Losing weight or staying fit is one of the most famous new year’s resolutions. The problem is that this goal isn’t easy for a lot of people. They may feel motivated at first but lose their motivation along the way and abandon the goal entirely.
To address that problem, most people seek help from professionals, like fitness trainers and nutritionist-dietitians. They can also ask for help from friends who already succeeded in losing weight. Some people also use fitness apps. They are known to help with weight loss, particularly those that provide personalized training and feedback.
If seeking help from professionals, friends, and fitness apps is not enough, people who want to lose weight may need to start writing a fitness journal.
Purpose of a Fitness Journal
The purpose of a fitness journal is exactly as its name suggests. It’s a place to write down your fitness goals, log your weekly meal plan, track your progress, and keep your daily thoughts. It’s basically a diary but is focused on your fitness journey.
This journal can be analog if you like writing down things on paper. You can choose a small notebook as your fitness journal. You can easily carry it around anywhere. So you’ll always be reminded of your plans and goals.
Or you can go digital by using the notes app on your phone or downloading a different one. You can also blog about your fitness journey online. You can also open a fitness blog if you want to share your journey with others. To do this, you’ll have to create a blog and work on your website’s graphic design to attract readers.
Benefits of a Fitness Journal
Having a fitness diary can help you in your weight loss journey in many ways:
Easy Progress Tracking
Ideally, your fitness diary will consist of all the information about your weight loss journey. These pieces of information can include your goals, daily meals, daily weight, exercise routines, and mood. If you log all the needed information consistently in your diary, you’ll be able to track your progress more easily.
Your diary will show you the results of your efforts to lose weight. And just looking at the little or drastic changes in your weight and overall well-being can be very motivating.
Accountability Partner
Your exercise journal can keep you accountable and make you more likely to stick with your exercise routines and diet. For instance, if you consistently track your progress through daily logs, the more consecutive days you log, the more you’ll be encouraged to keep going.
Also, since your fitness goals are written in your journal, you can easily look back on them and rekindle your commitment to losing weight. You’ll be reminded of why you’re doing it.
Trigger Tracking
Aside from your progress, you can also use your fitness journal to track your triggers. When you identify things that distract you away from your goals, write them down in your journal. This way, you’ll know what things you need to avoid to stick to your goals.
Similarly, you can use your fitness journals to remember triggers that motivate you. For instance, maybe you watched a video on YouTube that inspired you to continue your weight loss journey when you’re starting to feel down or discouraged. You can write about this video in your analog diary or insert a link in your digital journey so that you can refer to it easily.
Easy Reference for Future Goals
Documenting your fitness journey will give you the chance to look back to it and replicate results in the future. Say you write down the exercise routines you did every day, your meals, and your daily weigh-ins. Your records will help you analyze which exercise routines and diet plans worked for you. You’ll also spot things that didn’t work for you so that you can change them and reach your next fitness goal.
If you currently don’t have a fitness trainer and aim to hire one in the future, your fitness diary will be very helpful. They can use the information to understand your needs. It will become their reference in creating a personalized routine and diet plan to help you with your next fitness goal, whether it’s to maintain your current weight, lose some more, or build up your body.
When you decide to lose weight, starting a fitness diary will be very helpful. Even athletes have them! This documentation can help keep tabs on yourself and motivate yourself to keep going, even if things get difficult.
