Raise your hand if you’ve ever woken up after a wild weekend bender, feeling like you need to hit the reset button! Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.
In this episode, I’m sharing personal stories of my most recent all-nighter and how I recovered from a gnarly hangover. So grab a glass of H2O and get ready to laugh and learn.
Whether you’re a party animal or a weekend warrior, this episode is for anyone who’s ever felt the struggle of returning to a healthy lifestyle after a bender. So tune in and let’s get this party started (in a healthy way, of course)!
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Transcription
Welcome back to another episode of the Funsized Podcast. I’m your host, Kier, and I’m coming at you with a solo personal episode and I’m just gonna dive right on in. So I just got back from a Bachelorette weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona for my future sister in-law. We went from wednesday to saturday afternoon. It was a ton of fun, filled with booze and lots of french fries. Idk what is up with scottsdale, arizona but everywhere we went had THE BEST fries I’ve ever had in my entire like. Probably the worst for us healthy wise but flavor and texture, out of this world. And you guys know me. It’s not like I have fries on the reg but out of the 3 days I was there I had a meal with fries everyday. Plus my breakfast sandwich on the last day had super crispy roasted potatoes. I tell you all this to kinda of paint the picture of what this weekend looked like. Lots of indulgent foods and lots of booze. I’m not usually a big drinker But When I drink now it’s usually between 1-3 drinks -tops. But I feel like I should fill you on my drinking history to paint you an even better picture. So I started drinking in 9th grade – yay for underaged drinking – and I was a champ with alcohol. Like I could put it away and my friends were always so surprised. I was going through a huge rebellious stage during that time of my life. I am the only girl in my family and my parents were so strict with me and not my brothers so I was definitely acting out. I had much more freedom when I went to college 1000 miles from home. I used to do this thing where For every beer I drank, I used to put the cap in my purse and count them the next day. Usually between 8-12 a night. And beer pong was my jam. I was always a weekend drinker though. I cared about school so I never let it interfere with that but I would go kinda hard on the weekends. I turned 21 at the end of my last fall semester. So that means my last spring semester was the only semester that I was legally able to drink but I was in my internship, living alone, and I wasn’t seeing my friends regularly and my dog had to be put down and it was really just a shitty semester and I rarely drank. And then I got super into working out and fitness and competing that drinking kinda just didn’t phase me anymore. So from age 22 to 26 or 27, I barely had a drop of alcohol. And when I did I would feel it HARD 1. Because my body was like wth is this poison and 2 because I was the leanest and lightest I had ever been so I was the true definition of a lightweight. Ever since going through Hypothalamic Amenorrhea and learning to have food freedom, I allowed myself to have alcohol more frequently again and not feel guilty about it. Still being mostly a weekend drinker. I’d say within the last year or so I’ve definitely opened up that loose rule and I have no problem pouring myself a glass of tequila soda on a tuesday – I don’t know what I pick that day every time I talk about this but I do. So I think I’ve retrained my body to handle some alcohol. And this is where shit gets a little weird and I kinda mentioned this on a previous episode but being a fitness and nutrition coach I don’t often share when I’m drinking especially on instagram because I don’t want lose trust or give the wrong impression. It’s a weird space to be in and sometimes I don’t always know how to go about it. But I do drink. It’s usually just for special occasions or when I really just want something to take the edge off. Like of course I wanna be real with you guys and be like yeah I’m having a good time right now but also I don’t want to over-share my alcohol consumption in a way that makes it seem like I’m promoting it or something. So that’s why when a client of mine asked me to make a podcast about recovering from the bachelorette trip I just went on because -as she said- “I know you don’t indulge like that often”. I was kinda like does she not think I drink at all? Cause I do – I just don’t get shitfaced often. So for this episode, I figured I’d share with you how I recovered last friday after having I don’t know how many drinks the night before. I can give you a minimum though. I know for a fact I had a high noon while getting ready, 2 margaritas with dinner, 1 glass of champagne, 1 weird lemonade like cocktail (I’m honestly not sure if I finished that one the champagne and the lemonade were free from some bottle service thing at a night club we were at. I watched them pour it, I didn’t get roofied. Just fyi) after that we went to a different club and I got my go-to tequila soda, finished that and went to another bar. Did a tequila shot. So at this point we’re talking definitely 5 and a half plus a shot. And then the rest of the night is a little blurry but I’m 80 percent sure I had at least another tequila soda and a shot after that too. It’s just a little blurry. Needless to say that’s a lot for 5 foot nothing girl. Now what I didn’t tell you is that I had a full glass of water between all of those drinks. When I was younger, living in florida where it’s humid, I didn’t take that rule so seriously. Now, living in las vegas where it’s dry AF, I ALWAYS have water between my drinks because if I don’t I pretty much immediately get a headache. Since we were in Arizona, I was pretty damn responsible, I must say. But drinking more water is probably what helps me drink a little bit more which probably isn’t the best thing but it is what it is. When we got back to our airbnb that morning at 3am, I fill my 32 oz ounce water bottle with a liquid IV. Drank the whole thing while having a solid heart to heart with my