Staying on track everyday is essential if you want to see results from your health and fitness regimen. Along with being patient with the process, there are a habits that can help you remain as consistent as possible. Staying on track everyday can be overwhelming, especially if you’re somewhat new to healthy eating and exercise. If you’re struggling with staying on track or want to learn how to better stay on track, take a look at the five steps below!
1. I weigh out and track everything I’m eating.
This may sound like a chore, but it really is important to implement this habit in your current regimen. There is no better way to know exactly what you’re eating than to weigh and track it all. When I started my postpartum fitness journey 10 months ago, I was in denial about weighing everything. I thought that I would be capable of just eyeballing it and winging it. While I did see some minimal results, once I started weighing and tracking everything my results almost doubled from what I previously saw.
Weighing out all of your food can be overwhelming at first, but will become easier the more you do it. Along with weighing out all of my food, I also track everything I’m eating. My Fitness Pal is a common app to use to do this, but I prefer Fat Secret. Keeping track of everything I eat helps me keep my calorie balance under control. If I feel that I’m not seeing any results, I can easily look at my history and make adjustments.
2. I pre-plan almost all of my meals.
Most days before I eat breakfast, I already have a rough idea of what I’m going to eat throughout the entire day. If I’m really on my game, I’ll pre-log all of my food into Fat Secret. I find that this really helps because when it comes time to eat I know exactly how much of what I need to eat. I also feel that it helps get rid of some temptation to mindlessly snack.
3. I make the most of my exercise time.
Contrary to what many people think, I don’t exactly have that much time to spend working out. Typically during the week, I workout four times for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. All of my workouts are pre-planned from the exercise I’m going to do, with the weight I’m going to use, and how long my rest breaks will be. Having a pre-planned structure for my workouts helps keep me focused. If I don’t plan it out in advance, I find that I’m spending way too much time thinking about what I’m going to do next and end up not having an overly efficient workout.
4. I adjust on the fly.
As much as I’d love to tell you that everyday goes exactly as planned, it doesn’t always happen that way. When my plan doesn’t go as planned, I make the necessary adjustments to ensure that I can stay as close to my preplanned day as possible. I do not use these circumstances to splurge and throw the plan out the window. For example, if an unexpected meal out comes about I will base my meal choice off of one that was similar to what I already was going to eat. Adjusting on the fly is a habit everyone should have.
5. I have exceptional balance.
To piggyback off of my last point, I have great balance with my goals and reality. If something doesn’t go as planned and I can’t stick to my plan exactly, I’m okay with it. It took me awhile to get this point. I used to feel very guilty, frustrated, upset etc. if I had to stray from what I thought was a perfectly planned out day. Nothing good will come from mentally beating yourself up over circumstances you cannot control. Just accept what is and get back to your plan when possible.
What do you like to do to keep yourself on track? Do you have something different that works better for you? Will you try any of these tactics? Tell us in the comments below!
Staying on track might be the hardest part of this. One day I do great eating and exercising and the next day I suck. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Practice makes perfect. Work on slight improvements everyday and you’ll start to notice some gradual progress!
This is great information! It is really hard to stay on track when trying to be healthy so I appreciate you sharing all these tips!
Thanks!
these are great tips. Sharing with my husband right away
Thanks.
Pre-planning means has been the most helpful when it comes to staying on track for me. If I don’t have a plan, I want to be bad or go out!
Exactly, have your pre planned healthy meals all ready to go really does make a difference!
Good to know! I try to jog daily and if my pants start to feel tight, I work out more. I try to never deny myself foods.
I never deny myself foods either. If I eat it, I track it and adjust the rest of my day accordingly
These are some excellent tips. Exercise is the key to everything. It all works together. Keep it up!
Yes, exactly!
Oh wow! That takes discipline to do all that. I am great at procrastinating until now I am still on preplanning my work out. I hope I’ll be like you.
Everything will eventually become a habit and second nature, you’ll get there – stay consistent!
Meal prepping keeps me on track because if I’ve already made the food then I have no excuse as to why I shouldn’t be eating it. Great post!
Yes it is much easier when you have the food already prepped out!
I’m currently watching the Netflix documentary on Crossfit games. Super interesting. you should check it out if you haven’t seen it already.
We love CrossFit, do you participate in any of the workouts??
I found your post quite inspiring. Weighing the food is a great idea. Need to increase my yoga time too. Thanks.
Thank you, weighing out all of your portions really does help to control our portions!
All this tips are very helpful in day-to-day life. I will follow all the tips that you have shared. Thanks alot 🙂
Thank you, let us know how following the tips works out for you!
Thanks for this. I will surely follow these steps to keep track of my diet routine.
Awesome, let us know how following them works out for you!
Thanks for the tips. I am constantly struggling to stay on track with my diet. Meal prep would help… just need to actually do it.
Meal prep is so essential, once you have all the healthy food cooked and stocked in your fridge it makes it much easier to stay on track!
I needed to read this because I am being so bad lately! Those tips will really help!
Awesome, let us know if they end up helping you stay on track 🙂
These are some excellent tips. I am constantly struggling to stay on track with my diet. Thanks for sharing this.
You’re welcome, I’m glad these tips help!
These are great ways to track fitness. I’ve been trying to be better about tracking my everyday meals and food.
Keep working at it, it will eventually become habit!
I love the idea of preparing food boxes ahead of time. My husband and I are into plant-based meals, and so I think this will work well.
It absolutely will, there is nothing better than knowing your foods already cooked. It helps alleviate temptation!