Sassy Mama Tried And Tested Tips To Beat A Hangover

Because your little monkeys won’t let you have a day off!

With the festive season fast approaching, you know there will soon be packed days and longer nights. Whether you’re meeting your old school friends when visiting your home town or have your family visiting here, there are bound to be quite a few sessions when you may indulge in a drop or two of alcohol! It’ll feel great at the time, but when your kids come bursting into your room at the crack of dawn, you’ll wish you’d stayed a teetotaller. Fear not, mamas! We’ve rounded up some tried and tested tips to beat a hangover (standard disclaimer: the effectiveness of all these methods is inversely proportional to alcohol intake!).

Read more: Mama’s Night Out: Where We’re Drinking This November

The basic rules

Stay hydrated

Alcohol is a diuretic, making you go to the toilet often. This actually flushes out water from your system, so you need to replenish that while drinking. Make sure you down one glass of water for every drink, be it wine, beer or a cocktail. This will also mean that you’ll probably spend most of your time on the loo (which will also help to stop to you drinking continuously!).

Another way to hydrate is to drink plenty of coconut water or liquids that contain electrolytes (like Pocari Sweat or sports drinks).

Eat

This is such a basic tip, but it’s amazing how easy it is to forget. Make sure you have a full (even greasy) meal before drinking or before the tipsiness hits you. Also, keep a bowl of bar nibbles handy and snack throughout the night.

If you’ve woken up with a hangover despite your best efforts, don’t skip breakfast. Have something light (eggs are a great hangover cure because of the amino acids and essential minerals they contain), drink some orange juice with your food and try to go back to bed after you’ve eaten. While some people recommend coffee, you probably want to avoid additional stimulants at this point.

Read more: Family-Friendly Breakfast Spots In Hong Kong

Hong Kong remedies

Soupy noodles

There’s a reason why Tsui Wah is strategically situated in Lan Kwai Fong and open 24 hours from Thursday to Saturday. After a night of revelry, make your way there and down a big steaming bowl of noodles. Perhaps it has to do with the salt in the soup, or the neutralising effect of food and broth – whatever the reason, we have found that it works! Our favourite is the fishball noodles (pictured).

Kebabs

Quite similar to the soupy noodles, this is comfort food that will stand by you in your hours of need. While it’s always best to eat greasy food before a night out, if you have a lighter portion before you head back home, we’ve found that it does calm the stomach from an acidic overdose. Beyrouth Café is close enough to Party Central in Hong Kong and is open well past the early hours of the morning.

Read more: From Birthdays To Weddings: The Best Party Planners In Hong Kong

Supplements

Effervescent replenishing tablets

When you’re drunk (or on the way to getting there) your body loses a lot of essential salts, especially sodium and potassium. You need to replenish these to keep away that horrid throbbing headache in the morning. Try some effervescent replenishing tablets, that come in different flavours and are very effective. You can find many varieties like the one pictured here at health and wellness retail and online stores, and sometimes even at different medical practitioners’ clinics.

1B4

A month ago, this Mama and her friends tried this product that is currently all the rage in Singapore. It tastes sweet, is prickly pear-flavoured and packed with vitamin B, and it works! After a night of dancing and drinking much more than required (all in the name of research for this article!), we staggered into our respective homes well past 3am, expecting to be full of shame and regret the next morning. Instead, we were all up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so we give this product a resounding thumbs up! The only issue – it’s available in Singapore only, so make sure you stock up the next time you visit the Lion City.

Read more: How To Celebrate A Milestone Birthday In Hong Kong From 30 And Beyond

Common Sense Solutions

Day drinking

This is one for mamas who are beginning to find it difficult to stay awake through late-night parties, with or without alcohol blurring their senses. The worst part about drinking through the night is the lack of sleep involved. However, it’s a totally different matter if you start the party at lunchtime. Make a Mama’s Day Out of it, sipping on your favourite poison, but call it a day early and sleep it off! Wake up without any trace of the previous day, and get ready to jump, run and play with your little ones.

Cut down!

We’ve all done this at some point or the other – either when we were pregnant, for a bet or just to shed a couple of kilos before a wedding. There is nothing better than controlled drinking (or not at all!) to prevent hangovers. All in moderation as they say!