The morning after

After my last post on Working Out and Going Out, some people reminded me that working out may make you feel so good that when you go out, you may go out a little bit too hard. Let’s face it, after a good workout, you don’t even need to drink as much as you normally do (cheap date affect) to get plowed, and the next day, you will pay.

I could go on and preach about drinking in moderation and switching between alcohol and glasses of water. But hey, I admit, I like getting the most bang for my buck and stick to JD with sugar-free mixers, since, sugar is so bad for the body. Normally I have a Jack and soda, but, if for some reason I am trying to pace myself or be good, I’ll make the exception and go for the Jack and Coke.

Either way, this inevitably leads to the dreaded hangover. Unless it has been an exaggeratedly bad night, in which case I wake up just as plowed as I was when I went to bed, then I really do NOT want to get out of bed. Usually, I could guzzle liters of diet soda or water at a time, and still be crazy thirsty. Tired, cranky, sweaty are three things that usually accompany me in this morning after.

The strange thing, though, is that a night out that leads to this type of morning after means that I have probably imbibed several hundred calories, calories that I can use to go run a few miles to sweat out the toxins in my body. Short of hair of the dog, working out is the best hangover cure I can think of. When I was still in college, I used to wonder why I how I could go out at night, wake up hungover the next morning, and have great runs that would actually eliminate the hangover. (I know, these calories are not the most efficient for an athlete, but sometimes energy is energy and I’ll take it as it comes).

It’s true, sweating out a hangover is probably the best way to deal with it (though Pedialyte helps). You need to force yourself to get moving, but once you do, you will be glad. In a worst case scenario when I can’t force myself to sweat it out by working out, I just sit in a sauna/steam room. Of course, all of this sweating will dehydrate you, so make sure you drink even more water than you normally would.

I should point out that I am not writing in favor of binge drinking, and while the empty alcohol calories may give you some energy in the morning, the net effect is still clearly bad, and your body will store the fat (and unburned calories) that would have otherwise been burned had it not been for the alcohol energy. Moderation blah blah blah, just remember that when you are hungover, working out could be your cure!