Every day in January we'll be trying to share a little bit of information with you about how your body works and small things you could do to help you make positive change. The first step in being able to make any change is being able to understand what it does and how you can support your body so where possible we'll be trying to explain why things are good for you, not just tell you that they are.

Today is day 1 and we're looking at the hangover that many of you may have after any New Year antics.

The reason behind a hangover is still quite unclear in terms of scientific terms but what we can do is look at the symptoms that it causes and look to help sort those out. Dehydration, tiredness, headaches, aches, lowering of your immune system to fight back any colds or bacteria you may have running through the system.

So the best thing we can do is to address the way your body and look to swamp your system with antioxidants. Why antioxidants?

Well, to be put it relatively simple terms, antioxidants stop the 'bad' cells we have running around our system that can cause numerous issues, sometimes even leading to cancer as it causes our cells to mutate. That is why smoking, drinking and so many other things that are 'bad' for you can cause cancer, because they encourage cells to mutate.

Antioxidants are full of extra good stuff that your body can use that will help soothe some of your symptoms. It's not a hangover cure by any means but it might just help you to feel a little bit better. So let's make a smoothie that will help you get more good stuff back into your body.

The quantities of the ingredients are less scientific as you should really play with how much you personally want in it depending on the flavours you like most, but below is my favourite mix:

Ingredients
3 medjool dates - adds sweetness. Full of carbohydrates, proteins and good calories. Rich in potassium, dietary fiber and copper. Great for helping with the absorption of iron, generating energy, producing red blood cells, regulates blood pressure as well as high in anti-oxidants

Half a frozen banana - helps to regulate blood sugar, full of iron and fiber, creating white blood cells as well as a natural antacid.

Handful of frozen strawberries - Full of antioxidants, fiber and copper. Helps build your immune system, protect your eyesight, helps fight cancer, helps produce collagen which help restrict wrinkles, helps fight bad cholesterol, reduce inflammation of the joints and helps regulate blood pressure just to name a few of the benefits

Handful of frozen blueberries - Full of fiber, vitamin C and antioxidants. Improves the health of your heart and brain as well as helping to fight cancer

Teaspoon of wheatgrass powder - full of chlorophyll, vitamins and minerals, rich in proteins and full of 17 amino acids. The list of benefits and help to the body is extremely long so let's just say it's amazing to have some wheatgrass in your body regularly

Half an avocado - full of great fats for your body. Yes, I did say GOOD fats. We'll go into fats in another post for now, let's just say it's good for you. Good for cardiovascular health, improving your skin, weight loss, helps diabetics maintain their blood sugar level and helps with arthritis

Coconut milk - enough to cover 75% of the way up the things you've put inside. If it's too thick you can just add more coconout milk and it's dairy free so a good lactose free alternative. Full of fibre and loads of vitamins and minerals and fats that can help lower cholesterol levels

Once you've got your list of ingredients just through them into a smoothie maker and whizz up until it's as smooth as you want it. Sip and drink it, preferably for breakfast and it will be sure to give your body a lot of the goodness it's probably missing with that hangover.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!!

Ciao for now x