31 Days to a Better Body: Day 29 – Journal
This is something I probably should have wrote about in the beginning of this series.
Journaling.
Food journaling, workout journaling, and good old fashioned “diary” type journaling. They all serve their purpose but that doesn’t mean we need to do each one all the time. They are important tools to have in the tool box if you need them.
The one I use the most regularly is workout journaling. It’s quick, easy, and the benefits far outweigh the effort.
Benefits to Keeping Workout Journal
1. A concrete way to track progress.
2. Confidence builder. It reminds you of how far you have come, i.e., how much stronger you have gotten.
3. Provides motivation outside the scale or a pair of jeans. (The most important reason to me.)
4. Saves time at the gym (if you write out the plan ahead of time).
5. Build a reference library of workouts.
My workout journals are super simple. They are cheap spiral bound notebooks that include the date, day of the week, exercises, reps, weight lifted, and if applicable the time it took to complete the workout. I may also jot down how I was feeling or any ideas I have for new workouts or blog posts. 
A friend just gave me these notebooks for my birthday last week. Love them! I think it may be time to upgrade from my spiral bound notebooks. There is something to be said about making the mundane less mundane by adding a bit of beauty.
Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn
Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!
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This is my (almost) sane quest for insane health. Let's 
I must admit that though I am not ‘counting’ right now, I LOVE having a cute journal- even just to track general trends in food or fitness or workouts. I have always been a sucker for rainbow binders = I have about 5 of them! And I had some beautiful velvet covered ones that I used years ago. And I can’t give them up or toss them even if they were through my ‘count-every-calorie’ phase and it’s just filled with numbers/food items. I feel like it’s a part of history and a part of what helped me try to hit some goals. A few weeks ago I pulled out an old rainbow diary that I had stopped using. It was fun to once again be able to have it to curl up with at bed time (haha sorry derek!) and just ‘finish’ the day with some closure.
I’ve even had rubber stamps custom made with little boxes to check off or fill in like how many servings of fruits/veg; how many glasses of water; how many cals burned with exercise; my EC (something I learned at HMR) or environmental control- ie how hard was it to stay on track- lots of things to resist, including my own cravings, etc. I loved that stamp. Wonder where it went?? Hmm.
Anyway- thanks for the great post. And thanks again for a wonderful time last week- I loved it so much.
Yeah, I’m a *little* behind in responding but wanted to say I LOVED our time together too. I have no idea if that was good ceviche or not but I’ve been craving it since. I’m going to try and make it to that restaurant one last time before we go.
My love of the journal started back in my Trapper Keeper days. I still have several mini journals, some for specific purposes, some that I keep to just jot down thoughts/ideas as they come to me. I have a work out journal too, of course. I keep track EXACTLY like you do. Starting in the back, I put ideas for future workouts so if I ever get to the gym and don’t have a plan or am not feeling what I had planned I flip to the back for a Plan B.
I’m super late getting to comments. Ugh but had to say I LOVED getting a new Trapper Keeper every year! Ha ha! I hadn’t thought about those in years!
Well, you know my thoughts about food journaling. And I do keep track of my workouts either on my blog or my FB page. LOVE your pretty journals!