Shorter days, colder temperatures, and the tail end of holiday indulgence can leave folks feeling sluggish and depleted. The impulse to reset often leads to restrictive eating plans or elaborate detoxes, but the body responds better to nourishment than deprivation. Simple, vegetable-forward meals that focus on whole ingredients offer a gentler way to support the body's natural processes during the coldest months.
The word "probiotic" shows up on so many food labels now that it's easy to read right past it without stopping to think about what it actually means. Yogurt, kombucha, pickles, and sauerkraut all advertise these live cultures, but the explanation for why people have been fermenting foods for thousands of years often gets lost.
The holidays end not with a clean break but with a gradual winding down. Decorations come down in stages, leftovers get eaten (or thrown away), and the house slowly returns to its usual state. For many people, this transition period between the last celebration and the return to regular routines creates its own kind of exhaustion.
