Farrell Street Family Practice

December should be a time for celebration and being merry, but all the festivities can result in some poor eating habits that will affect our physical and even mental health. It could be caused by slacking with your exercise regime or perhaps overindulging in sweet treats. Whatever the case is, we’ve put together a couple of useful tips to help you stay healthy and fit over Christmas without restricting yourself too much.

Find food alternatives if you have a strict diet

Whether it’s a carb-free or low-sodium diet, you’ll want to look for alternatives to typical Christmas foods that you want to avoid. This will ensure that everyone has a delicious meal at the table and will save you having to skip meals or eat something completely different. You may need to make a few compromises, but it’s a great exercise in sticking to your diet through thick and thin.

Don’t neglect your exercise routine

If you’ve established some kind of routine for exercise, make sure you don’t neglect it. Whether it’s going for a walk, heading to the gym for a light session or even just doing some HIIT workouts at home, make sure you don’t neglect your routine. If you don’t have the right equipment or prefer not to go to the gym over the Christmas holiday, then consider seeking out an alternative such as HIIT to keep the muscles working.

Don’t underestimate breakfast

Breakfast is still going to be an important meal of the day, even if you’re anticipating a big Christmas lunch or buffer later in the day. Give yourself a generous bowl of porridge and fruit to give you plenty of carbohydrates to keep you energetic throughout the day and also control your appetite so that you don’t binge on your favourite foods.

Keep drinking water

With so many delicious drinks and alcoholic beverages available over the holiday season, it’s easy to neglect drinking the most basic liquid of them all; water. We suggest drinking even more water over Christmas if you plan to drink alcohol. After all, you don’t want to wake up feeling dehydrated or hungover, so keep reminding yourself to drink more water and you’ll feel much better after the holidays are over.

Don’t limit yourself too much

While staying healthy over Christmas is important, we also suggest that you don’t be too harsh on yourself. For example, don’t skip out on Christmas dinner or lunch with your family due to your diet. If you have strict nutritional requirements then find alternatives or offer to cook your own meals–don’t just isolate yourself from the rest of your friends and family for the sake of your diet.

We hope that these tips have been helpful for helping you maintain your health over the Christmas holidays. Above all else, make sure you enjoy yourself and watch your limits. It’s easy to binge on alcohol and unhealthy food over Christmas, but as long as you’re watching what you eat and have some level of self-control, you should do just fine.

The internet is undoubtedly a fantastic resource, and most of us rely on it every day. But there are certain things you should not trust it with – namely, your health. It is tempting to see Google as an infallible resource when it comes to almost everything, and many people will turn to it to solve life’s problems. In many situations this is fair enough (how did anyone get anywhere before Google Maps??). But it is important to realise that Google cannot diagnose your illness based on your search results. Today we are going to look at why you should end your relationship with Dr Google.

Why is Dr Google so Popular? Dr Google Will See You Now

Unbelievably, one in three people with a minor illness will not only self diagnose using Google search, but most of them will also often self treat too!

The top ten searches of 2018 show that health conditions and self-diagnosis now takes up 34% of all searches on Google.

While some people think this will take the pressure off the health services and doctors around the world, there is evidence to suggest that it actually adds to the amount of pressure they have to face. Doctors are now being presented with patients that have either been self-medicating or demand unnecessary tests based on search results.

Why Dr Google Is Dangerous

As we have briefly mentioned, Dr Google can throw up any number of results and a lot of the time; this can result in patients self-diagnosing and self-medicating. There is a very good reason that a lot of drugs aren’t available over the counter; they are dangerous. Unfortunately, a lot of people are taking their digital diagnosis and taking to online marketplaces to locate drugs to treat imaginary illnesses. Where people aren’t self-medicating, they are proceeding to book emergency medical appointments for what generally turns out to be nothing at all. Unfortunately Dr Google and the magic diagnosis system is quite often incorrect in its diagnosis. Dr Google is even responsible for the rise of a brand new health condition called “cyberchondria”. Cyberchondria is a person’s rise in concern about symptoms they feel they have based on the search results they see from Google.

It’s Time To See A GP

Undoubtedly the internet is an amazing resource, but you should always remember that it can also be full of misleading information. Some observers have labelled it “the world’s biggest game of Chinese whispers.” This is why if you have concerns about your health it is always best to visit your GP. While Google may play host to a world of information, your GP is the Google of the medical world. Your doctor will be able to help you quickly, efficiently and safely when you need them most. GP’s have received many years of training and specialise in general medicine. This experience will never be replaceable by a computer, and you should always be safe when thinking about your health.