Drinking this type of wine will keep the Christmas hangovers at bay

It's gut check time on Girls With Goals this week.

Yes... the season of non-stop food and drink is almost upon us and as true believers in the Christmas spirit, we're firmly committing to eating (and drinking) everything in sight. Our main goal this festive period is to maintain our sprightly demeanors (think of ALL the parties we have to attend), but this isn't always the easiest thing to do. Despite our best efforts, we all know that the Christmas lethargy can kick in without any notice! With this in mind, this week's episode of Girls With Goals is dedicated to our gut health - we're talking about the best ways to handle the festive season while maintaining some level of balance. Nutritionist and former Miss World Rosanna Davison joins us on our panel along with Naturopath Aisling O'Kelly and former International boxer Debbie O'Reilly of New3fit. From bedtime snacks that will COMPLETELY knock you out (10.56) to the 3 main causes of bloating (35.26), we're offering up a feast of knowledge that will get you pumped (on probiotics hopefully) for Christmas. If truth be told, one of the most exciting things we learned is that there is a certain type of wine (31.38) that won't leave you debilitated for days after the party. Listen in to the link below for the full episode or keep on reading... I know what you're thinking at this point... what about the wine you promised? We did talk about alcohol consumption on this week's episode, and it all comes back to making the right choices when it comes to what you're putting in your body. Aisling outlined that your body can do pretty much nothing with alcohol:

"If you have a fatty meal or a sugary meal your body can use it as energy even if you have a whole tub of ice cream your body can go ok, I can work with this. When it comes to alcohol, it has absolutely no use, it's an anti-nutrient, there are no benefits for it at all, any alcohol you take in pretty much converts to fat straight away."

Rosanna explained that your liver also has to work extra hard before it can even get to the alcohol:

"Before you can burn off any food you've eaten, your liver has to burn off the alcohol and store it as fat before it can deal with the food that you've eaten. So it does change your whole metabolism and the way your body works entirely."

Have no fear though, there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you (like me) will not be able to give up that Christmas glass of vino. Aisling explained that there is a certain type of wine you can choose that won't destroy you the next day:

"A lot of people have a problem with yeast, say people have 1 glass of wine and their head is banging the next day and their sinuses are flaring up, it's the yeast overgrow that is making things worse. So I get my clients on the Jacobs Creek wine, you can get it anywhere, there's pretty much no yeast in this wine, if you are going to drink buy this wine you'll be less inclined to be hungover the next day then you'll make better food choices the next day."

Hallelujah. We're also talking about the best snacks to eat before bedtime to pump up that sleep hormone and knock you out, and poop, yes we talk a little about poop, after all... what goes in must come out!

Girls With Goals is available to download on Soundcloud and iTunes every Monday morning.