How to Track your Fitness Journey

I believe that in order to be successful you need to have a goal. You need to set goals that are obtainable
and easy to achieve in small steps. My goal is to be more muscular, more health, and overall better than I was last year. This is a very broad goal but I have some ways of achieving my goal. I would like to share with you how I track my fitness goals. First a quote from a very smart business man Peter Drucker:

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

Scale Measurements

A year ago my girlfriend bought me the Triomph Precision Body Fat Scale. This was not a hint to get in shape. I was actually asking for a body fat scale. I have body fat percentage goals I would like to reach and this scale helps with that. Until now I rarely use this scale. However I am forcing myself to use this scale once a week, every Saturday morning. This scale gives you many different measurements. Each week I record my measurements in a Google Spreadsheet. 

Weighing myself each week allows me to determine how my workout and diet affect my overall health. 

Workout Tracking

When I first started working out, I did the same exercises each week. I lifted weights that felt heavy, counted reps and sets. I saw very little progress. I downloaded a fitness tracking app Hevy. I liked the app so much I actually bought it! Hevy has some awesome pre-built exercise routines. I am currently following a full body calisthenics routine created by Hevy so that I have something to do until quarantine ends! Using a fitness tracker allows you to record your progress. Fitness progress is not about how an exercise feels, feeling are subjective and change from day to day. Knowing I 17 push-ups last week, and 15 push-ups the week before shows me I got better and stronger. While using Hevy I am constantly competing with myself to get better! Yesterday I did 17 push-ups in a row. Tomorrow I plan to do 18, next week I will hit 20. 

Something new I started in 2021 is tracking my body size measurements. If you pay for Hevy the app allows you to record and track your body measurements. Each 1st of the month I plan to measure my biceps, forearms, chest, hits, waist, thighs and calves. Assuming my workouts are effective, each body are should increase in size (except for my waist, that should shrink).

Consistency and Accountability

So you bought the scale and downloaded a fitness tracker. You work out once or twice a week for a month, see little to no progress and give up. Fitness changes do not happen over night. I have been working out for a while now and I am no where near my goals. This is all my own doing, my diet is not perfect, I do not work out hard enough. Sometimes I skip a workout. The only way the tools above will help you is if you are consistent. If you can not be accountable to yourself, find someone to be accountable to. Your partner, a parent, a friend, or a child. Being held accountable will force you to be more active and be more healthy!

Calorie Counting

I find calorie counting to be tedious, boring and a waste of time. I know a lot of people have success with this. I however prefer to adjust my daily intake based on my scale readings. Many people will disagree with this approach. If you want to count your calories I encourage you to do so. While I was attempting to count my calories I was using MyFitnessPal.