My Personal Story – This is the first week since documenting my fitness journey that I have not completed a workout, which has caused my motivation to decline. Though breaks can be healthy and I’m okay with taking a week off of training due to some personal schedule changes; I can certainly see how this pattern could derail my fitness goals for the year. Despite my goal of being an active, and healthy person; taking an extended-exercise vacation certainly has made me forget why I started. Comfort sets in, and I wonder why would I go to the gym when I can take a nap, eat a big meal while watching netflix or scroll my life away online? 😐
“Strength training hurts, cardio makes me sore, yoga poses are uncomfortable and I’m just too tired.”
I say to myself — while also hoping and dreaming of having a body that’s functional, healthy, attractive and energized! — Well this doesn’t happen without work!
I once knew an ex-coworker who lost over 100lbs 😮 by diet and exercise alone! One of the few things she credited to her success with her fitness journey and healthy lifestyle overhaul was tracking progress. At this point in my life, when this person shared their tool of tracking progress my mind was set on the thought that tracking progress would be tedious and a very good waste of time. I knew progress photos would take weeks or months to reflect physical changes, which led me to believe tracking my progress would constantly make me feel like a failure. 😦 There’s also a huge negative connotation to weighing yourself since many people end up feeling like a slave to the number on the scale. Therefore, I’ve always been conscious to tracking my fitness journey to prevent unhealthy thinking.
Luckily this cynical-thought process was dredged up years ago and I have since evolved my thoughts on a person tracking their fitness journey. However; I have yet to implement a habit of tracking my fitness journey until now. Though, I still believe that tracking my measurements and the number on the scale doesn’t necessarily reflect how hard I work in the gym or studio; I now believe it’s a good indicator of where you are and where you are headed within your fitness journey.
Why You Should Track Your Fitness Journey:
—> To See Progress <—
My Personal Equation to Staying Consistent Despite Lacking Motivation:
Hard Work = Results = More Hard Work = More Results
My thought process is as follows: If you work hard you get results. You see your results which prompts you to continue to work hard for more results. The results act as a reward to encourage you to continue your hard work. 🙂 If you don’t witness the results, the will to continue may decline which could further separate you from your goals.
Why it’s Important to Track your Fitness Journey:
Tracking your before & after allows you to see and reflect on your peaks and plateaus. Therefore; you can celebrate and reward yourself for small victories and narrow the cause of plateaus to prevent them from recurring. You will have your own personal database with a record of how much or little strength, flexibility and endurance you gained over an extended period of time. Throughout the journey of tracking your trials and errors you will learn what works best for you! Witnessing your progress will excite you to continue to improve your overall fitness journey. 😀
The only time you should look back is to see how far you’ve come.
Kevin Hart
How to track your progress?Take Pictures
Measure Yourself
Weigh Yourself
Journal How You Feel
Establish Realistic & Specific Goals (with a Schedule & Deadline!) (Tip – Google Search: “S.M.A.R.T Goals”)
My personal plan of attack will be weekly progress photos, full-body measurements, weigh-ins, along with reading my fitness goals aloud and journaling how I feel daily. I enjoy tracking progress in my paper planner, but of course phones and fitness apps would work just as well! Focusing on how you feel is so important, but witnessing the physical success will be just as sweet! 😉
Until Next Time,
Cheers 😀
-Steebree Otey ❤
steebreeotey.com 