Being healthy is hard. Working out is hard. Doing everything all at once, and trying to juggle every little thing is -- you guessed it, hard.
It helps to track it all down and use a book to plan it out. If you're lucky, some planner companies have stickers, inserts or sections dedicated in their planners for this. Sometimes, it's more fun to do it yourself and cater it to your needs.
At a later date, I will dive into creating a Health & Fitness Planner, and different companies I've used that either have the inserts or sheets for it, or allow me to create it within their products.
This is something I am constantly struggling with and battling; and when I say constant, I mean daily. I've spent so many years of my life chasing perfection that it's hard to tell myself I'm trying to be healthy, not look a certain way. That I want my body to be healthy, and to function, and to carry me through adventure. I want to live a long, beautiful life. But, it's such a mental struggle to shut that young voice in my head that so desperately wanted to just be "skinny and pretty".
I'm going to get a little personal as I go through some of the items that I track and ways in which I track them, and warnings I can share.
Item #1 - Meal Planning
I like to track my food - either in terms of recipes and meals I loved, or in terms of nutritional value. But, meal planning is key for many things:
Less frequent trips to the grocery store
Save money
Gives you a list so you don't veer off path
It does take some getting used to, especially if you're trying to follow certain rules. Personally, I have a high sensitivity to dairy and gluten. Depending on what the item is, I can get a somewhat severe reaction and other times, it doesn't hit till I eat it too much. But, I want to go on a health journey.
They do say that what you feed into your body can affect your mind, emotions and soul.
So, my goal (and I'm not always good at this) is to stick to certain rules. What I like to do is pull up recipes or Pinterest, search through some meal ideas and use a section of my planner to jot it down. I like to plan ONE WEEK AT A TIME because it allows me time to change things up if I want to, or keep the same meals for the following week with ease. Since I only work Monday through Fridays, I use the weekend to meal plan and grocery shop.
I use the Notes app on my phone to start playing with the ideas. I create sections per date for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks and jot down what I want. When I'm happy, I note it in my planner. Writing it in my planner keeps me from veering off track. I hate scratching things out, so it's perfect.
Does it always work? No.
And, I know I should be open to changes in plan if needed. But, using your planner to meal plan helps. It gives you a layout of your days ahead, any plans or meetings that will need to be planned around, and all the information in one spot.
Item #2 - Workout Plans & Activities
I do not, I repeated, do not, like to work out. It's one of the hardest challenges for me. Yet, I know it's one of the best things I can do for my body so I try and push myself. My biggest struggle is when I fall into one of my dark spells, I wind up forsaking exercise first.
But, when I'm on top of the World and feel like the best version of myself, I'm pretty decent at working out. However, my biggest struggle is:
Planning out a really intense schedule, and not realizing that some days, my body and my fatigue can only allow me to do the bare minimum.
And, that is okay.
What I recommend to mark out:
A workout plan for the week
A back-up for days that you can only give 75%, 50%, 25%
Schedule in rest days, and push yourself to work out the other days
Listen to your body - if you can't work out, then rest. Your body knows what it needs
I like to group my workouts near or under my Meal Plan that way I can see the correlations. Am I feeling low energy at my workout? Let me see what I ate. Was I able to give it 100%? What in my food was able to give me that boost?
All those little factors are important and everything ties together. It sounds like a lot to track, but it does help!
Item #3 - Weight and Inches
This is where I know I make my biggest mistakes: I got into a habit where I weighed myself once a day (always in the mornings). And, the days that it changed and I gained even a little weight, I would carry that failure with me all day. It translated into my need to cheat with my food which then often affected sleep. (See? It all ties together.)
Tracking your weight is a good way to see progress - whether you want to gain or loose weight. But, I would suggest writing it in a location that isn't something you see every day if you're like me. I also like to tell myself I am only allowed to weigh myself twice a week.
Measuring yourself is a great way to see how you're doing, too! Sometimes, weight is not a great indicator and it helps to see your progress in other ways.
Ways I like to measure myself:
Tape Measure (the typical, obvious way)
String: wrap string around specific parts you want to focus on, like your waist. Cut it and hang it somewhere. A month later, do it again and see if there was any change in the length
Clothing: see if there's an outfit you love that you want to fit into again and keep trying it each month.
Progress Photos: sometimes, it's so much better to see your body transform and you can physically see it happening!
Item #4 - Other Items
Items #1-#3 seem obvious, right? But, have you ever considered adding some other elements? Like I mentioned the correlation between working out and food, there are a few other elements that I like to track in order to see where my best days are.
I also recommend tracking, in your planner:
Sleep: it's such a wild sight to see how your sleep affects every other part of your day. once you see it together, it really all does make sense!
Mood: this is my biggest issue. I know my moods are off the charts, and I'm sure a good chunk of it has to do with diet, exercise and hormonal imbalance -- which can then be fixed with -- yup, proper diet and exercise. Full circle. Annoying, but true.
Productivity: this is something I've started doing recently and it's honestly made me understand how impactful the right foods and enough sleep are for my day-to-day work. Better food = Better sleep = More productive. Go figure.
Energy: some days, my energy is completely shot and I can't be productive. Some days, I'm productive with low energy which means the things I put out aren't my best. And, that's something I want to make sure happens the least.
Keep Going!
I'm struggling right now. With my health, be it mental, physical, spiritual and everything in between. I'm trying to pull myself out of whatever funk I'm in, and I know that if I can push myself to just start being better about these items above, and documenting it and seeing progress, it will help.
For those of you who are trying to be healthier, are you already tracking these items? Is there anything here you didn't think to add? Let me know in the comments! And, know that you got this!
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