How I Hold Myself Accountable for Exercise!

For me, exercise positively increases my physical and emotional state of being. It is my 30 to 60 to some days 90 minutes a day of "Abby time" where I focus on the workout at hand and let go of all the distractions that surround us each day. Like most of you reading this, there are days when I can get up at 5:30am without a problem and workout BUT then there are days when I have zero motivation and just want comfort food and my bed! To try and avoid the latter I have begun to journal my exercise patterns and it has been life changing.

I am one of those people that needs to write things down (hence the blog!) to get my thoughts in order and feel accomplished/focused. It was only natural that I took this approach with my workouts. I have a monthly calendar that sits open on my desk and each day, I write my workout on it (some days I don't write anything because a rest day is needed!). Not only does this allow me to track my workouts but it forces me to be accountable and GET MY BUTT OUTSIDE or TO THE GYM! There is a sense of accomplishment after a workout - I go to my home office, grab my felt pen (my favorite type) and write down what I did that day. It's an amazing feeling to put pen to paper because I know I just took time for myself to do something that makes me happy.  My favorite part is to look back at the previous day, week or month and see what I accomplished. This part is particularly important as I don't think we take enough time to acknowledge where we come from and what we accomplished. We should all take time to be proud of what we have done over the previous time period. Life is not easy so take time (even if it's only 2 minutes) to celebrate and acknowledge what YOU chose to do for yourself!

Whether you have a journal, a friend to text each day (I do this with my sister!) or write a quick note in your phone, write down your workouts so you can track progress and hold yourself accountable. 

Hope this tip helps and let me know what you think! 

P.S. - check out my inspirational quotes that surround my calendar. They are daily reminders I try to incorporate into each day. 

Here is my April exercise journal. I have one of these for each month since August of 2016.