Whatever your fitness goals may be, one way to help set them in the right direction is by using tracking sheets.
Whatever your fitness goals may be, one way to help set them in the right direction is by using tracking sheets. Basically, these are worksheets that help you to be more organized.
In this post, I’ll not only explain exactly how to use these for your benefit, but I’m also linking you to free downloadable worksheets so you can add them to a fitness journal and start using them right away! You’ll also learn how to use them and get some tips on why something like a worksheet would help you so much in your goals.
Here’s to setting up your new year on the right foot!
SO, WHAT ARE FITNESS JOURNAL PRINTABLES
Fitness journal printables are just worksheets that you can print out on your own & add into a binder.
Wherever you are on your fitness journey, these worksheets will help you to get more organized and record the data you want to stay on top of. They can help you to log information about your daily habits, and also help to see long-term trends.
Then, the data you collect along the way to achieving your weight loss goal has a place to live and stay organized instead of being in a random note on your phone or some post-it note lost forever under a stack of papers.
The worksheets are in a few different formats – such as a habit tracker, a calendar view for consistency, list formats, and open space for writing.
These will help you with:
- meal planning for your next week
- creating a shopping list right from your plan
- creating a plan for your daily intake
- planning workouts & logging the exercise you actually do
- tracking other health goals like water intake
- logging measurements and personal records
- journaling emotions that come up and other behaviors you notice
I’ve already set up all these worksheets for you, so you don’t need to even think about what things you want to be tracking.
WHY IS TRACKING SO IMPORTANT
From my own personal experience and time helping others with their fitness goals, the best starting point, is one that starts with writing things down and taking the time to plan. It doesn’t need to be intense or long, it just needs to be organized.
I know it sounds like it’s too simple but taking the time to plan your workouts and meals intentionally is half the battle. The other half, of course, is following through – and that’s when tracking helps too.
Having a perfect plan sounds and looks great on paper, but it’s never the case that the plan is reality. So, when things don’t go according to plan, we can track things that went differently then we imagined and learn from them.
We can see things like our measurements dropping or stalling overtime, we can see trends in inconsistency on our weekends, we can see that when we skip making a food shopping list, our week falls apart, we can journal about how when we were really stressed out or emotional one day, we couldn’t stop eating chips. And we still learn from all of this.
PUTTING THIS ALL INTO PRACTICE
Just like you wouldn’t try to start several goals all at once, you can start out by tracking only a few key pieces of information at first too. Gradually, you’ll create habits and may even fall in love with the ritual of sitting down every Sunday night before your week starts and seeing your data overtime.
Picking a day to sit and write is definitely step one in getting going with tracking your nutrition goals and workout routine. The more organized you are about collecting your data, the better chance you’ll have at being successful – just like anything else you might try to achieve, organization is key.
Through tracking, you’ll understand how consistent you are with what you set out to do, you’ll be able to look over a workout log in a calendar view and notice any patterns, you’ll write down thoughts and triggers that may lead you to binge eat or eat out of emotions – thus help you to work on your mental health, and ultimately you’ll get a better result in the end for having been so organized.
THEMES
By now you may have noticed a trend in the way fitness worksheets will help you. The themes that keep coming up are that they’re a data driven way to help increase consistency and accountability.
What an easy way to improve your physical health if you ask me! Come to think of it…
MY OWN FITNESS JOURNEY
My own weight loss journey started several years ago when I was at a point of feeling extremely overwhelmed and confused. I was tired of doing all the things, but the scale not budging at all. Sound familiar? This was the only way I knew how to do it, but I knew there had to be a better way.
I was trying to understand what I was eating and how much I should be eating and using an app was just too much for starting out. So, I made things really simple instead.
I started using a small notebook where I just wrote the date on the top of the page, and I listed out all the things I ate that day. I broke it down by ingredient and just googled the calories for each ingredient.
At the end of the day, I totaled it up. If I was off my target for the day, I’d try to see where I went off my plan for the day. If I hit my target for the day, I’d try to see how I ended up being successful so that I could repeat it.
PS! If you don’t know how much you should be eating, but would love to figure it out – download my free weight-loss starter kit which will help you determine it!
