HOW TO JOURNAL YOUR FITNESS JOURNEY

Fitness is a journey in itself.

Every year people make resolution to have a fit and healthy lifestyle or think of transforming themselves to a new person; maybe you want to have abs, loss fat, gain muscle or have great physic like Zac Efron or some celebrity but only a few of them are able to achieve and commit to it.

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” – Colin Powell

So if you want to succeed in your fitness journey and transform yourself from disorganized to organized individual then take some time out of your engulfed busy schedule and allot it to your dreams and turn it into reality with sweat, determination and hard work.

However, even the fittest person on this planet who follows his/her fitness routines and nutrition strictly gets demotivated and distracted which leads to the path of unhealthy eating habits, missing out on training, depression, partying and drinking too much etc. Therefore, documenting your fitness journey is one of the simplest and excellent methods to measure your progress towards fitness transformation and be goal-oriented. Also, it will turn you into an organized, productive and a happier human.

First step towards your fitness journey is to journal your current status.

Current Status:

Currently, maybe you do not like the person whom you see in the mirror everyday and intend to bring a change to his/her physical and mental status. To bring a change you must know about your current physical and mental status weather your feeling strong, weak, confident or negative. Document each and every detail about your physical and mental status; be it your strengths or weaknesses, be it positive or negative feelings. This will help in defining your transformation goal which you want to achieve.

For example, currently you’re weighing heavy due to which you’re lacking confidence, feeling negative or unable to fit in your cloths. Journal each and every detail about your physical and mental status after which your next step would be to defining your goal/vision.

Goal/Vision:

Define your goal/vision with an achievable time frame.

Define who you want to be, what you want to be, what you want to achieve and visualize about your future self into which you want to transform. Defining and documenting your goals will help in measuring and comparing your progress. Also, will keep you motivated.

Example: What you want to do for your weight loss. Write down your current and target weight with the time frame in which you want to achieve it.

Plan of action:

To achieve any goal, be it short term or long term and be it related to an individual or an organization, your plan of actions is the route map to reach your goals. Therefore, outline a solid action plan for your fitness journey by including small and specific daily goals which will help you in staying consistent and measuring your progress each day.

Example: Outline your plan which includes combination of weight lifting and cardio on weekly schedule with a proper diet plan enriched with protein sources, fats and vegetables etc.

Document and monitor your training program and diet plan progression on daily bases. Always compare your progress with the previous day to perform better and to motivate yourself.

Motivation

Sometimes it becomes difficult to stick to a plan and follow it vigorously. At some moment it tends to feel monotonous and distracting to follow plan of action. In such situation it is important to keep ourselves motivated and engaged. Therefore, your should know how to stay motivated in your fitness journey.

Example: Your defined plan of action to lose weight sometimes feels monotonous and distracting so it is important to stay motivate and engaged. Firstly, remind yourself why you’re trying to lose weight, write down your weight loss achievements and reward yourself whenever you achieve some milestone or able to help someone to achieve their milestone. Reward can be in the form of some new pair of shoes or may be fitness gears or a cheat meal. And to break monotonous routine make your training session fun and interesting.

Address challenges and make a game plan to battle obstacles:

Following regular training sessions and diet plan isn’t easy. It is obvious that while following the path towards fitness or healthy lifestyle we encounter with many barriers or challenges like time management, injuries, lack of confidence, laziness, fear of failure and many more. It is on us to address such challenges and make a game plan to battle such obstacles.  Every obstacle is different so approach to overcome such obstacles also differs from one another.

Example:  In most of the cases, reasons for weighing heavy are craving towards food, stress eating and genetics which need to be addressed with a proper game plan to overcome it.

Make a note of reasons for your weight gain in your journal and plan a strategy to overcome those. Suppose your reason weight gain maybe food cravings then plan an alternative which is more nutritious.

Weekly Meal Plan

As we all know about the fact that 70 percent of our fit lifestyle depends on what food we eat. Therefore, we must plan our meals with a balanced diet consisting of six main nutrients- Fats, Protein, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Vitamins, and Minerals.

Planning your meal will not only benefit your health wise but it will also save your time, money, food wastage, control on over eating habits and make you more organized.

Prepare your weekly meal plan based on your transformation goal consulting with your dietitian or trainer. Also document your entire week’s meal plan in journal and check mark when accomplished it.

Workout schedule

In today fast-paced hectic lifestyle, everyone is juggling between different things at single moment of time and forgetting to prioritize things. So, it is really important to schedule your workouts/fitness regime from your hectic lifestyle and keep a daily or weekly workout journal to measure your progress, also consult with your trainer almost a week in advance about your upcoming weeks workout. This will help you to prioritize your fitness transformation and also stay consistent, organized, focused, and motivated.