10 Quick Tips to Make This your Healthiest Year YET!
- Cheryl Pattyn
- 21 minutes ago
- 3 min read
If you want 2026 to feel healthier, stronger, and more sustainable, the key isn’t chasing perfection—it’s building simple habits that actually stick.
Here are 10 actionable tips that cover everything from setting smarter nutrition goals to recovering from slip-ups with ease.
Set SMARTER goals: “I will increase my daily protein intake to 120 grams per day over the next four weeks by adding a protein source to each meal (such as chicken, fish, tofu, or a protein shake) to support muscle recovery and fat loss.” When setting nutrition goals, make sure they align with what you’re actually trying to accomplish, whether that’s improving performance, supporting muscle recovery, or creating more consistency around meals.
Prioritize protein: Protein plays a major role in supporting nearly every fitness goal, especially when it comes to muscle recovery, strength, and feeling satisfied between meals.
Adequate protein intake helps repair muscle tissue after workouts, supports lean mass, and can make it easier to stay consistent with nutrition by improving fullness and reducing constant grazing. It’s not about eating “as much as possible,” but about eating enough, consistently.
Plan your meals ahead of time: Having a loose plan for meals and snacks makes it easier to follow through on your nutrition goals, especially during busy weeks. Planning ahead helps remove the “what should I eat?” moment that often leads to skipped meals, grazing, or choices that don’t actually support how you want to feel.
Stay hydrated: Hydration has a bigger impact on energy levels, workout performance, and recovery than most people realize. Even mild dehydration can affect strength, endurance, focus, and how you feel during training. When hydration is consistent, workouts feel better, recovery improves, and energy levels are easier to maintain.
Eat enough: You can’t build strength, improve performance, or feel better in your body if you’re under-fueling. Full stop.
Under-eating can show up as:
Low energy during workouts
Constant hunger or late-night snacking
Poor recovery or stalled
Progress requires enough food to support training, muscle repair, hormones, and day-to-day life.
Fuel around your workouts: What you eat before and after a workout can influence energy levels, performance, and recovery, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Pre-workout nutrition helps provide the energy to train effectively, while post-workout meals support muscle repair and recovery. The key is making sure you’re eating something that fits your schedule, not chasing a perfect formula.
A few simple guidelines:
Aim for a mix of carbs and protein before, during and after workouts
Save higher fat foods and meals for later—you don’t want to slow down absorption of carbs right now
Include healthy fats intentionally: Dietary fat is an essential nutrient that supports energy levels, hormone health, and overall metabolic function. Cutting fats too aggressively can leave people feeling low-energy, unsatisfied after meals, and struggling to stay consistent.
Fats don’t need to be feared. Like protein and carbohydrates, they play a role in a balanced nutrition approach that supports training and daily life.
Track your food: It’s an awareness tool.
Tracking is about clarity. Logging your meals helps you understand patterns in your intake, notice gaps in protein, carbs, or fats, and see where your nutrition aligns (or doesn’t) with your goals.
Tracking gives you feedback, not a grade. Once you know where you are, adjustments become obvious and sustainable.
Weigh your portions: To truly understand how much you’re eating, weighing portions can be a game-changer, especially if you’re trying to hit specific protein, carb, or calorie targets. Weighing portions doesn’t have to be permanent. It’s a great learning tool that sets you up to make confident, consistent choices in real life.
Practice the “next choice” mentality: Real, sustainable progress comes from knowing what you do after a slip. Instead of trying to “fix” a missed meal or workout, or worse, ditching your goals entirely when something doesn’t go to plan—focus on your next choice. Notice when a choice doesn’t go as planned (missed protein, skipped snack, busy day, etc.) Decide on the next positive step: your next meal, your next snack, or your next workout
Keep moving forward rather than starting over or dwelling on what’s “already ruined”
This simple shift builds momentum and confidence, reduces guilt, and reinforces consistency over perfection—exactly the kind of skill that keeps results sustainable.
he best results come from small, consistent actions that fit your life.
With 1:1 coaching, you get a plan designed around your body, training, and goals, plus guidance on how to navigate real life while staying on track. You don’t have to figure it out alone. Make 2026 your healthiest year yet.