future sister in law that I don’t get to see often. And then finally laid down to go get some sleep at 4:30am. I honestly cannot even tell you the last time that happened. My bedtime is usually 8:30 or 9pm. Going to bed 4:30? Not since college. Midnight to 1am, yeah I could probably count on one hand how many times that’s happened in the last 5 years. But 4:30am, that’s a late night. You wanna know the Best part? I woke up less than 2 hours later because my body is used to getting up early for the gym. So now at this point, you could imagine, I have a hangover and I’m running on fumes. So here’s what I did to recover. I had a 20oz essentia water. A cup of black coffee. A banana. And a 16oz body armor drink. Within an hour of waking up. Literally all the fluids, all the electrolytes, and all the potassium. After a few of the other girls woke up, we walked about a mile to a local coffee shop (where I got an unsweetened iced tea) and back. The whole time I was walking I was like WOW I actually feel great for how bad of a hangover I had and how little sleep I got. The moment we got back and I stopped moving is when I got that queasy feeling again. I made put another liquid IV in my 32oz water and sipped on that the rest of the morning. At some point I had a piece of bacon, 2 bites of scrambled eggs, and half a muffin but I really wasn’t hungry because I was so full of fluids. This was about the time when I was feeling the most bloated which makes sense from all the electrolytes I stacked up on. Around noon we went to a day club pool party and even though I know it might be a myth that more alcohol can cure a hangover, I really just felt like I needed something to take the edge off so I got a high noon and just sipped on that for 2 hours. Then I killed some french fries and crispy chicken sliders around 2:30pm and I was feeling way better than I expected. So that my friends, is how I recovered from the hangover from hell. Drink water between drinks – especially if you’re in dry climates. Drink electrolytes before bed. Then load up on all of the things when you wake up. And finally, give it time for the toxins to flush out.
Now, for the recovery from the weekend as a whole – we’re talking food, we’re talking drinks, we’re talking not working out for 3 days. How do I recover from that? It’s actually a hell of a lot simpler than you’d think. For me, going to the gym, meal prepping, eating healthy, drinking water, all of that is already part of my day to day routine so when I get home, I just jump right back into that. So it’s all about having a healthy day-to-day rountine. I used to think all my progress was flushed down the drain after a weekend like what I just had. I used to feel like I had to go extra hard after a vacay filled with booze and indulgent foods. I used to have sooooo much anxiety over it. I’d hit the gym for longer, I’d add running and HIIT and I’d push push push until I felt normal again. Now I don’t do any of that. Now I know that if I just return to my normal routine – without adding anything extra – that I will feel normal again within the same amount of time. You can’t rush your body to get the toxins out. It’s gonna do it when it’s gonna do it. So I just pick back up again without putting extra pressure on myself. I think the difference between how I used to do things before vs how I do things now has to do with the mindset shift away from perfection and into consistency. I’ll give you 2 examples. First is, I used to be a such perfectionist with my food and my workouts. Like if I had one off week I’d look at it as a failure. But now, if I had one off week, I look back at all the years as a whole and realize that in the grand scheme of things it’s such a small percentage of time that really does not hold significant weight. It’s all about what you do majority of the time and not just some of the times. And the second example is that I don’t have a perfectionist mindset about my body anymore (do I have bad body image days? Yes, every once in a while I get in my head and get in my own way. But again, it’s really about how you feel most of the time and not a handful of times). Anyway, I used to come back from a trip thinking omg I have to lose weight. Do I come back from a trip now thinking “omg I’m so perfect and I’m the hottest thing ever” – hell no. I know I’ve got imperfections but I don’t let those imperfections rule me anymore. I’m pretty content with where I’m at and I know that within a few days as I start moving my body again, I’m gonna feel fine.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve come back from a trip feeling like this. Like I’m cool with what I see in the mirror and I’m chill. I’d say most of my trips within the last few years have felt like this. And this feeling of being okay is what will propel me on my next trip. For example, I knew this trip was going to be fine because I felt fine after all the sugary drinks and foods I had in my week long trip to hawaii. If I could survive that, I could survive this. I absolutely still have some fears that seep in before trips but I can always shut them down by reminding myself about how I felt when I returned from any number of my trips. That confidence is like a muscle, the more you use it the bigger it gets.
And not for nothing but, we all deserve breaks sometimes. Especially in this modern world. We deserve to let loose and have a blast on vacations. Because if you’re not – then is it even a vacation?
I can’t tell you how refreshed I feel after this recent bender. Tired – yes. But overall, I feel lighter and happy and playful. Almost as if this was the perfect start to kick off a great summer. I can’t stop blasting music, singing along, and dancing throughout my house… and if you know me – you know I’m not that girl but right now I am channeling her and I wouldn’t be mind if she stuck around for a while.
I hope you got something valuable out of this episode, if not just enjoyed listening to some personal stories. If you’re ever in scottsdale, arizona. I highly recommend the tacos at Diego Pops and dancing at Whiskey Row – they also have one in nashville and denver but I can’t attest to those. As always, thanks for listening and I’ll catch ya in the next episode!
