From the founder…

Yesterday, I accepted a challenge.

I thrive on competition. Few things motivate me like competition does. I’ve been wanting to change some things in my personal life regarding health. I’ve made some subtle changes, but I need to be a little more intense for a few weeks. So my husband challenged me to a month-long competition. The stakes are pretty high – if I lose, I can only get him socks for Christmas.

ONLY SOCKS.

I love giving gifts, so this is perhaps the most motivating prize I’ve ever competed for…

I can’t het him just socks for Christmas.

So I’m ready to bring the heat. I’ve GOT to win this competition.

To help in my upcoming victory, I’ve changed my text prompt. (My actual prompt is below)
(This works for me – you could have it say anything to help motivate you!)

I don’t plan on keeping it this way forever. Just until the competition is over.

There’s all sorts of reasons why keeping an exercise journal is effective.

It helps accountability
It helps monitor progress
It helps prevent injury
It helps see what is and isn’t working for you.

So, knowing WHY it’s effective, let’s get down to the nitty gritty:

How do you keep an exercise journal?

In keeping an exercise journal, it’s important to document 5 things to maximize effectiveness of the journal.

1. The date and time

This is easy if you text your journal – this is automatically included! If you’re keeping an exercise journal somewhere else, make sure you’re documenting the date and time of your workout.

2. Activity

Be as specific as you need to track your intended progress. Maybe “20 pushups, 20 situps, and a 3 mile run” is enough for you. Maybe you’d like to be more specific – “20 pushups in 1 minute, 20 situps in 30 seconds, and a 3 mile run in 25:14 on a cloudy day” Whatever works for you.

3. Nutrition

Keep track of your food, snacks, and water intake. Food makes SUCH a difference in health – make sure you’re being honest with yourself. This also allows you to notice your energy level with a whole picture view. Maybe you exercised two different days – you did the very same thing on each day – but you felt significantly better the first time you did it. If you’ve recorded your nutrition, you can go back and realize that on the second day you had a bowl of cereal for breakfast while on the first day you had a hard boiled egg and toast. Your water intake was much better on the first day. You snacked all through the second day. These nutritional changes make a significant difference, so keep track!

4. Emotional feelings

How did you feel after you exercised? Were you able to focus better? Did you feel more creative? Were you kinder? Do you feel happier? Take note. This helps you make connections between physical and emotional health.

5. Physical feelings

How does your body feel? Are you exhausted? Did you sleep better? Are you in pain anywhere? Take note. It’s so much easier to write things down than to try and remember the small things of each day!

Moving forward…

For the next month, every day I’ll get asked “Exercise journal! Record: activity, food, emotional and physical feelings” (If for no other reason than I don’t want to give JUST SOCKS for Christmas…)

Feel free to copy that into a custom text prompt for you, too!

How to keep an exercise journal