10 Things to Track for Fitness

At these life-changing junctions, you must keep yourself motivated by keeping a track of your fitness goal – right from where you started to where you want to reach. Today we are going to reveal the top 10 things that you should track for fitness.

Take ‘Before’ photographs. This will motivate you and help you track your fitness progress. ‘Before’ photographs help in marking a point from where you started and will help in proving to your friends and relatives how you have achieved the new-found weight when you are done.

Maintain a weight loss journal. A study conducted on 1,700 overweight men and women revealed that people who maintained a health journal lost 9 to 10 kilos, compared to a 4.5 kilos loss among those who did not practice journal writing. It acts as a deterrent- i.e. when you know you have to pen down your health journey of the day, you will think twice before bingeing on that second serving of chocolate chip ice cream. Things a food diary must have are: Days, meal times, meal content, meal quantity and feelings when you ate it.

Be the decision-maker. If you are really looking forward to that second piece of cake, try and think of a sane justification for it. If you are cooking up excuses like “oh! But I’ll spend another hour in the gym to compensate it”, we say drop the second helping because exercising more is no excuse to eating more. Understand the craving – physical or emotional – and then work on it.

Set short-term realistic goals: Initiate by only walking for 5 to 10 minutes a day (or a duration that doesn’t get you out of breath). Gradually introduce more activity in your day – walk your dog, go to your nearby grocery store in your track pants and try to walk at a faster pace than usual. Slowly but surely, work your way up and build on your success.

Measure your fitness level. For starters, it’s a great way to keep a tab on your progress levels and set short term practical fitness goals. So if you’re game to kick start a new fitness program, then size up your fitness level by taking this simple fitness test expanded across four steps. 1. Ways to check your flexibility levels by doing a Sit-and-Reach test. 2. Ways to check your aerobic fitness level by brisk walking. 3. Keep a record of your body composition. 4. Ways to check your muscular fitness level by doing push-ups.

Understand the difference between hunger and craving. Hunger means a painful sensation or a state of physical weakness caused by the want of food. When one is hungry their brain and stomach pass cues to indicate them levels of hunger. Craving, though often used along with hunger, is quite different from it. It essentially means “to long for; want greatly; desire eagerly.” The food or the thoughts one tends to crave for are not life-saving neither necessary. Unlike the time when you are hungry any food can satisfy your sensation, craving is for a specific type of food item.

Continue reading at Times of India

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