Write it down!

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to explain to you the importance of maintaining accountability to yourself and offer an easy way to do it.  Whether it pertains to what you are doing in your exercise routine or your dietary goals, it is easier to reach your goals if you are accountable to yourself.  There are plenty of sources of excuses to get off track, and it’s quite common to even make up your own excuses as to why you haven’t met your fitness goals.  Maybe you don’t have the time, you’re too tired, or someone at work brought in a dessert that just looked too good.  The ones you make for yourself are ironically the hardest to over come.  And these excuses will hold you back from reaching your fitness goals; that is unless you hold yourself accountable for your own actions.  Think about it, when you were in school if you wanted to do well, you wouldn’t want to miss an assignment, and to do the assignment well, you would need to write it down.  Treat the path to your fitness goals the same way; make yourself accountable for what you actually do.  The simplest way to keep yourself accountable is to put what you down in writing.  Keeping both an exercise and food log is an excellent way to see in “black and white” what you are actually doing to reach your goals.

Marvin is one of my clients that I keep an exercise journal with to track what he does in the gym.  It’s a great tool in itself as it both tracks his progress, and he can also take it with him on vacation to maintain his exercise routine.  But on a workout-by-workout basis where it helps the most is it spells out exactly how much weight and how many reps he has to perform.  It keeps him honest if he is feeling tired that day.  When I show him what the book says if he questions what I am asking of him, his response typically is “Ok, the book don’t lie!”

Keeping an exercise journal is quite common in the gym, especially amongst more experienced people who train.  But it is also very useful for beginners as well, as they tend to have a harder time remembering what they did the previous session.  And when it’s imperative that you allow the body multiple attempts at a task in order to adapt, it helps to know what you have done previously in order to select the appropriate intensity each session.  See my earlier post “Get it, Repeat it, Beat it” to see how to do this.

An exercise journal is akin to a nutritionist’s food log.  When following a dietary program, you are often asked to write down everything you eat as a food log.  This helps both the dietician see exactly what you are eating, but also reminds you of the choices you have made.  Having it written down paints a clearer picture of any particular food choice tendencies that need to be addressed.

Keeping and exercise and / or food log helps you to record the facts about what you are doing and what you are consuming.  It takes the excuses and emotions out of the equation.  And when looking back at the logs at the end of the day, you can grade yourself as to how well you did at staying on the path to fitness.  It makes you accountable and gives you the opportunity to see where you can make changes for the next work out and / or next meal.

Go out and buy a small pad or note book and starting writing it all down.  Keep an exercise log to help you plan your work outs appropriately.  Maintain a food log to help you find any negative food choice tendencies.  Having it down in black and white makes you accountable for your own actions.  Being accountable for your actions keeps the most important person in your fitness quest at the forefront.  Writing things down is an accountable, black and white way to reach a fit new you!