Are you starting off the New Year feeling sluggish, stiff and even in pain? Unfortunately, all that overindulging we’re prone to do over the holidays can do more than just impact our waistlines.

Here’s why: During the holiday season, we’re more likely to eat more carbs and more sugar, consume more calories, drink less water, ignore exercise and increase our stress levels. The holidays are also a time when we take in foods that cause inflammation. Combine that with more stress and less sleep and it’s no wonder our bodies cry out in pain.

You can’t do the holiday season over—but you can resolve in 2017 to heal your body by getting these inflammatory foods out of your diet:

1. Sugar and refined flour
2. Saturated and trans fats
3. Red and processed meats
4. Fried and processed foods
5. Gluten

So what’s left? Plenty. Reach for these instead to help rid your body of inflammation:

1. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables—fresh or frozen, not canned. Blueberries, red peppers, beets and broccoli are all great anti-inflammatory foods.
2. Protein—eat plenty of it and a variety of it. To learn more, read my blog.
   Ginger—try this delicious tea to get more ginger into your life.
3. Dark chocolate—Choose at least 70% cacao and eat with apple slices for a 1-2 punch.
4. Salmon—choose wild-caught versus farm raised—and sardines, too.

And a reminder: Drink more water. Now that it’s cold out you may have let your water intake drop. But your body still needs it. Choose good, clean water to rid the body of toxins and to lubricate the brain, joints, spine and muscles. That means fewer headaches, joint pain, stiffness and back pain and muscle tightness and pain. While there are different schools of thought on this, I believe tea, coffee and/or colas do not count as water intake. For the best benefits to your body, choose water.