Healthy Living • YMCA Health and Fitness
What to write in your wellness journal
29 August 2016 - by Nicole Meredith
If you’re devoting hours of your busy schedule to exercising and eating right, you want to make sure all your hard work is actually paying off. Keeping a record of the efforts you’re making to maximize your health will allow you to see if you’re really making progress, and help you stay accountable, realistic, and inspired.
What, exactly, you write in your journal depends on what you want to get out of it. If your fitness goal is to lose weight, for example, you should keep track of your workouts and your diet. You can keep it simple and just make a note of every day you did something active, so that you can hold yourself accountable to getting moving more often. Or, you can get really specific and note every exercise you did, how much weight you lifted, how many reps and sets you completed, how long your cardio session was, and so on.
Either way, you’ll have a record that shows just how well you committed to pursuing your goals. Based on that hard data, you can either congratulate yourself for sticking to them, or search for some new strategies like a personal trainer or gym buddy that will help you get back on track.
But you can also use your journal to keep track of other aspects of your wellbeing. Taking note of dates and times when you felt particularly stressed, for example, will help you understand what triggers that stress and, conversely, what keeps you feeling calm, cool, and collected. Similarly, tracking your quality of sleep and energy levels will help you determine how many hours of shut eye you need to function. And if you’re simultaneously tracking your workouts and diet, you may find that certain activities or foods are impacting your ability to get a good night’s sleep.
Ultimately, the wealth of knowledge contained in your journal will help you get to know what makes you feel awesome, and what makes you feel not so great. Identifying those catalysts is the first step towards refining your daily routine, so you can feel your best every day. If you need some help getting started with your own wellness journal, try a free app like Gym Hero, Fitness Buddy, or JEFIT Workout.
What, exactly, you write in your journal depends on what you want to get out of it. If your fitness goal is to lose weight, for example, you should keep track of your workouts and your diet. You can keep it simple and just make a note of every day you did something active, so that you can hold yourself accountable to getting moving more often. Or, you can get really specific and note every exercise you did, how much weight you lifted, how many reps and sets you completed, how long your cardio session was, and so on.
Either way, you’ll have a record that shows just how well you committed to pursuing your goals. Based on that hard data, you can either congratulate yourself for sticking to them, or search for some new strategies like a personal trainer or gym buddy that will help you get back on track.
But you can also use your journal to keep track of other aspects of your wellbeing. Taking note of dates and times when you felt particularly stressed, for example, will help you understand what triggers that stress and, conversely, what keeps you feeling calm, cool, and collected. Similarly, tracking your quality of sleep and energy levels will help you determine how many hours of shut eye you need to function. And if you’re simultaneously tracking your workouts and diet, you may find that certain activities or foods are impacting your ability to get a good night’s sleep.
Ultimately, the wealth of knowledge contained in your journal will help you get to know what makes you feel awesome, and what makes you feel not so great. Identifying those catalysts is the first step towards refining your daily routine, so you can feel your best every day. If you need some help getting started with your own wellness journal, try a free app like Gym Hero, Fitness Buddy, or JEFIT Workout.
