Using a journal is an excellent way to keep track of your progress when looking to lose weight and get a healthy and fit out lifestyle. It helps hold you accountable and allows you to see physical and mental changes as you progress on your health and wellness journey.
As long as you are consistent with your tracking, a journal can be a great tool to accelerate your success. You should make it a habit, as you lay down the information for analysis every day and review the results to see how best to change and maximize the results. Here’s how to keep track of journaling and the types of things you need to track to make sure you are properly jotting your journal for greater accomplishments.
Track your mood
It’s not just about the physical results and lost weights but also the mental aspect throughout your health and wellness journey. So, you should jot down your mood scores – what they are like when you wake up, midday, after exercise, and before bed. This helps you see how your lifestyle affects you, as well as other aspects, such as stress, relationships and wellness activities, such as workouts.
Monitor sleep stats
Sleep can improve or impair mood, as well as lose and control weight. You want to get 7-8 hours every night to make sure that you can regulate hormones and balance mood to fight stress and feel more productive in the day. Plus, sleep can reduce cravings and keep appetite under control, so you will likely make better eating habits and perform better at workouts.
Workout performance log
Track How Your Workouts Are Going – Are you hitting new goals? Did you climb the weights? Are you able to do more iterations or cover another mile? Record how you feel next. are you tired? Too painful? A good sore?
These are the things to help you check-in to discover ways to improve and protect your body, as well as to enjoy those workouts and stay on track with results. Make a note of how often you go and if you’re looking to lose weight, hop on the scale each week and write down what it says to hold you accountable. Keep in mind, however, that “weight loss” goals don’t always indicate the results of your workouts, there are countless factors that contribute to a healthier lifestyle. Not just a number on a scale.
Write what you eat (everything!)
In addition to writing down your meals and snacks for the day, also write down any stray snacks or extra foods that you ate that may not have gone as planned in your meal plan. Did you eat some samples in the store? Have you dipped in a bag of potato chips with your roommate or significant other?
These things accumulate, and they can be missed if not recorded for you to see later and realize where those extra calories came from.
Journaling can also help you spot any intolerances or allergies – record how you feel after eating specific foods. Is there an infectious distress? are you exhausted? This helps you avoid making the same nutritional mistakes down the road.
Post the photos throughout the weeks
Visuals are great for showing an unbiased choice as we can be tough on ourselves and not always see what’s in the mirror. This scale may go up if you have a period or eat a salty meal, for example, due to a temporary water weight.
By posting pictures every week, as the weeks go by you can see what you really look like from different angles. This will help keep things in perspective and allow you to know if you are on the right track, need to take things back, or change some behaviors.
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