tracking your progress
Develop a solid plan to meet your diet and fitness goals. Vague ideas can have an ethereal air and may seem too lofty to attain. For instance, “I’m going to lose weight” often fizzles out quickly. However, “I’m going to lose one pound a week for five months until I’ve reached a total weight loss of twenty pounds” conveys a more convincing quality. Why? The latter statement implies an organized plan of action that contains short~term and long~term goals. For chatting and individual support, visit: Wildflower Fitness. To organize your plan, put together a fitness folder. Within the folder you’ll detail specifics and monitor your progress.
Important for a successful fitness plan, eight items in your fitness folder map out a well-developed plan. These are: your calorie worksheet, diet diary, activity log, weight & measurements logs, self~contract, goal sheet & “before” photo.
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Whether you lose, gain or maintain your weight is determined by the number of calories you consume versus the number of calories you burn in a day. Compare your dietary intake in contrast to calories you burn through daily activities. Our PDF sheet calculates your progress, or utilize one of our spreadsheets so that you also see your progress illustrated in graphs. Steps 2 & 3 direct you to our diet diary and activity log to calculate the values you’ll enter into your
Calorie Worksheet.
Through this practice, you’ll monitor your habits so you can modify them as needed. Also, you face your behaviors in print and understand where they lead. Work toward improving your lifestyle, and you’ll enjoy documenting these wonderful changes.
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Calorie Worksheet
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Your diet diary is an important tool. Throughout your day, keep that day’s diary updated before you consume any item. When you document prior to consuming calories, you take another opportunity to consider your choice. If possible, maintain a running total of calories or calculate these as your schedule allows.
 Nutrition Label Calculator
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Charting Your Caloric Intake
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Monitoring your weight assists you in determining the effectiveness of your fitness program. Unless otherwise directed, limit your weigh~ins so that you don’t obsess about small, normal fluctuations. When you check your weight, try to use the same, balanced scale each time and weigh~in at the start of your day. Remember, steady progress at a safe rate is generally the route most successful for long~term changes.
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Weight Tracking Log
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Your measurements are a reliable indicator of progress. Measure yourself every 2 ~ 4 weeks to assess your program’s effectiveness. Once you’ve begun your fitness program, you may find yourself losing inches and not many pounds. Muscle weighs more than fat. You can tone your body, but your weight may not seem to reflect much fat loss. If your goal was to fit into a skinnier pair of jeans and now these jeans fit, you’ve probably lost body fat and your weight becomes relatively less significant.
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Your Progress: Measurements
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| Correlating with higher success rates, a personal contract solidifies your commitment to making positive changes. You can use our sample contract as is or make modifications specific to your goals.
Review your contract at the start of each day. If not daily, maintain a regular schedule for reaffirming your commitment. |
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Your Personal Commitment to
Positive Lifestyle Changes
 Contract to Yourself
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| Goals should be realistic, specific, timed and measurable. Reassess your goals monthly. As you meet each goal, mark your progress and adjust your list. Keep your goals up to date and appropriate to your present level of fitness.
Reward yourself for successfully meeting goals. For incentive, write a schedule for the rewards you’ll allow yourself when meeting each particular goal. |
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Short to Long Term Goal Sheet
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Your “before” photo serves as motivation and another form of tracking your progress. Full body shots work well, and a bathing suit or form-fitting fitness apparel best reveals your starting point.
As a rule, do not consistently camouflage your body from yourself and avoid examining your own image.Honestly evaluate your present physical condition and pursue improving it. During this process, practice self~love and make positive lifestyle changes as a form of self~respect. In time, your mirror and photos will reflect your efforts.
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