Tip 1: Eat breakfast. If you've really overdone it, chowing down may be the last thing you feel capable of, but it's important to get some nutrients back into your body. Be sure to eschew the greasy breakfast burrito-type fare in favor of whole grain toast and fruit (bananas are an excellent source of potassium, which will help replenish depleted electrolyte levels). Hash browns with cheese can also help. They're carbs and protein and provide vitamin C and iron, which aid in the absorption of the remaining alcohol.
Tip 2: Avoid coffee. The stereotypical drunk guy gets cups of coffee poured down his gullet to sober him up so it must work, right? Nope. The caffeine in coffee is a diuretic and will only serve to further dry out your tissues. Ditto the proverbial "hair of the dog." Stay away from Starbuck's and the Bloody Mary and drink orange juice (the sugar and vitamin C will help), seltzer water or chicken broth (the sodium will help boost your electrolyte levels).
Tip 3: Fake a well-rested, un-queasy look. Deflate eye puff with chilled tea bags (the caffeine works like a champ) or try a product containing peptides or Arctic Root like Kiehl's Facial Fuel Eye De-Puffer, $19.
It's been a while now, but, think back to the fabulously glam women of "Sex and the City." OK, good. Now, what do you picture them doing? Images of the four friends sipping Cosmos at some trendy New York City eatery popped to mind since that's what all the beautiful, socially adept people do, right? They sip cocktails? Because, of course, no one in TV land ever suffers health (or beauty) consequences from such things.
That visual of attractive folk milling about, martini/wine/champagne glass in hand, has long been promulgated in all forms of media. F. Scott Fitzgerald painted images of the luxe, lush life in his novels (while suffering from alcoholism in his real life); the whole world knows James Bond's cinematic beverage of choice; and no self-respecting primetime drama is complete without a bar scene or two.
The takeaway, of course, is that drinking alcohol is glamorous. And, while it may be fine to raise a glass every now and again, drinking too much, as everyone knows, definitely takes a toll on your body and your looks.
As author Jason Vale says in his book "Slim for Life," drinking "batters your liver, kidneys, and pancreas; it dehydrates your body; destroys brain cells and can shrink your brain. It eats away your stomach lining, weakens eyesight and causes impotence, diabetes, and obesity." And that doesn't even begin to cover what it does to the outside.
Let's find out precisely what kind of havoc drinking too much can wreak on your looks (besides, of course, making you fat, that's a given) and discuss what you can do — besides becoming a strict teetotaler — to keep that damage to a minimum. And, to round things out, we'll walk through a few ways to make it look like you didn't over imbibe — even when you did. So, if you're game, let's put down that glass and get cracking...
