How many times have you ever started an exercise routine only to quit once your motivation waned? I have found that women who are naturally healthy and fit keep an exercise journal of some sort.
What is an exercise journal? It can be a notebook, spreadsheet, app, or online tool where you keep track of your workouts. In an exercise journal, you record information about your daily workouts such as how often, how long, the intensity, how you feel before or afterwards, type of workout, etc.
There are many different types of exercise journals on the market today in addition to all the different printable ones I have found all over the internet. If you are looking for a journal already put together in a book format, I highly recommend the FitBook. I love this book so much that you can find it through my affiliate link: Get the FitBook Now. It is an awesome tool to keep (detailed) track of your eating habits and exercises.
I encourage you to find an exercise journal format that works best for you. Personally, I like having a hard copy to look back on my progress with. However, I have yet to find a printable exercise journal on the internet that looks cute and will let me write what I want to keep track of.
Why do Healthy & Fit Women keep an exercise journal?
- Keeps track of your progress: where you are and what you need to work on.
- Breaks down goals into manageable chunks. Helps you keep track of what workouts you do.
- Helps you plan your workouts. Makes sure you are including cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and some flexibility training in your regular workouts.
- Might help highlight hidden barriers to you reaching your goals.
- Help you keep track of sleep patterns which may interfere with your energy and workouts during the day.
- How you feel during the day when you work out vs. when you don’t work out.
- Helps you maintain a consistent plan and not just work out on a whim.
- Keeps track of how you feel before your workouts vs. after your workouts.
- Keeps track of what exercises or workouts you like or dislike. Tracks your progress even if the scale or measurements stay the same. Having a regular way to keep track of what physical activities you do is important for any successful fit plan because it will help you set goals, measure progress, stick to a program, and plan improvements.
So what do you usually record in an exercise journal? Date, time, activity/type of workout, goal duration, actual duration, level of difficulty, how I felt before/after, my plan for today, did I meet my plan for the day, and a weekly roundup where I ask myself what the biggest challenge of the week was and what was the biggest triumph of the week.
I added these in an easy to use format that you can download and print for free. I just ask that you leave a comment below letting me know what your biggest goal is right now and what your biggest challenge is toward reaching that goal.
Click Here to Print My Weekly Exercise Journal
I want you to be successful in reaching your goals. Find what will work best for you to keep track of your progress. You can do a quick search and find many different forms of keeping track. I highly recommend the FitBook if you are like me and like to keep a hard copy of what you are doing. If you would rather a printable sheet you can write the information down on, you can always download my printable exercise journal.
Question of the day: How do you currently keep track of your workouts? Leave me a comment below…

There are so many weight loss success stories out there and they come from all different types of programs. Many of these stories are awesome motivators, but you still have those that promote fad diets or “fast and easy” solutions.

