4 Nutrition Tips and the Quick Hacks that Make Healthy Eating Easy
Kate Irwin • July 7, 2020
How To Empower Yourself To Achieve Your Goals
While not everyone is looking to lose weight, many of our members are looking to change their body composition and decrease body fat. Yes, a simple meal plan laid out with when and what to eat can work, it isn’t sustainable. Our goal is to empower people to learn how to alter their body composition and achieve their goals while not enforcing a strict meal plan.
LEARN THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO REACH YOUR HEALTH GOALS
Below are four of my favourite nutrition strategies and tips that will help you reach your own personal goals! (Don’t have any goals right now? This is why they are important and how to make them).
PURCHASE A FOOD SCALE
Eyeballing your portions is inherently inaccurate, but did you know measuring your food in cups and tablespoons can also lead you astray. A food scale may seem extreme, but it’s a quick and reliable way to measure serving sizes. By weighing your food you increase the likelihood of sticking to a single portion, and it will start to give you a better idea of portion sizing.
Small Hack:
Place your dinner plate on the food scale, zero the scale, place the first food on your scale for weight, then zero it again and move to the next food. This means that you don’t need to dirty extra dishes, simply weigh your chicken, clear the scale and add on your rice, etc.
TRACK YOUR CALORIES
Yes, we understand tracking calories can sometimes be time-consuming. Eventually you can progress towards intuitive eating (on a regular basis or use on days when tracking isn’t realistic).
One of the most common statements I hear from clients is that they are eating healthy and clean and don’t understand why they can’t lose weight. While eating “healthy” and “clean” can lead to things like more energy and consuming more micronutrients it doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with body fat loss. It can be VERY eye-opening to see how quickly the calories in your salad, or morning green smoothie add up. By setting a calorie goal and tracking your food intake it will help both increase your awareness and help you stay within your desired calorie range.
Small Hack:
If you are going to have a dessert or alcoholic beverage at night, track it in the morning so that you can plan your day to save those calories and macros for the evening.
FOCUS ON SMALL HABITS THAT ADD UP
While small things like drinking enough water, getting out for a walk each day, staying within 5 grams of each macro daily don’t seem like big feats, they add up quickly. Getting discouraged that you had one less ideal meal, or less ideal day and giving up on the rest of the week is like having a flat tire and slashing the other three because one is already flat. Each small habit is like planting a seed, the work at the beginning isn’t visible but as time passes you start to see the results of your small changes.
Small Hack:
Pick one habit. Complete it for 3 weeks in a row before moving on to another. None of this is a race, it’s about changing your daily habits to increase your ability to achieve your goals.
DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER SLIP UPS
Guilt is a sure fire way to side rail your efforts. Guilt leads to things like giving in or giving up more quickly than you should. When we start to remove the guilt from food it just becomes fact. When you consume a cookie that is less healthy or puts you over your calories you can simply accept “I ate that cookie, it was delicious” and move on. On the other hand you can fixate on the fact that you ate a cookie and either eat more because the day is already ruined or try to be more restrictive the following day to “make up” for the mistake. Get rid of this negative thought process and focus on the fact that one cookie won’t undo your hard work but a box of cookies a week will. By moving on and accepting the facts you are more likely to hit your body composition goals.
Small Hack:
Next time you eat something and start to feel discouraged write a quick list of three or four positive things you did that day that moved you towards your goals. In the span of a day while eating extra dessert or having an extra drink may seem counterproductive you have most likely also done things to help you towards your goals. When you look at the big picture a small slip isn’t as daunting.
Nutrition is a process not an end goal, having fun with what you eat and consuming foods you enjoy is essential to having a good relationship with food. Try new foods! Try new ways of preparing food! And yes, indulge in desserts every once in a while. Try implementing these four tips and let us know if you need more help implementing them or working towards your body composition changes.
Andrew has been a Nova member for 9 years. One of his long standing goals was to do his first triathlon. He has been working towards this for years and just at the end of August he did it!
