January is a strange time to demand transformation. We remove calories when energy demand is already higher. We intensify exercise when recovery capacity is already lower. We shorten sleep when darkness is already asking for more of it. From a physiological perspective, this stacks stress on top of stress.
The body doesn’t experience this as self-improvement but instead, as a compounded threat. When the body perceives threat, it doesn’t move toward growth or optimisation. It shifts into conservation. Metabolism tightens, hunger grows louder, energy becomes erratic. What we often call a “lack of discipline” is the body doing exactly what it’s designed to do: protect itself.
So if these January protocols aren’t actually aligned with health, what are they? Mostly, they’re marketing trends. Timed perfectly for a season of vulnerability, sold as renewal, and built on urgency rather than biology. They ask for more restriction, more output, more control, not because the body needs it, but because the industry thrives on cycles that don’t last.
This is the context most health trends are born from. And it’s exactly why so many of them are worth questioning before we let them shape another year.
1. Detoxes and fad diets
Detoxes are one of the most convincing January trends because they appear to be an antidote to overindulgence. After a season of celebration, richer foods, disrupted routines, and more social eating, the idea of “clearing things out” feels intuitive. But biologically, detox diets misunderstand both how the body works and what it actually needs at this time of year.
The body does not require external cleansing protocols. Detoxification is a constant, energy-dependent process carried out primarily by the liver, supported by the gut, kidneys, thyroid, and nervous system. And crucially, detoxification does not happen through deprivation, it happens through nourishment. The liver needs adequate calories, protein, carbohydrates, minerals, and fat to convert toxins into forms that can be safely excreted. When food intake drops, detoxification slows, not accelerates.
Most detoxes and fad diets do the opposite of what they claim. Juice cleanses, liquid fasts, and extreme eliminations dramatically reduce energy intake at a time when the body is already under seasonal stress. Blood sugar becomes unstable, stress hormones rise to compensate, and the liver shifts focus from detoxification to survival. Symptoms like headaches, fatigue, irritability, and digestive upset are often framed as “toxins leaving the body,” when in reality they’re signs of stress chemistry and nutrient insufficiency.
There’s also a nervous system component rarely acknowledged. Restrictive detoxes keep the body in a vigilant state, meals are skipped, hunger is suppressed, and normal digestive rhythms are interrupted. This reduces parasympathetic activity, the very state required for effective digestion, liver function, and elimination. You cannot detox in a stressed body.
2. Cutting out carbs
There’s something particularly cruel about the timing of this trend. Just as the body is already working harder to generate warmth and energy, carbohydrates are labelled the problem and stripped away.
Yet winter is when carbohydrates are most needed, colder temperatures increase the body’s demand for fuel to maintain heat and the nervous system relies more heavily on steady glucose to stay calm and regulated.
Physiologically, carbohydrates play a central role in supporting thyroid function. Glucose signals abundance. It allows the liver to convert thyroid hormone into its active form, keeping metabolism responsive rather than conservative. When carbs disappear, this signal weakens. The body interprets the environment as scarce and adapts by slowing output, digestion becomes sluggish, body temperature drops, and energy becomes unpredictable.
Historically, carbohydrates were protective foods in colder months. Roots, squashes, fruits, honey, and slow-cooked starches worked alongside animal foods to stabilise blood sugar, support warmth, and buffer stress.
3. Obsessing over a perfect routine
Fitness is riddled with myths, and chief among them is the illusion of the perfect routine
Exact wake-up times, rigid morning rituals, colour-coded training splits, perfectly timed meals. The promise is that if everything is structured enough, health will finally fall into place.
Obsessing over the “perfect” routine quietly shifts health from something lived into something managed. Every deviation becomes a failure. A late morning feels like damage. A missed workout feels like regression. Instead of supporting the nervous system, rigid routines keep it on high alert, constantly monitoring whether you’re doing enough, early enough, consistently enough.
In the quest for fitness perfection, it’s easy to spiral into over analysis, chasing an “ideal” workout routine that’s often unsustainable beyond the first week. The result? Paralysis or burnout.
Here’s the antidote: simplicity. Health thrives on rhythms, not rigidity.
Think of primal movements: walking at dawn, sprinting with the abandon of a child, or lifting something heavy because it makes you feel capable. Movement doesn’t have to be confined to four walls or a mat. The best routine is one you’ll stick with because it aligns with your interests and lifestyle.
4. Counting calories
Calories are a crude metric, a reductive way to approach nourishment. Food is not maths, it’s medicine.
Calorie counting treats food as mere numbers rather than the rich, complex fuel your body needs. For instance, 200 calories from bone marrow are not remotely comparable to 200 calories from crackers.
When calorie counting becomes the primary guide, people often eat to a limit rather than to need. Hunger is negotiated. Satisfaction is postponed. Meals are shaped around numbers instead of nourishment. Over time, this trains the body to expect constraint even when food is present.
Instead of focusing on calorie limits, focus on the quality of your food.
Nutrient dense staples like grass fed beef, wild caught fish, raw dairy, and organs provide bioavailable vitamins, healthy fats, and essential amino acids provide bioavailable vitamins and essential amino acids that fuel your body far better than a restrictive calorie limit.
5. Ignoring recovery
When did we demonise rest so much? When did being cosy become a character flaw? It’s January. It’s dark before dinner. And somehow we’ve decided this is the month to put ourselves through suffering. In reality, being warm, well rested, and feeling safe is exactly what makes bleak January survivable.
Of course exercise in the winter is the most wonderful thing. It's likely your body may even be craving that movement...getting outside into crisp winter light, gently moving your joints, shaking off stagnant lymph, reminding your body it’s alive. But that was never meant to come at the cost
Deep, uninterrupted sleep knits torn muscle fibres back together. Collagen rich foods like bone broth repair joints and tissues, making rest as nourishing as exertion. Remember, progress doesn’t happen during the push, it happens in the stillness that follows.
And if you’re craving some new habits that support your body instead of fighting it, or you want to ride this wave of change in a way that doesn’t deplete you, we’ve put together a simple guide to help you do exactly that. Eight habits so timeless, so biologically aligned, that health stops feeling so complicated, and finally starts feeling intuitive, for the whole year, not just January.
