My Health And Fitness Journal Set-up 2014

Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a lovely day (or night). Firstly I apologize for the lack of posts... I have a lot of ideas for future posts, but I just need time to create them and photograph, but don't worry I am still alive and well and ready for planning!

Okay so this post is all about my NEW health and fitness journal for 2014. I know half of the year has flown by already, but it's never too late to start looking after your health. I have been struggling for the past few months to look after my health and weight, not being able to find a system that works for me. I knew I wanted it to be written down, that way I can remind myself and carry it with me. So I was in The Works one day looking for washi tape (which they didn't have... boo!) and found this beautiful thick A5 owl designed notebook for something like £3.99! It was originally £12.99 (or something around that, my memory is awful) and I had to get it. It has plain white lined paper, which is actually quite good quality, and it also has a strap which is super useful when you're carrying it around with you. The only thing I wish it did have is a pen loop, but you can either keep one with you, or clip one to the spiral. I bought two pink floral pens from The Works too as they were two for £1 and I couldn't resist!

 Isn't it gorgeous?! The pen is lovely too, however sometimes the ink doesn't come out and I have to turn the pen around a few times and get it going again, and the cap sometimes get stuck when I push it down, but besides that for the price and design of them I would definitely recommend them! Now I'll show you through each page of my setup so far, I've only been using this for the past few days so I am still adjusting and adding/changing things.

When you first open up the notebook, this is what you see on the right-hand page. I've used the idea from the bullet journal system of having an index at the very front in order to know what each page contains (and whether there is more than one, you simply add the extra page numbers next to it). I really love this idea and I've used it in another notebook besides this and my bullet journal, I'd definitely recommend it! The tabs I am using are the Martha Stewart note tabs which I got from a seller on Amazon US. I had been searching for them for months as nowhere in the UK seemed to have them, and I couldn't find them online who would ship to the UK either. But I searched on Amazon and emailed a US seller to see if they would ship a pack to me as a one off (as they shipped to the US only) and they agreed! I was so thrilled as they were such great price, and even though this is the first time I've used them, I love them!!

If you're unfamiliar with the bullet journal system, I will briefly explain what I have done for the index so you get the idea :) Basically I have numbered each page (excluding the index page) and given each page a title such as 'weight tracker' or 'exercise tracker', that way I can easily flip to the page knowing what I want and where to find it. I added on the tabs as it just made it easier to flip to the pages quicker as they sometimes got a little stuck as it's such a thick notebook (and I wanted a reason to use them ^-^). I can add page titles and their page numbers as I create them to the index, and add on the page numbers if there is more than one.

My first two pages included my daily food diary (the current day is marked by the 'today' tab) which I didn't really want to show you guys, it's nothing special right now, just trying to cut down and make better choices, so I've skipped ahead and gone to the next page title which is my weight tracker. Being completely honest, I was very nervous about posting this... I knew I could easily blur the number out, but I thought "No, come on Ab you need to face it, you are this weight right now, your highest ever weight, and the reason why you've made this journal is to become healthier and lose the weight! Inspire and motivate yourself, and hopefully in time you can inspire and motivate others as they have done for you!" - so yeah, I am currently 204lbs. I have certain goals but I won't go into those as I've not written them down yet, and of course your goals are going to differ from mine. I will weigh myself at least once a week, and write it down as shown.

Next up is my measurements chart. Again I was hesitant to show this to you, but I knew being honest would motivate me to make that change and become healthier, so there is nothing to hide from you guys :) I will be measuring my chest, waist, hips, and thigh (I usually measure my left thigh...) at least once a month to track progress.

Next I have written a bunch of inspirational quotes I have found from around the internet (you can easily find them on Pinterest or Google by searching fitness quotes). For me I think these will be a nice reminder of what I am working towards especially if I am having a rough day.

On page 11 we have my exercise tracker. It's basically just the date and time I exercised, and what I did. Like I said I've only just started this a few days ago, my main focus being on writing everything I consume down and making better food choices, but I aim to work out 4-5 times a week so this will start to fill up soon!

I decided to write down all the work out DVDs I have so I can see which ones I may want to do, it helps with planning out and mixing things up so you don't get bored. They are all the Beach Body work outs (my current favourites are Insanity and Turbo fire).

And lastly/most recently, I've just written down a few of my own personal motivators such as being able to fit into a UK size 12/14 jeans without having the horrible muffin top showing through all my t-shirts, and my mom is a smaller size than me and has a whole room full of clothes which I would easily like to wear each day but sadly can't fit into them right now (especially the jeans), so that's a big motivation for me.

And that is all I have so far. It's working out better than expected so far, I am remembering to use it each day as I keep it open on the today page and I make it a priority as soon as I eat/drink something that I write it down with the time (I'm not fussed with calories, fat percentage etc but that's completely up to you if you want to do that). I hope this will really help in my weight loss journey, and I will do an update post of how it is working out for me (as well as some *fingers crossed* results with my weight/measurements!). 

If you have a health and/or fitness journal, please leave a comment as I would love to check it out! I'm always looking for ideas and motivation :) I hope this has helped you if you were looking for ideas on keeping a health/fitness journal.

Thanks for reading,
Abby x