Health x Wellness

Fitness tracking to a healthy you

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Track your fitness progress to improve your health

To make improvements on your fitness level, you should aim to track your progress. Keep a paper journal or use a mobile app on your smartphone. Monitoring your progress acts as a form of motivation for you to work towards your goals.

Why tracking is important

Transitioning to a healthy lifestyle requires determination, effort and time. Visible results can only be seen after weeks or even months. Besides having sufficient exercise, a healthy lifestyle also comprises a healthy diet.

When keeping track of your fitness progress, avoid being obsessed with your weight on the scale. A low weight count does not signify a healthy diet or good fitness level. Tracking your progress requires you to weigh yourself from time to time but not on a daily basis.

Do not be disheartened if your weight increases when your start exercising. Your body is actually gaining calorie-burning muscles while burning its body fats. The more muscles you build; the more calories you burn. However, due to the difference in density between fats and muscles, your weight might remain the same or increase despite looking slimmer.

Setting goals are crucial in ensuring that you are on the right path and also serves to keep you motivated. Tracking fitness includes recording the amount of food and drink you’re consuming, your workout duration and how your body reacts to these factors.

Tracking your fitness will help you determine if there’s a need to increase your pace, distance and intensity of your workouts. Perform various aerobic exercises so that your body does not grow accustomed to your workouts. Recording your progress also influences your mindset to make healthier decisions, be it for your diet or sleeping habits.

How to track your progress

Record your baseline measurements before implementing changes to your lifestyle. Stand in front of a mirror and take a picture of your side and front view. Wear tight fitting clothing so that you will have a clearer view of your physique. Depending on your goals, you may record it weekly or monthly.

If you’re new to exercise, start your workout routines with low-intensity exercise such as jumping jacks. Be sure to work out different parts of your body muscles on an evenly spread schedule. When you get comfortable with the workouts, increase the intensity or switch it up with other exercises. This creates confusion for your muscle, allowing it to grow stronger and increase your metabolism rate.

Sticking to one exercise for too long is inefficient as your body will grow accustomed to it and the rate of your muscle growth slows down. Challenge your body by running on different routes or add interval training.

Download apps such as Healthy 365 or MyFitnessPal which helps you to track both your fitness and calories intake. You could also complement these apps with a more fitness-oriented app such as RunKeeper that tracks the amount of calories burned at the end of your workout. Similarly, there are also apps such as A Life of Active that provide features where you can earn incentives by completing challenges.

Besides tracking your fitness, you should always record your calories intake. To increase your awareness of eating healthily, you need to be clear of the calories attained from various foods. Regular exercise without taking proper care of your diet will not help you to achieve your goals. Both factors must be integrated in order to adapt to a healthier lifestyle efficiently.

Tracking your fitness progress serves as a tangible reminder of your achievements. Always try to concentrate on your body instead of your weight.

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