I consider myself to be well-versed in the human body and how to get the best of it. I’ve worked in clinical exercise rehabilitation for 10 years, supporting people with conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and debilitating neurological conditions.

Naturally, I try and follow my own advice and keep myself healthy. I love to exercise, have a balanced diet and take care of my sleep hygiene.

But I also like balance and enjoy a nice pint of Guinness at the weekend, so when my great friends, Kevin and Amelia, invited me to their (3 day) wedding in Dublin last month, I was enthusiastic to taste the local delicacy at source.

There was one small problem: how was I going to balance my love of Guinness over 3 days, with keeping myself healthy? Time to dust off a few tricks of the trade I’ve picked up over the years.

Firstly, I need to stress that there is absolutely no health benefit to any amount of alcohol.

Previous myths about the cardiac benefits of a nice glass of red wine have been thoroughly debunked.

The current UK alcohol guidelines recommend drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, spread across three or more days and I would encourage everyone to keep their alcohol consumption to a minimum.

The first thing I needed to think about before I drank my first pint was hydration. The main cause of hangovers is dehydration, as alcohol is a diuretic.

So I made sure that I was well hydrated and interspersed my drinks with some Guinness Clear. 

At the end of the evening I boosted my hydration further by using an electrolyte tablet.

The brilliant thing about Irish weddings is that they last so long. It gives everyone a chance to get to know each other, and the bride and groom time to speak to everyone rather than the usual quick hellos and goodbyes.

The tricky part of Irish weddings lasting  so long is that it threw off my usual sleep schedule. Good sleep hygiene means going to bed and getting up and the same time every day, as well as avoiding alcohol before bedtime.

Luckily, if there was any place I could get away with an ‘Irish Goodbye’ it was on the Emerald Isle, so I snuck away after the last rendition of Galway Girl for my 40 winks.  

It’s safe to say that exercise was on the backburner, but I knew that some movement would help me stay alert. Alcohol can severely impair exercise performance, and after a heavier session your risk of arrythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) can increase for up to 48 hours, so it wasn’t a good time for a heavy resistance training session or HITT workout.

Instead, by taking a moderate intensity walk I was able to boost my circulation, give my immune system a lift and get some mood-boosting endorphins.

Alcohol has a pretty devastating effect on the immune system and knowing that my trip was bookended by spending two hours in a metal tube inhaling everyone else’s pathogens, I was conscious that I’d need to work hard to avoid picking up a cold.

That meant getting as many micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) as I could. A general rule of thumb is to eat the rainbow – get lots of different colours onto your plate and you’ve got a good start to a healthy diet.

For the wedding I wanted heavy doses of vitamins A, C and E, and that meant lots of oranges, carrots, nuts and avocadoes.

So there we have it – how I supported my health during a 3-day Irish wedding. By looking after my hydration, sleep, exercise and micronutrients, I managed to take the edge off what could have been an almighty hangover.

As the pilot guided me back into Bristol I was able to reflect on what was a joyous weekend of love and celebration with only a mild headache.

Surviving an Irish wedding isn’t about abstinence (though that works too), it’s about preparation, pacing, and recovery.

Treat it like the endurance event it is: hydrate, fuel wisely, and listen to your body.

Your liver (and Monday morning self) will thank you.