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Do Hard Things Now, So Life Becomes Easier Later Modern humans default to the easy way but it's not our fault... Throughout human history, we were wired to survive constant hardship - scarcity of food, threats from predators, harsh environments and manual labor for everything. Our DNA evolved for survival in these conditions, not for modern living. Imagine an early human stumbling across a fruit tree. It made sense to gorge - there was no telling when the next meal would come. The human who gorged had a higher chance of survival than the human who only ate a few pieces of fruit. Practicing self-control in an environment of scarcity would have been a death sentence. Likewise, if given a chance to rest instead of walking miles or hunting, rest was the obvious choice. The problem? Our genes haven’t caught up with modern life. Today, food is everywhere. We don’t have to fight to meet our basic needs. Technology does the heavy lifting, cars replace walking, entertainment is on-demand and calorie-dense foods are always within reach. Left unchecked, our instincts will always lean toward easy options like overeating unhealthy foods (that are so easily accessible) or driving to the store instead of walking. In other words, we’re still hardwired to take the path of least resistance. But here’s the catch: Choosing easy now often means a harder life later and choosing hard now often means an easier life later. Most modern humans are overweight, stressed, tired and dealing with chronic health problems because we’re following outdated survival programming that no longer serves us. It’s time to become aware of these defaults. To override them. To consciously choose the hard thing - because doing hard things is what actually makes life easier in the long run. Hard things like: Going to bed on time instead of watching another episode Preparing a healthy meal instead of grabbing fast food Moving your body instead of sitting all day Walking or biking to the store instead of driving Managing stress with deep breaths and fresh air instead of pouring a drink Looking at your habits instead of masking symptoms with medication It might feel uncomfortable because it goes against everything your biological programming is urging you to do. But that’s exactly why it matters. Don’t think of it as punishment or sacrifice. Think of it as an investment. Every time you take the stairs instead of the elevator, cook instead of order out, or put your phone down to truly rest, you’re building a life that’s easier, richer, and more fulfilling down the road. And remember: Do easy things, and you’ll have a hard life. Do hard things, and you’ll have an easy life. Most of the above information is probably not new to you. That’s because we live in the information age with the internet and now AI - we already know what it is we need to do. The problem however is implementation. This is where having a customized plan and accountability comes in. If you know the hard things you need to do more of but struggle with breaking past your ‘default mode’ then contact us for a complimentary consultation HERE .
Congratulations to Sonya Jeyaseelan, Our July 2025 SuperNova!
Congratulations to Liz Belford, Our June SuperNova!
We are back with our second series of 'Pod Calls' available exclusively to our Nova Health Club members. Don't miss these unique sessions to help you level up your health and wellness game! What is a Pod Call? A Pod Call is a live online (webinar like)_ session with a Nova coach, offering support and insights on key health topics like fitness, nutrition, recovery and overall wellness. Why did we create Pod Calls? Our goal is your success and your health goals can not be built on fitness alone. After delivering thousands of personal training sessions, we noticed a disconnect between fitness sessions we were delivering and the other pillars of health (and lifestyle habits that happen outside of the gym). To get the most out of your health and your fitness sessions at Nova we need to link other pillars such as mindset, nutrition, stress and recovery. Training coaches who care about your results will agree that a couple hours of personal training each week is not enough time to workout AND learn everything you need to know about maximizing those workouts... Things like how to eat before or after workouts, what recovery habits should be practiced or the link between stress and working out are all subjects that you need to know on your health and fitness journey. Pod Calls are dedicated sessions where we teach you essential health and fitness insights that we can't often cover during your gym workouts. We hope you take advantage of these expert-led sessions that will enhance your workouts, teach you new concepts about health and bridge the gap between fitness and overall wellness. Upcoming Pod Calls (all times in EST) Mon Jun 2, 2025 (6:00pm) Topic: How To Eat Carbs For Better Energy, Muscle & Fat Loss Coach: Josh Allen Wed Jun 4, 2025 (2:00pm) Topic: Hip Mobility Using the 'CARS' (active session) Coach: Kim Vo Sat Jun 7, 2025 (12:00pm) Topic: Benefits of Single Leg & Arm Training for Overall Strength Coach: Matthew Nadler Tues Jun 10, 2025 (6pm) Topic: Releasing Neck Tension Coach: Zack Fernandez Wed Jun 18, 2025 (1:00pm) Topic: Training The Backside of The Core Coach: Colin Soltesz Thu June 19, 2025 (7:00pm): Topic: Ayurveda for Healthy Ageing Coach: Kayla Hutchinson These calls are free for Nova members and Zoom links for each call can be found in the Nova Mighty Networks platform. If you are not a Nova member and would like to attend any of these please email Info@NovaHealthClub.com for a seat. We look forward to seeing you then!
Check out the interview with Beth to see the habits, mindset and lifestyle shifts that helped her reach her goals
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