Maintaining a fitness journal can have a great impact on your workout. It helps you plan and maintain your focus for better results. By keeping a journal and monitoring your achievements, you can get a good idea of what exercises work best for you.

If you have ever kept a food diary, which is crucial when dieting, you know to keep accurate recordings. Throughout the day, write down everything that you eat. By doing this, you are taking responsibility for the food that you put in your body. You can include the caloric intake if you wish, but the important thing is to remember to record everything you eat and drink in your journal.

There are two problems with basing your diet on strict calorie-counting: 1) some find it difficult or dull, and dieters with the best of intentions often give up on calorie-counting after a few days; 2) it’s almost impossible to do with any great degree of accuracy.

Just as calorie counting is difficult, it is not always easy to track how many calories are expended by exercise. Most treadmill and other aerobic machines will do this for you, but if you take a walk around the neighborhood, engage in a set of tennis, or roller skate for an hour, you can only guess how many calories you’ve burned.

Remember, it’s not so much the exact amount of calories burned that you need to track, but the trends in your exercise. Is exercise becoming easier and more enjoyable? Are you increasing the sets and reps? When you have start adding weights to your workout be sure to log in the amount of weight you work with each time.

When training for any fitness goal, be it losing weight, body building or completing a strenuous boot camp program, a fitness journal is the secret to greater success. It keeps you accountable offers proof that perseverance and commitment, mixed with lots of hard work and sweat, really will make a difference in your life.