This lead me to get better at meal planning and be really efficient at creating meal plan cycles so I could spend less time thinking about what I was going to eat and instead, enjoying the time learning to cook for myself.
Gradually, I started to also keep a log of my body measurements and weight and really analyze the data. It was fascinating to me. The most important thing that I took away from all of this, was that I was, in fact, in control. You can read more about my fitness journey here.
WHAT’S IN THIS SET OF TRACKERS
Included in this set of free printables are a daily food journal, meal planning worksheet, grocery list space, measurement tracking, workout planning & tracking, goal tracking sheets for other goals you may want to track, and plenty of space for writing any thoughts and emotions that come up.
The trackers are set up to be used for the entire year of 2022, so that you can watch your progress over the course of 12 months. You may just shock yourself with that amount of consistency!
HOW TO USE OVERVIEW
Here’s a simple breakdown of the steps you can follow for logging your intake daily and meal planning.
- Set aside time before you go grocery shopping to use the meal planning worksheet
- Break down the which ingredients you need to cook and use the shopping list worksheet
- Use the daily worksheet before your day even begins (can do this the night before too) and quickly jot down what you are planning to eat that day. It doesn’t have to be specific and you definitely don’t have to have it all figured out. You can keep it as simple as this:
- If you know you want to eat 1600 calories that day, you can write out the worksheet as: 400 calories for breakfast, 400 calories for lunch, 150 calories for snack 1, 150 calories for snack 2, and 500 calories for dinner
- Keep these numbers in mind throughout the day and work with them when its time to eat or pack your food for work.
- Adjust your worksheet as the day goes on (ex: you ate 450 calories for lunch instead of 400 – okay so now snack 1 can be 100 calories instead of 150, etc). It’s a little like Tetris!
DOWNLOAD
Finally! You can download these free printable worksheets HERE
The files are a PDF file, so they’ll be friendly to use. After you download these worksheets, print them out, and either hole punch them and add them to a binder, or simply staple them together and put them into a folder. One idea is to keep them in your gym bag so you always know where they are!
Some sheets only need to be printed once for the whole year, and others are meant to be daily sheets that you’ll want to keep printing for daily use. The choice is yours and you can decide once you get into a habit with using them.
The pdfs will be yours to keep and use however you like. However – if you share them, I do ask that you kindly credit back to this website since I put a lot of work in creating them!
IN THE SET:
Consistency calendar – So simple and so eye-opening. On the days you hit your target intake, go ahead and X your day out! How many x’s can you string together?
Workout calendar – This works in two ways – 1. As a workout planner to set your intentions for the week, ex: get to the gym 3x this week. 2. As a workout tracker and exercise log to write what you actually did. You can see consistency this way too.
Daily food plan – As I mentioned above, this will help you log your daily food intake and track how much water you're drinking.
Weigh in tracking – The more data points (weigh-ins) you have, the better. As this will allow you to see the big picture from weekly, monthly, quarterly, and even yearly viewpoints!
Measurement tracking – Self-explanatory, but could be really helpful when the scale is not making any sense!
Meal planners – There are two variations for your preference that will help you with meal planning
Shopping lists – To help you create your grocery list weekly
Goal setting sheets – For anything else that may be important to you, such as tracking your personal best running times!
Notes – Don’t overlook this section! Your behavior, triggers, emotions, and habits are what make your plan WORK! Any mental clarity you may need to create on your journey will happen in this section.
WEIGHT-LOSS STARTER KIT
If you’re ready to learn more and complete this kit even more, download my other free set of printables! My weight loss starter kit will kick start your journey even more by helping you figure out how much to eat, giving you a meal plan to start with using BYC recipes, teaching you about the science behind weight-loss, and help you to get the desired results you’re looking for!
ONE-ON-ONE COACHING
If you know you’re someone that needs a bit of a bigger push and more accountability, I do have a one on one coaching program that opens for enrollment a few times a year. You can email me at christine@biteyourcravings.com to join the waitlist if enrollment is not yet open!
RECIPES TO GET YOU GOING
You now know that tracking and good food are my two major keys to success!
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