When someone says they want to feel more “glowy” before the New Year, it usually means something like waking up more refreshed, having steadier energy throughout the day, and just feeling better overall.
The holidays are a busy time of year, and though they are filled with precious memories and joyful celebrations, they can leave you feeling tired, overstimulated, and ready for a change. It doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, you can achieve a holiday glow-up with a few small shifts in nervous system support, nutrition, hydration, and sleep done consistently enough that you actually notice a difference.
A gentle reset will help build a foundation so that by January, you feel less sluggish and more like yourself.
Boost your hydration
“People underestimate what a big difference good hydration can make, especially mineral-rich or electrolyte-rich drinks,” says integrative naturopath Sierra Smits. She makes a habit of filling up a big liter bottle with an electrolyte drink or herbal infusion every morning to sip throughout the day.
Rather than reaching for supplements first, she prefers whole food sources. “One of my favorite options is a nutritive tea. Nettle tea is a great example—it contains significant amounts of magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, and vitamin K,” she explains. Other nutritive teas she recommends include oatstraw, red raspberry leaf, and alfalfa. “These are very affordable and great to get some extra mineral support in.”
If you have a health condition or take medications, check with a clinician before changing your electrolyte or mineral intake.
Eat for energy
Smits takes a generous approach to holiday eating. “I’m a big fan of adding instead of taking away,” she says. “We all want to live and enjoy our lives, so enjoy the pumpkin pie or the eggnog!”
She recommends pairing a treat as a dessert or side to a balanced meal that contains protein, fat, and fiber to help prevent the energy crashes you’d get if you eat it on an empty stomach. No need to be restrictive, just build a foundation around the foods you love so you can actually enjoy them without the aftermath.
Once those foundations are in place, Smit says you can consider food sources of compounds that support cellular health and energy at a deeper level.
Support cellular metabolism
Feeling energized, radiant, and resilient starts at the cellular level. Your body’s cells rely on NAD+, a coenzyme that powers energy metabolism and repairs daily wear and tear. When NAD+ levels are supported, you’re better equipped to handle stress, recover, and maintain that refreshed, glow-up feeling, especially during the busy holiday season.
Your body makes NAD+ from several food pathways. Niacin (vitamin B3) and tryptophan are key building blocks. Fish and animal proteins like wild-caught salmon, tuna, chicken, and turkey are excellent sources. Seeds and nuts like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and peanuts, also deliver these precursors.
Crimini mushrooms provide about 15% of your daily niacin in just one cup, while whole grains like brown rice supply niacin and other B vitamins that keep NAD⁺ metabolism running smoothly. Certain vegetables, including avocados and broccoli, even contain small amounts of NMN, a direct NAD⁺ precursor.
Beyond vitamins, plant compounds called polyphenols help activate sirtuins, which are NAD+ dependent enzymes that regulate metabolism, reduce inflammation, and promote cell survival.
- Resveratrol (grapes, red wine, berries) supports sirtuin activity and helps fight inflammation.
- Fisetin (strawberries, apples, kiwi) boosts SIRT1 expression, enhancing your body’s ability to protect cells from stress and support healthy aging.
Because NAD+ naturally declines over time, eating foods rich in niacin, tryptophan, and NAD+ precursors helps maintain SIRT1 activity and keeps your metabolism humming. They fuel your cells so they can give back that energy in the form of vitality, recovery, and glow.
NAD+ supporting foods include:
- Niacin-rich: Crimini mushrooms, chicken breast, tuna, peanuts
- Tryptophan-rich: Turkey, salmon, eggs, pumpkin seeds
- Direct precursors (NR/NMN): Cow’s milk, edamame, broccoli, cucumbers
Another compound, spermidine, supports cellular renewal and is naturally found in wheat germ, mushrooms, aged cheeses, fermented soy products, and legumes. These foods often come packaged with fiber and protein that aid digestion, says Smits, which is another reason to lean on whole food sources for your glow-up.
Manage sleep and stress
Smits acknowledges the holidays come packaged with some unavoidable stress. Planning get togethers, gift giving, budgets, school specials, work parties keep you constantly busy. “This spikes your stress hormones, which can lower your quality of sleep and create a negative cycle of demand, stress, cortisol spike, poor sleep, more demands,” she explains.
To break that cycle, she says, “it’s important to find a way to decrease the stress hormones, and one of the best ways to do this is to move your body.” It doesn’t have to be the gym. “Taking the dog for a walk, opting for the stairs over an elevator, or a quick home workout video on YouTube can help lower your cortisol levels that are raised due to acute stress.”
For more chronic stress, she suggests starting smaller. “A simple meditation or yoga nidra session (YouTube has tons of options for free), and in 15 minutes a day, it can have a significant impact.”
But the simplest lifestyle lever might just be to turn screens off an hour or two before bed, says Smits. It’s not glamorous advice, but it works.
Consider a supplement
Smits doesn’t recommend any supplements until most meals are balanced with fat, fiber, protein, and carbohydrates, and you’ve tried nervous system regulation techniques like meditation, breathing exercises, yoga nidra, or light exercise. That way, supplements can act as support to an already well-balanced lifestyle rather than a shortcut. “It’s like trying to start building a house with the windows before the foundation has been laid and before the walls have been built,” she says.
For those who’ve built that foundation and want to explore supplements as an optional layer, options like Codeage Liposomal NMN + Resveratrol offer NMN (a precursor to NAD+) alongside resveratrol, quercetin, and B vitamins in a liposomal delivery designed for absorption. If you’re specifically interested in spermidine, Amen Spermidine provides 10 mg of spermidine trihydrochloride with vitamin C in a straightforward formula. Codeage Liposomal Spermidine NAD+ combines both spermidine and NAD+ for convenience.
As with any supplement, talk to a clinician or pharmacist first, especially if you take medications, are pregnant or nursing, or have a health condition.
A simple one-week routine
Smits provided us with this straightforward reset anyone can try. “Do this for a week and be shocked at how much better you’ll feel,” she says:
Hydration + nutrition: “Balanced meals with fat, fiber, protein, carbs three times per day and two liters of non-caffeinated, unsweetened fluids per day. Nutritive teas are great! If you drink coffee, enjoy it after a protein-rich breakfast.”
Nervous system: “If your body is vital enough to handle it, a daily walk plus a daily meditation or yoga nidra, 15 minutes is fine. If you’re not well enough to walk, just start with the meditations.”
Lifestyle: “Screens off an hour before bed, dim the lights, and aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night.”
How to know it’s working
“You’ll notice small things first,” Smits says. “It’s usually more energized, more refreshed when they wake up, and an improved ‘general wellness’ feeling,”
Watch for subtle changes like easier mornings, less of a post-lunch crash, and more consistent energy through the afternoon. When your nervous system and sleep are supported, cravings and energy often feel easier to manage, and that internal shift is what eventually shows up on the outside. “Our bodies are all different, but these small changes add up to make a big difference,” says Smits.
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