Fitness Matters: Tracking nutrition and exercise can make the difference

  Posted: Jun 11, 2012, 6:38 am  If you are interested in improving your lifestyle through health and fitness, you are probably aware of all the benefits that exercise and eating right may bring. Incorporating a few new habits each week can lead to long-term changes that make a big difference over time.  Staying on track requires accountability, and that means different things to different people. Simply deciding to make the changes doesn't work for most people because so many of us lack self-control and patience. Often lifestyles need to be revamped, which may take months to see progress, and often people fall off the wagon before they see much progress.  Having your diet and exercise plan in writing greatly increases your chances of sticking to them, versus simply trying to "cut back" on unhealthy foods or "exercise more."  Tracking your nutrition and exercise may seem monotonous, but it can really make the difference between success and failure. I keep a separate workout and nutrition notebook, the good old-fashioned handwritten kind. This not only keeps me accountable to staying on track in both areas, but it also serves as a diary for progress in my workouts, what happens when I have bumps in the road, or complete failures. I can look back and see what I was doing for workouts six months ago, and how my strength has increased, or what my habits were like when I dropped a few nagging pounds.  Welcome to 2012 and smartphone apps! If you have Googled "fitness or nutrition tracker," you will find that there are several different ways to track what you are doing on a daily basis. Everything from "Myfitpal.com, Fitday.com, freefitnesstracker.com, weightwatchers mobile, menshealth.com, thedailyplate.com, to fitclick.com" will provide you with all the documentation you will ever need to compare information on your daily habits. Most are free, but may have a small fee to upgrade to a more enhanced version of the program.  Some phone apps like "foodscanner," are great to scan the barcode on what you are consuming. The problem I see with this one is that most of the food we should be consuming should not come from a package.  You can log in massive amounts of data on some programs, such as "Online Fitness Log," which costs $3.95/month on up, which in turn provides you with charts of your data. This is much easier to read and analyze than a jumbled-up notebook.  The other awesome point of web-based data is that you can access it anywhere from your smartphone or computer. No more forgotten or misplaced notebooks. Think of it this way: $5 is a nominal fee, but it's enough to make you feel guilty for not using it!  This logging of information is motivational and over a period of time is a great visual cue of your progress. A few of these sites offer a sense of community, where you can get feedback and suggestions from other users. That's one more level of accountability to keep you coming back to report in.  With consistency the biggest key for success, the route to get there is paved with many baby steps. The day-to-day struggles can cause us to lose focus, but with the right information, feedback, and support from other like-minded people, we can get there together.  Take advantage of all the awesome technology that's available, and stay on track with all the latest and greatest info at your fingertips.