How Journaling Can Help Your Motivation

If you started out your fitness journey with no real plan on how to achieve your goals, you certainly aren’t the only one. But without a plan, it’s easy to get frustrated and give up on your goals. A plan can help you to map out your ‘route’ and tackle every exercise with a purpose in mind.

This is where journaling can help! By keeping a record of the workouts you’re doing, your heart rate and the food you are eating, it can make it easier to monitor your progress. Remember this can also be done digitally, so if you aren't a fan of handwriting, use your phone or laptop!

How journaling can help your motivation 

Logging your fitness journey and future workouts is fantastic for keeping your fitness journey on track. It can keep your goals in focus, as well as being a regular reminder of the hard work you’ve been putting in. Keeping track of previous workouts is a great way to see how far you’ve come, and is fantastic motivation to keep pushing yourself.

Journaling some of the positive changes you have felt along the way can be a great motivation boost. Maybe you’ve noticed improvements in your moods or sleeping patterns. Your journal can be a fantastic window into the way exercise affects your body.

Use your fitness journal to:

• Record workouts and track your progress (number of sets or laps, weight lifted)
• Plan your rest days
• Note any mood changes and improvements
• Track your eating/nutrition
• Note feedback (e.g. any pain or discomfort during exercises)
• Plan future workouts — the SWEAT app has a planner function that is perfect for doing this! 
• Break your goal into smaller pieces. 

Using a fitness journal can make it easy to spot any areas that may require improvement, as well as being helpful for working out a progression plan.

You don’t need to come up with anything too elaborate or decorative (although feel free if you think it will help inspire you!). Make sure you are taking progress photos as well, they can also show changes in your body that may not be noticeable on the scale.

Try journaling to track your fitness progress!

Lots of people feel the urge to quit their exercise program because they believe they aren’t making progress. Journaling everything, including your overall fitness goals and any small victories along the way, can help to keep you focused and show you where you are improving.