Closing Out Winter: Sammy’s Lessons Worth Taking Into Spring
Before we all get swept up in fresh starts and new routines, I wanted to gather Sammy’s ideas from this year that are super valuable as we enter into the new season, plus a couple worth leaving behind with winter.
Closing the winter chapter
Winter has us slower and more indoors, and that's not a failure of willpower, it's how the body is built to move through the colder months. Sleep, rest and gentle heat exposure all matter more in winter than we tend to give them credit for, and if you leaned into any of that this year, well done.
But the longer days ahead are your body's natural cue to move more again. You don't need a new gym membership or a training plan. A short walk, a bit of dancing in the kitchen, taking the stairs instead of the lift, that's enough to start waking the body back up.
Opening the spring chapter
New-season produce is starting to arrive, which makes this the easiest time of year to actually apply something I say often and don't always practise myself: know where your food comes from. Healthy soil supports healthy pasture, healthy pasture supports healthier animals, and healthier animals produce more nutritious food. It's not a slogan, it changes the actual nutrient profile of what ends up on your plate, before it even reaches your kitchen.
Warmer weather also means more time outside, and that's worth taking seriously rather than treating as a nice-to-have. Time in the garden, bare feet on grass, letting kids get properly dirty, all of it feeds a more diverse gut microbiome, which in turn supports a better-regulated immune system. Spring is basically permission to get outside again. Take it.
Before you overhaul everything
If you're the type to use a new season as a reset button (no judgement, I am too), here's the one thing worth remembering before you do: nutrient density isn't the whole story. A food can look impressive on paper and still not give your body much, because what actually matters is how much of it you absorb and use. Two people can eat the exact same thing and get quite different value out of it. So before you chase a new diet or a new supplement stack, it's worth asking not just "is this nutrient-dense" but "will my body actually use this."
The same logic applies to how much of anything you need in the first place, whether that's protein, movement or rest. There's no single number that's right for everyone. What worked for someone else's reset might not be the right target for yours.
If you want the full science behind any of these lessons, the original blog posts are linked below.
Further Reading
Winter practices that help support the body through winter
The complex communities that reside on us... and inside us
Bioavailability: The Missing Piece in How We Think About Nutrition
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