If you have any sort of fitness goals, whether it be losing weight or gaining muscle, it is important to keep track of what you are doing. Not only should you track what you are doing, but planning in advance will help a ton as well.
I tried and tried to lose my pregnancy weight but struggled until I sat down and got organized. Having something visual in your face really helps. This is because you can see what progress you are, or are not, making and it makes you want to work even harder. It makes you feel guilty when you slack for too long and makes you feel good when you stay on track. Accountability is key when it comes to fitness! So, today we are going to talk about how to track your fitness and stay accountable.
Here are the things I keep track of:
-Fitness goals
-Calories burned while working out
-Calories burned throughout the day
-Steps taken
-Water intake
-Meals
-Planned & completed workouts
-Pounds lost
These are the items I use to keep track of it all:
–Polar heart rate monitor to keep track of the calories I burned during a workout.
–Fitbit Flex to keep track of the calories I burned throughout the day and the steps I have taken.
–May Designs Fitness Journal for fitness goals, water intake, planning workouts and checking them off, and meal planning.
-An insert inside of my Erin Condren Life Planner for pounds lost. (You can read my full review on the planner here.)
Reasons behind the madness:
First of all, if you want to get somewhere you have to know where you are going. This is why having goals and keeping track of them is so important. It helps you come up with a game plan and is a great reminder when you fall of track. Definitely take some time to write down your goals in a notebook, piece of paper, on the computer, or wherever you prefer.
Meals are also important to plan and stick to. I’m sure you have heard that results depend on 80% diet and 20% exercise, and this is so incredibly true. You just cannot out-exercise a bad diet. So if you can take a few minutes to plan out exactly what you are going to eat, that can save you a lot of bad decisions and a full week of binging or eating super processed foods.
While you’re at it, plan out your workouts! I do this a week in advance. It saves so much time when you already know what you are going to do and do not have to waste time thinking about what to do next. It also helps to have a journal with everything you have been doing so that you can look back and modify it if you plateau.
Then, of course, you have to actually get out there and do it! Call me a nerd, but I get SO much satisfaction from checking off the boxes in my journal and seeing that I have completed my entire workout.
*I use these journals & planners, but they’re definitely not necessary. Any old notebook will do!*
I, personally, like to also keep track of the calories I’ve burned. It just gives me an idea of where I can do better and when I should be working harder. I use the Polar monitor to see my heart rate and the calories I’m burning as I’m actually working out. You wear a heart strap around your chest so it is much more accurate than the treadmill, plus it keeps tracking the calories you are burning when you are doing weights or anything else.
Then there is the Fitbit. I wear this one all day, not just during workouts. This one will tell you how many calories you have burned the entire day, how you slept, how many miles you have walked and so much more. You wear it on your wrist and it wirelessly syncs to your phone. This is what the app is like:
And the one we all probably worry way to much about… pounds lost. I like to see how far along I have come, so I made this page to help me keep track:
Sometimes I keep track of my measurements, sometimes I don’t. I’m very iffy about those just because that’s something I can easily see when I look in the mirror. I do try to measure myself monthly though.
Is any of this completely necessary? No. But I swear to you it really helps. For me it was the thing that brought me complete focus and helped me finally lose my pregnancy weight. It wont hurt to just grab a notebook and try it out for a week. Find what works best for you!
Let me know if you have any other ideas or recommendations!
