to be the designated driver or arrange some type of transportation. In cities, it's generally pretty easy to get a cab if you're willing to wait for a little while for it.

4. Get your return-to-healthy-state foods ready in advance. Stock up on chicken noodle soup, salad mix, fruits and vegetables and juice as well as water This way, you won't have to make a trip to the grocery store on New Year's Day.

5. Cancel any plans you would have had for New Year's Day. Then, you can relax all day without any distractions from your recovery.

Recovery on New Year's Day

6. Resist the urge to get up early. The more sleep you get, the easier it will be for you to recover. Sleep until you feel like getting up. Take the phone off the hook so it doesn't ring and wake you.

7. 
   Rehydrate with lots of water!

   When you finally wake up, drink plenty of fluids, especially water. The more alcohol you had the night before, the more you'll need to drink on New Year's Day!

8. Eat foods that will make you feel better. If you are dehydrated from alcohol and from dancing the night away on New Year's Eve, you'll need to rehydrate. Choose foods that have a high water content, such as broth-based soups and salads with lettuce.

9. Eat healthy foods that will help you recover. For instance, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and things your body will thank you for.

10. Take it easy. You could lie around and take in a New Year's Day tradition of football or the parade. Or, you could just watch movies. Don't do more you can handle, because then January 2nd will also be spent in recovery mode.

11. Try a light routine if you feel the utmost need to exercise daily. Don't overdo it, especially if you are still somewhat dehydrated from drinking alcohol on New Years Eve.

Tips & Warnings

• Pizza or pasta, with all the starch and tomato sauce, can really work towards helping you feel better after a late night.
• Chicken noodle soup can help you feel better if you got sick New Year's Eve, such as from overdrinking.
• Listen to your body's cues as to what food it is craving.
• Don't just haul your children to the babysitter New Years day. It's their holiday to enjoy too. Find something nice and interesting for them to do on New Year's day.
• If you're going to use the babysitter option, at least have the babysitter come to your home. That way, the kids can enjoy their Christmas gifts and still have fun.

[grouch]

on 1/26/2008 Sending the children out the next day on their own little adventure is a great idea after any night on the town. Thanks for the article.