13 December, 2013

Achieve a Healthy Lifestyle: An Exercise Journal



After you've made it a habit of recording your food habits, writing down your work outs is a great way to make regular exercise a habit. It's another step to get you closer to achieving and maintaining your goal. Every time you exercise, you will feel better about yourself, and have more confidence. Confidence puts a spring in your step, helps you feel more awake, and energetic so you will be more productive during your waking hours.



Keeping an exercise journal will show you the progress you've made over time. It helps you to figure out what works best for you, because you are keeping track of your successes. It's easier to stick to your goals when you continuously write them down, they become more important, more real than simply an idea in your mind. It puts your plan and goal in a more concrete form.

Energy levels and your motivation can also be tracked over time, so you can see how far you've come. Maybe running isn't something you enjoy, maybe Zumba workouts are. To help track workouts, and different types of workouts, write down how you feel after completing your workout. Do you feel good? Energetic? Clear of mind? More confident? Exhausted? This is important, because that way when you look back through your journal you can feel motivated to keep going when you read about how great the workout made you feel. Writing will help distinguish what workouts work best for you, and which ones don't. It also keeps you going, because once you make this a habit you will make exercise part of your schedule in your everyday life.

The great thing about writing is it clarifies your tasks, and I find it increases the likelihood of completing them. It is also easier to track your progress. When there is a record you can look back and see what you have accomplished, which reinforces your motivation to continue with it. If you prefer not to physically write down everything, you can record it on the computer, or use one of the many apps out there that will record your exercise and food progress for you.

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